February 20, 2001
STAMFORD, CONN. The XFL today named San Francisco
Demons running back Terry Battle as its Offensive Player of
the Week and Birmingham Thunderbolts safety Duane Butler as
its Defensive Player of the Week for week three.
Birminghams Butler saved a 14-3 win for the Bolts on Sunday
with his late, 98-yard interception return for a touchdown.
The XFLs longest interception return to date came with Birmingham
leading 7-3 but Chicago driving deep in Bolts territory looking
to win the game with less than two minutes to play.
Enforcers QB Tim Lester threw a pass intended for Tyji Armstrong,
but the tight end could only get one hand on the high pass,
tipping it towards the sideline. It was at the two-yard line
where Butler got to the ball and took off sprinting to the
endzone, escorted by several teammates, as the home crowd
celebrated and the public address system began blaring Sweet
Home Alabama while Butler was still 15 yards from the end
zone.
I got to the ball and took off running and then everything
just got so loud and everybody just kind of looked the same,
Butler said. I was running down the sideline and I turned
around and saw (teammate) Eric Sloan and thought he was from
the other team, so I kind of sped up again. But then I realized
it was him and so I slowed down and just started bumpin to
the music.
On top of the big play, Butler also recorded nine tackles
and broke up two passes in leading the Bolts defense, which
gave up just the single field goal on the day. Battle,
who was on the Demons practice squad for the first two
games, was activated for the first time in week three and
responded with a two-touchdown performance to lead San Francisco
to a 13-6 win in Memphis on Saturday night. The tailback
racked up 145 all-purpose yards on six carries for 35 yards,
five catches for 54 yards and two kickoff returns for 56
yards.
Battle had been on the Demons practice squad for the first
two games, but was activated before the game to fill the
roster spot vacated when TE Brian Roche was placed on injured
reserve with a season-ending achilles tendon injury.
Terry really isnt a practice squad player, hes always
been in our plans, said Demons head coach Jim Skipper.
It came down last week that we wanted to get as many playmakers
as we could in the lineup. Football is a team sport, but
Terry had as much to do with us winning that game as any
individual. It shows if you hang in there and work hard
and youre ready when opportunity knocks, good things happen.
Runner-up for offensive honors was San Francisco QB Mike
Pawlawski. The XFLs leading passer led the Demons to the
important road win by throwing for two scores with no interceptions
and a total of 221 yards passing.
The runner-up for defensive player of the week was Chicago
LB Aaron Humphrey, who recorded 11 tackles at linebacker
after playing DT in the first two games.
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