New York/New Jersey Hitmen

For the New York franchise from the current incarnation of the XFL, see New York Guardians.

New York/New Jersey Hitmen

Founded	1999
Folded	2001;24 years ago (2001)
Based in	East Rutherford, New Jersey
Home stadium	Giants Stadium
Head coach	Rusty Tillman
General manager	Drew Pearson
Owner(s)	World Wrestling Federation
League	XFL
Division	Eastern
Colors	Royal blue, silver, black [1]

The New York/New Jersey Hitmen were an American football team based in East Rutherford, New Jersey. The Hitmen were the members of the Eastern Division of the XFL. The team played their home games in Giants Stadium of the Meadowlands Sports Complex.

History

The team's general manager was former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver, and New Jersey native, Drew Pearson.

The Hitmen were part of the Eastern Division with the Birmingham Thunderbolts, Orlando Rage and Chicago Enforcers. They finished in 3rd place with a 4-6 record. The head coach was former NFL assistant Rusty Tillman, who was not a fan of the league's gimmicks or personalities – specifically commentator Jesse Ventura, who called him "Gutless Rusty" on a regular basis, as he felt that Tillman's coaching style was too timid. Tillman, ever the professional, brushed off the jabs by Ventura and refused to respond. In the end, Ventura's attempts to goad him failed.

The Hitmen were one of the teams to play in the XFL's inaugural game. Tens of millions of viewers watched the Hitmen, who displayed a stunning lack of competence against the Las Vegas Outlaws in the contest (including a particularly ugly missed field goal and numerous miscues from starting quarterback and New York native Charles Puleri), lose 19–0. The Hitmen's poor performance in that game was a major factor in fan backlash against the league in the weeks that followed and a prime example of the league's failure to live up to expectations; the team benched Puleri in favor of Wally Richardson by Week 3 in hopes of salvaging the season.

The Hitmen's average attendance of roughly 28,000 fans per game was second-highest in the league, behind only the San Francisco Demons.

Revival

Main article: New York Guardians

In December 2018, a revival of the XFL announced its intent to return to East Rutherford. The new team was named the New York Guardians.

Season

Season records

Season	W	L	T	Finish	Playoff results
2001	4	6	0	3rd Eastern	Out of playoffs

Schedule

Regular season

Week	Date	Opponent	Result	Record	Venue
1	February 3	at Las Vegas Outlaws	L 0–19	0–1	Sam Boyd Stadium
2	February 11	Birmingham Thunderbolts	L 12–19	0–2	Giants Stadium
3	February 18	Orlando Rage	L 12–18	0–3	Giants Stadium
4	February 24	at Chicago Enforcers	W 13–0	1–3	Soldier Field
5	March 3	Los Angeles Xtreme	L 7–22	1–4	Giants Stadium
6	March 11	at San Francisco Demons	W 20–12	2–4	Pacific Bell Park
7	March 17	Memphis Maniax	W 16–15	3–4	Giants Stadium
8	March 25	at Orlando Rage	L 12–17	3–5	Florida Citrus Bowl
9	March 31	Chicago Enforcers	L 18–23	3–6	Giants Stadium
10	April 8	at Birmingham Thunderbolts	W 22–0	4–6	Legion Field

Standings

Eastern Division
Team	W	L	T	PCT	PF	PA	STK
Orlando Rage	8	2	0	.800	207	162	L1
Chicago Enforcers	5	5	0	.500	163	178	W1
New York/New Jersey Hitmen	4	6	0	.400	110	145	W1
Birmingham Thunderbolts	2	8	0	.200	131	217	L7

^[2]

Roster

2001 New York/New Jersey Hitmen roster

Quarterbacks (QB)  7 Charles Puleri 14 Wally Richardson Running backs (RB) 28 Mike Archie 38 Joe Aska 27 Michael Blair 24 Dino Philyaw Wide receivers (WR) 85 Kirby Dar Dar 80 Zola Davis 29 Anthony DiCosmo Tight ends (TE) 88 Ryan Collins 87 Marcus Hinton 86 Bob Rosenstiel

Offensive linemen (OL) 62 Ben Cavil G 51 Eric Cole C -- Harvey Goins -- Robert Hunt C 77 Curtis McGee T 61 Juan Porter G 64 Troy Stark G Defensive linemen (DL) 92 James Cotton DE 78 Christian Maumalanga DT 92 Israel Raybon DE 95 Dwayne Sabb DE 70 Henry Slay DT

Linebackers (LB) 99 Vernon Crawford 52 Haven Fields 67 Ben Hanks 57 Ron Merkerson 60 Bernard Russ Defensive backs (DB) 31 Butler By'not'e 21 Donnie Caldwell 26 Joey Eloms 35 Tyree Talton 34 Mark Tate 30 Brad Trout 17 Damen Wheeler Special teams (ST)  2 Leo Araguz K/P

Practice squad 90 Tim Beauchamp DE  1 Chris Brantley WR 81 Fred Brock WR 91 Lamont Bryant DE 50 David Camacho T 11 Corte McGuffey QB 46 Tawambi Settles DB 66 Greg Vettorino G/C Reserve 22 Keith Elias FB Rookies in italics , 7 practice squad

Team leaders

Legend
	Led the league

Passing

Passing statistics [a]
NAME	GP	GS	Record	Cmp	Att	Pct	Yds	TD	Int	Rtg
Wally Richardson	7	5	3–2	83	142	58.5	812	6	6	71.1
Charles Puleri	6	3	0–3	29	64	45.3	411	2	2	64.0
Corte McGuffey	3	2	1–1	25	48	52.1	329	0	2	56.7
Zola Davis	—	—	—	1	1	100.0	74	1	0	158.3
Dino Philyaw	—	—	—	0	1	0.0	0	0	1	0.0
Totals	10	10	4–6	138	258	53.5	1,626	9	11	66.8

Rushing

Rushing statistics
NAME	Att	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD
Joe Aska	82	329	4.0	42	3
Keith Elias	37	115	3.1	28	0
Dino Philyaw	32	69	2.2	14	0
Wally Richardson	26	148	5.7	24	0
Mike Archie	17	42	2.5	7	2
Michael Blair	16	61	3.8	19	0
Corte McGuffey	8	33	4.1	8	0
Charles Puleri	8	-35	-4.4	3	0
Kirby Dar Dar	4	31	7.8	21	0
Leo Araguz	1	7	7.0	7	0
Fred Brock	1	0	0.0	0	0
Totals	232	800	3.4	42	5

Receiving

Receiving statistics
NAME	Rec	Yds	Avg	Lng	TD
Zola Davis	29	378	13.0	26	4
Anthony DiCosmo	26	268	10.4	30	0
Kirby Dar Dar	23	405	18.4	77t	2
Fred Brock	15	155	10.3	30	0
Mike Archie	12	125	10.4	33t	2
Michael Blair	10	73	7.3	14	0
Marcus Hinton	6	116	19.3	54	1
Joe Aska	6	24	4.0	12	0
Dino Philyaw	4	33	8.2	16	0
Keith Elias	4	0	0.0	7	0
Ryan Collins	3	38	12.7	23	0
Bob Rosenstiel	1	1	11.0	11	0
Totals	138	1,626	11.8	77	9

Scoring

7-17 (42.3)% on extra point conversion attempts ^[3]

Total Scoring
NAME	Rush	Rec	Return	XPM	FGM	PTS
Zola Davis	0	4	0	1	0	25
Mike Archie	2	2	0	0	0	24
Leo Araguz	0	0	0	0	7	21
Joe Aska	3	0	0	1	0	19
Kirby Dar Dar	0	2	0	0	0	12
Marcus Hinton	0	1	0	1	0	7
Donnie Caldwell	0	0	1	0	0	6
Joey Eloms	0	0	1	0	0	6
Ron Merkerson	0	0	1	0	0	6
Ryan Collins	0	0	0	3	0	3
Dino Philyaw	0	0	0	1	0	1
Totals	5	9	3	7	7	132

Scamble

The Hitmen won 8 of 10 scrambles. Donnie Caldwell had a 5–2 record. Chris Brantley went 3–0. ^{[4] [5]}

Scramble
Week	Hitmen	Opponent	NAME	Result
1	Donnie Caldwell (0–1)	@ LV	Jamel Williams (1–0)	L
2	Chris Brantley (1–0)	BIR	Tony McCall (0–1)	W
3	Chris Brantley (2–0)	ORL	Scott Cloman (1–1)	W
4	Chris Brantley (3–0)	@ CHI	Troy Saunders (1–2)	W
5	Donnie Caldwell (1–1)	LA	Donnell Day (1–1)	W
6	Donnie Caldwell (2–1)	@ SF	Lee Cole (unknown)	W
7	Donnie Caldwell (3–1)	MEM	Kevin Cobb (unknown)	W
8	Donnie Caldwell (3–2)	@ ORL	Scott Cloman (5–2)	L
9	Donnie Caldwell (4–2)	CHI	Tony McCall (2–3)	W
10	Donnie Caldwell (5–2)	BIR	Toya Jones (unknown)	W

Staff

2001 New York/New Jersey Hitmen staff
	Front office Vice president/general manager – Drew Pearson Director of operations – Joe Mack Director of player personnel – David Catapano Head coaches Head coach – Rusty Tillman Offensive coaches Offensive coordinator/quarterbacks – Greg Briner Running backs – Joe Lombardi Tight ends/offensive line – Edwin Bailey			Defensive coaches Defensive coordinator – David Catapano Defensive line – Bill Urbanik Linebackers – Tony Mottola Secondary – Mike Dietzel Special teams Special teams coordinator – Paul Butcher Head athletic trainer – Keith Abrams

^[6]

Notes

1. Archie and Davis threw one incompletion each

References

1. "New York/New Jersey Hitmen Logo Sheet". SSUR.org. Archived from the original on November 28, 2010. Retrieved December 4, 2019.
2. "XFL Standings". USA Today . May 12, 2001. Retrieved February 18, 2011.
3. "2001 Hitmen Final Regular Season Stats".
4. "2001 XFL Season".
5. "Project XFL".
6. 2001 New York/New Jersey Hitman Media Guide. XFL. pp. 3–11.