Quick Chat with Commissioner Baker
Dan Ryan
Wednesday July 17, 2002
Do I focus on labor issues? TV contracts? Big business. Nope... parties, hot tubs and my golf shirt are the focus of this ditty. Someone can stop Sheller from banging his head against the wall any time now...
- Resolve my two concerns: Your move to February and playing on Sundays.
Baker: The answer to both: It’s a tradeoff if you want 71 games on national TV. Right now, if you ask anyone what Arena Football is, 34 percent of them have an idea. This time next year after those 71 games and the national exposure, the figure will be up to 90. In the past, we’ve always had to launch the season in the shadow of the NBA playoffs, baseball, and Stanley Cup. Yes, there is March madness and NASCAR, but again, that’s the tradeoff. As far as Sundays, people forget that the arenas will be available because the NBA games under the new contract with ABC and ESPN will be on Saturday nights.
- Here you are standing next to the president of NBC Sports. You get to hang at Super Bowl parties. NFL Commissioner Paul Tagliabue returns your phone calls. Does the common fan appreciate how significant that in itself is?
Baker: Sometimes I’m not sure I believe it myself. Don’t pinch me, because I might wake up.
- Do you kid your pal “Tags” by reminding him you have a team in LA and he doesn’t?
Baker: Yeah. I love to tell him that.
- With the exception of one buttmunch in Atlanta, you seem to have more respect from the media now than ever before. Is that going to help you overcome “the next XFL” stigma?
Baker: That’s very important to us. Also, what else we have going for us is the quality of people involved—John Elway in Denver, Ron Jaworski in Philadelphia, Jerry Jones in Dallas – the man has three Super Bowl trophies in his living room but he’s still in his skybox having a great time when the Desperadoes were in OT against Tampa Bay.
- Be honest. Do you miss the hot tubs?
Baker: Not one bit. I always believed that the less hot tubs, the better the players are. But hey, I’m the commissioner and I do the YMCA dance...
- How many more games do I have to cover before you put me in the Hall of Fame or Sheller gives a golf shirt?
Baker: (smiling) Keep it at. You’re still young.
Dan Ryan has been involved with all forms of arena football since 1988, including writing for ArenaFan when Joe Kauffman and Tim Capper aren’t killing his columns because they don’t get his jokes or perspective. His day job is at Bethune-Cookman University, which has produced both an NFL Hall of Famer (Larry Little) and an Arena Football Hall of Famer (Stevie Thomas) and his hobby is tracking how many f-bombs Adam Markowitz drops in the chat room on game nights.
