In a recent press conference, Memphis Maniax quarterback Jim Druckenmiller and fullback Roosevelt Potts weighed in on a variety of subjects.
On the offense’s frustration during games 2 and 3 in which the team did not score a touchdown:
Druckenmiller: “We got tired of looking at how we beat everybody up and down the field. And then, when the offense would come in, we’d have the ball on the 20-yard line and couldn’t get it in. We were frustrated.”
Druckenmiller: “We’re this close and it’s a matter of fine tuning,”
Potter: “I just think right now this team is starting to gel together. You can see it coming. [However, right now] we’re one play away from being a successful and one play from being at the bottom.”
Both players had a few things to say about the differences between the XFL and the NFL:
Potts: “Nothing really to me. Only the money.”
Druckenmiller: “The money and the hype, the off-field stuff. You don’t have a camera in your face and that’s a big difference. During the game, you have the same style of coverages, the same blitzes, and the same types of zones.”
Potts: “This is pro-football man. Each week it gets faster and faster, just like the NFL. Everybody is coming up with different schemes. We’ve all been playing and everybody’s seeing the tapes and you can barely score points in this league.”
Druckenmiller: “Another thing that makes it hard is the bump-and-run-rule. Especially if you anybody with good technique at corner. The NFL changed that rule for a reason. Back then, not a lot of people scored points and they weren’t throwing the ball.”
“It’s also harder with the game clock. We have less time to get a play and get going. God forbid you need to call an audible.” Druckenmiller goes on to say, “It didn’t feel any different how they were hitting me in St. Louis and how they were hitting me last week.”
Potts [sighing]: “Just as hard.”
Potts: “There’s a good to it and a bad to it. The good is that there is a lot more contact. The bad part is that people want to see 50 to 60 points [scored]. You’re not going to see that. You’re going to see a whole bunch of guys bumping around with a lot of contact, a lot of injuries. It’s like the old NFL that you dreamt of being in, where you don’t hit somebody and you don’t get no flags, sometimes.”
Druckenmiller: “Sometimes, I think they [the referees] let them get away with more.”
Potts [laughing]: “Hit the referee. Tell them they suck, you might get away with it. That’s the difference. They might call it, they might not.”
Potts: “You see, if you were in the NFL and talked about officials? $10,000 fine.”
