Maynor`s Now the Storyline in Orlando
Dan Ryan
Saturday February 22, 2003
So much for the Super Bowl connection on a silver platter. The network guys are going to have to work. In fact, they’re going to have to wade through three more paragraphs of this before finding a captivating way to pitch Orlando and keep Pat Hayden out of the Grand Rapids Motel 6 for a few more weeks.
Since I’ve assumed the Arenafan Rudy Martzke role by default—everyone else is sucking up for a job or a chance to ghostwrite AFL stuff for MSNBC.com – I can speculate on how NBC probably feels about their best high-profile player suffering a season-ending injury. (By the way, has Barry Wagner gotten any significant airtime yet? And if the research staff had it easy with the brothers Gruden, try Martzke, who gets paid a boatload of money to sit around in his underwear on the weekends flicking from channel to channel comparing camera angles, feature stories, technical glitches and the cute one-liners that the network lapdogs don’t spoon feed him all for the sake of stroking the talents ego on Monday morning. Damn right I’m jealous, and he probably has a Gannett golf shirt as colorful as the full-page USA Today weather map. Now, I’m done. And I feel better.)
Okay NBC, here’s your storyline: If anyone in Arenaball can pull off an Earl Morrall, it’s Connell Maynor.
Quick football history: The ‘72 Dolphins lost starter Bob Griese early in the season. Don Shula, the guy who has all those expensive steakhouses, goes with Morrall, an old school throwback acquired off the waiver wire, and Miami continues on its way to [dramatic pause] the only perfect season in NFL history until Griese returns in the AFC championship game and then the Super Bowl VII victory over Washington.
I could reminiscence some more about the ‘Fins glory days, but as our illustrious founder and head honcho Kevmo pointed out, this isn’t howlonghasitbeeensinceMiamihasbeeninthesuperbowlfan.com.
Back to Maynor. After Gruden went down Friday night, all Maynor did was lead Orlando to five scores in his first five drives. Granted, you, me and six friends could score 28 on Carolina these days with no problem, but it’s a good indication that the Preds aren’t going to be missing that much of a beat. Remember, Maynor’s prime responsibility prior to Friday was short-yardage offense situations.
Maynor is a product of North Carolina A&T, who Bethune-Cookman beat 13-12 this season on a dramatic last-minute touchdown drive led by a back-up quarterback. Of course, this has nothing to do with the Predators, I’m just giving Connell some smack that I’m entitled to when my team beats his team.
Maynor also has six rings. One of those came in 2000 as Orlando’s starting QB. His receiving corps were guys whose names I’m sure I’ll remember after I file this diatribe to the home office. This has a point: For the next 12 weeks, Maynor has Cory Fleming, Thabiti Davis and Travis McGriff, a damn good triumvirate for targets.
It’s a good storyline, all right. It may not have star power, but it’ll be interesting to watch.
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.
