Rush Breaks Home Crowd Record; Who`s Marvin Taylor?
Kevin Sheller
Tuesday July 2, 2002
Imagine this scenario: Sunday, June 30, the Rush played in front of 12,544 fans and a national TV audience. During the first half, the home team trailed the visitors from New York by 25 points before mounting a convincing comeback and win to take first place in the central division.
It happened as though it were written as football fiction. One fan asked if Arena Football was scripted like the WWF, because it was just too perfect. If this had been your very first Arena Football experience, like it was for many in attendance, you would have likely fallen in love with your hometown heroes.
On a weekend when Chicago entertainment was at a yearly high – the Taste of Chicago, the Gay Pride parade, and the Chicago White Sox vs. the Chicago Cubs – the Rush set a new record for home attendance, and the crowd was rocking.
The Rush front office targeted the TNN game as an opportunity to fill the stands for the national TV audience and to combat the draw of Chicago’s main summer entertainment. The sales staff did everything they could to bring the fans inside the cool arena from the blistering heat, planning for multiple group sales events to coincide on the same day and offering incentives to season-ticket holders to bring extra friends and family.
It worked. The crowd was loud, they were obnoxious, and they cheered from the top of the bowl to the front row. It was truly an event for all involved.
“[The crowd] wins games for us here,” said head coach Mike Hohensee after the victory. “I don’t care if they have 700, 7,000, or 14,000. I think they energize this football team.”
Musical Defensive Specialists
If you have not been keeping track of the critical defensive specialist spot for the Rush all season, it’s been interesting to say the least – and no, injury hasn’t played any part of it.
 Marvin Taylor Image courtesy of Michael Wright |
But what about the third?
Quick Recap: DS Derek Stingley was released in the offseason because he didn’t live up to expectations. DS Tristan Moss was signed to take his spot. He played in four games before he was cut with no replacement. For one week, WR/DB Dameon Porter filled the other DS spot before Verone McKinley was signed.
McKinley played in five games as a defensive specialist. While he wasn’t perfect, he didn’t commit a flurry of mistakes, either.
As the Rush prepared to do battle with the New York Dragons, defensive coach Stan Davis and Hohensee worked two other players at the DS spot along with McKinley: Practice squad hopeful DS Damien Marzett, who came to the team from the Denver Broncos, and WR/DB Marvin Taylor.
Marzett hadn’t played a down all season but, according to Hohensee, he made all the right moves in practice leading up to the Dragons game. Meanwhile, Taylor has played sparingly in the WR/DB spot all season after being signed to the active roster when OS Joe Douglass went on injured reserve. Taylor played the previous season as a WR/DB for the Tallahassee Thunder of the af2.
“When we went out and got Marvin Taylor, we were looking at somebody else on film,” said Hohensee. “But this kid kept popping up every time we looked at it. We ended up getting him and not the other kid.”
It’s a good thing. After Marzett played a disastrous first half of follies, including botched assignments and a share of toastings, Taylor took the field in the second half and took charge by grabbing two interceptions. His picks put the Rush in position to take the lead, and they did, while Taylor took the MVP honor.
Will Taylor be the Rush’s new starting DS?
“As of right now, yes,” said Hohensee.
The uncertainty of the coach’s voice should come as no surprise. With Taylor, the Rush will be starting their fifth defensive specialist to compliment Walker and Porter this season. It is a testament to the rest of the team that this uncertainty comes on one of the most stifling defenses in the AFL.
“We felt like we needed somebody who was a bigger physical guy in the middle who can run, and that will help us out in the long run,” said Walker. “Because if you look at it right now, not a lot of teams are picking on Dameon or myself. They are concentrating on the middle – that third guy. Now that I think we have somebody who can solidify the middle, I think we can have a great secondary.
“Verone [McKinley] is a great cover guy, but what we’re asking the guy in the middle to do is be physical. Marvin [Taylor] is a physical guy who can run and cover.”
Does Taylor have chemistry with the perfect defensive duo?
“He listens. That’s the thing about it,” said Walker. “He listens to what me and Dameon [Porter] say. And that’s a big thing because we’re not going to tell him anything that’s going to keep him out of position. On the second post [route], Dameon told him what he was going to run.”
That kind of direction netted at least one of Taylor’s interceptions.
If Taylor can turn out to be the man in the middle that the Rush defense needs, good teams are going to have trouble scoring against Chicago.
Who said that defense doesn’t win games in the Arena Football League? Perhaps we’ll find out in the postseason.
“We figure we have seven games left,” said Hohensee. “We’re going to take them one at a time.”
Kevin Sheller ia founder of Arenafan Online and was the principal owner until 2004. Kevin graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in technical writing, and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1993. He has worked as a professional web programmer and is also the executive producer for a computer/video game company. The most recent Xbox title to his credit is called Hunter: The Reckoning.
