Maddox will have chance to quiet all critics Monday
PITTSBURGH – Nationally, he’s considered something of a joke, as in, “the Steelers are so desperate they’re trying Tommy Maddox at quarterback.” He’s the XFL kid, the Arena Leaguer. Former coach Jimmy Johnson was quoted by Sports Illustrated this week as saying – gleefully, it should be added – that when Maddox was at UCLA, “we used to call him Turnover Tommy.”
Well, “Turnover Tommy” will have his chance Monday night to erase the national doubt. He’s already erased most of the doubts Steelers fans had about the former castoff who came back through the Arena League and the XFL to regain his place in the NFL. But Monday night games have a way of changing perceptions on a grand scale.
“I’m not real concerned about that,” said Maddox. “To me it’s just another game you prepare for. You go out and try to win a game. It doesn’t matter whether you play it on Monday, Sunday, whatever.”
Maddox says that “if it takes Monday night to get you to think a football game’s a big deal, you probably need to check yourself a little bit.” And that’s the way he’s handled the spotlight since replacing Kordell Stewart and leading the Steelers to 73 points in eight and a half quarters.
“He’s got a good perspective on things,” said coach Bill Cowher. “Since he’s come here he takes in every day. Really, his head’s never gotten any bigger, even since he’s been named the starter. He’s got a great perspective on things. He enjoys every day. He seizes the opportunity and keeps it all in pretty good perspective.”
That’s what NFL Films is learning. A camera crew was sent to Pittsburgh early this week to follow Maddox for the Monday night halftime show titled “7 Days to Monday.” Previous features have been done on LaVar Arrington, Ray Lewis and Garrison Hearst. Maddox is the first married player to be featured.
“They’ve been at my house, doing things with my kids and stuff like that,” Maddox said. “They went with us for a couple of radio interviews, commercials, stuff like that. Then (Tuesday) night they went with us to do Josh Miller’s and Hines’ (Ward) show. It’s been fun. I’ve enjoyed it.”
Did he pump up for the camera?
“No. It’s not my personality,” Maddox said. “My kids did. My kids were going crazy. I thought they’d be shy, but they were enjoying it.”
And the wife?
“She wasn’t real happy about it, but she made it,” Maddox said.
“I think she was concerned about having a camera crew in the house, but by the time we left she thought it was great,” said the show’s producer, Rob Gehring.
“She liked it and had a lot of fun. She’s a great lady. I think she was more worried about us taking away from their time together, like Thursday night, which is their night out.”
The camera crew was at the Maddox house Monday night and Tuesday afternoon. They shot practice Wednesday and will do so again today. On Saturday, the crew will film the production meeting between players and ABC broadcasters, and on Sunday the crew will return to Maddox’s house.
“Sunday we’ll get him kissing his wife and kids goodbye as he gets in his car,” Gehring said. “We’ll be in the car as he drives and then as he checks himself into the hotel. Somehow it comes together by Monday at nine o’clock.”
Maddox, for one, isn’t about to complain about the celebrity that has come his way.
“I probably enjoy it a little bit more,” he said. “Everybody always complains about things and then you take it away and they’re like, ‘Man, that wasn’t so bad.’ It’s a time in your life and you might as well enjoy it because it’ll soon be gone too.”
And so, perhaps, will the perception outside of Pittsburgh that he’s simply the quarterback du jour.
“I’m not real worried about what they’re saying or what they’re doing,” Maddox said. “Like you said, there are guys around here that have been with me for two years and they know what I’m all about and all that, so I’m not really concerned about guys that aren’t in this locker room.
“I’m not looking to shed any labels. I’m proud, very proud, of the things we accomplished in the XFL and a lot of my teammates in the XFL, so I’m not looking to shed that at all.”