Maddox has taken a decidedly unnatural route to NFL success
PITTSBURGH (AP) – Ten years, five teams, three leagues, one retirement. For a guy labeled a natural, Tommy Maddox – the can’t-miss kid once known as Touchdown Tommy – has taken a decidedly unnatural route to NFL success.
When coach Dan Reeves’ streaking Atlanta Falcons line up Sunday against the equally hot Steelers, Maddox will be running Pittsburgh’s offense – the comeback story of this NFL season, and maybe of any season.
Maddox hadn’t started an NFL game since he played for Reeves’ Denver Broncos in 1992 until he replaced Kordell Stewart six weeks ago with the Steelers’ season teetering on the edge of collapse.
What he has done since seems more like wistful fantasy than reality: a 5-1 record, statistics Terry Bradshaw would be proud of, a re-energized team that seems poised to make the Super Bowl run it was predicted to make.
Did Tommy Maddox really think all this was possible when he was bouncing around four NFL teams in five years? When he was selling insurance during a three-year layoff from football? When he was hopping on yellow school buses to make Arena League road trips? When he was ignoring the Fellini-like circus that swirled around the XFL to be that farcical league’s one and only MVP?
“I never really lost the feeling I could play,” Maddox said. “I felt like I was never in the right place at the right time and never got a shot to go in there and play week in and week out. That’s what made it hard, that’s what kept the desire burning.”
All those years, Maddox felt he only needed a chance. Maybe that’s why Reeves gave him three of them.
Reeves drafted Maddox in 1992 to be John Elway’s successor, after offensive coordinator Raymond Berry kept raving about a sophomore with a great arm at UCLA.
“Raymond came in and said you just have to look at this kid,” Reeves said. “Everything comes natural to him. He doesn’t put a lot of effort into any throw, but the ball gets there with a lot of velocity. He just does things very, very natural.”
What Reeves he didn’t know was Elway had seven more excellent seasons and two Super Bowl championships in him. At an immature age 20, Maddox almost didn’t have a chance in Elway-crazy Denver, especially after going 0-4 as a starter when Elway got hurt during Maddox’s rookie year.
Maddox was dealt later to the Rams, only to wind up again with Reeves with the New York Giants. When Reeves landed in Atlanta, Maddox did, too, only to be released during training camp in 1997, criticized by several teammates for lacking some basic quarterback skills and knowledge.
By now, his nickname might as well have been the Unnatural.
Disenchanted and out of work, Maddox bought an insurance business, staying attached to football only by helping the players at alma mater L.D. Bell High School in suburban Dallas.
The urge to play never fully went away, so he quit selling insurance and started working out again, but the only job he could find in 2000 was with the Arena League’s New Jersey Red Dogs. His success with them and the XFL’s Los Angeles Xtreme led him to fax letters to every NFL personnel director.
The Steelers were the only team to answer. Director of football operations Kevin Colbert was intrigued with Maddox’s success in the fast-paced Arena League, where Rams star Kurt Warner developed his game.
Still, the Steelers offered him a job – and no signing bonus – only because they felt he was better than John Turman, a former Pitt player signed to be an extra arm during training camp.
“I think we all had the Kurt Warner story in the back of our minds,” Steelers coach Bill Cowher said. “But, really, when he came here, he was just an upgrade over the fourth quarterback.”
What the Steelers didn’t realize was that by learning how to throw almost as fast as he could think in Arena ball, and amid all the comical antics of the XFL, Maddox had improved and matured far beyond their expectations.
“My release is a little bit quicker, I’m older and I’m probably not as antsy as I used to be,” he said. “I’ve seen a lot of things and been through a lot.”
No matter how he got to the NFL, what Maddox is doing is unprecedented, playing so well after going so long between starts. He is on pace for one of the best seasons ever by a Steelers quarterback, with 11 touchdown passes and a 63.6 percent completion rate despite not starting until the fourth game.
“I don’t regret what’s happened,” he said. “When you regret, you’re not happy with the way things turned out and I’ve had a great life.
“But you never know how things would have turned out. I could have gone back to school and blown out a knee and never had a shot.”
And what if Cowher hadn’t gambled by giving him a shot so early in the season, sitting down a Pro Bowl quarterback to do so?
The Steelers (5-3) were headed for an 0-3 start until Maddox rallied them past Cleveland in overtime Sept. 29, leading two scoring drives despite not entering until the fourth quarter. They have lost only once since.
“He’s given everybody a big lift,” wide receiver Plaxico Burress said. “He gets the ball out real quick. Everybody’s on the same page and he knows where he’s going with the football. All we have to do is get open.
“We all call him Tommy Gun, because if you don’t get your head around, he may hit you in the back of the head with the ball.”
Mostly, Maddox has hit his receivers. He is well on his way to becoming only the third Steelers quarterback in 20 years to throw 20 touchdown passes, and he could threaten Bradshaw’s club record of 28 in 1978 with a hot game or two.
“I’m doing what I always wanted to do,” Maddox said. “I just had to take a different path to get here.”