How to Blow a Game, By the Chicago Rush
Kevin Sheller
Monday March 10, 2003
Lose your starting quarterback, running back / linebacker, defensive specialist, and kicker to injury the week before. Start a rookie quarterback who has only thrown a few passes in any professional league in the last three years. Allow yourself to get trounced for the first half of the game, and then mount a stunning comeback after sending in your second-string quarterback. Rack up an 8-point play and look at the scoreboard to see yourself down by only 8. Inspire the fans in attendance and the rest of your teammates to expect greatness. Immediately force a turnover, and take command of the ball with around 14 minutes to go in the fourth quarter. Then...
And here’s the most important part...
With the momentum and a chance to march downfield to tie or get within two, call a crazy halfback option play, designed for your best receiver to run to the right. Have him stop, turn, and throw a ball all the way across to the left side of the field, at least 20-yards from the line of scrimmage.
Hmmm... You don`t look surprised that this is a recipe for blowing a game.
I`m not done... So, just take all that momentum that you’ve captured and throw it willy-nilly across the field into the arms of your opponent, who can’t believe how easy it is to beat such a talented team.
Oh yes, yes, hind-sight is 20-20. It could have been considered a great call if he’d completed it, but the percentage wasn’t high. Why, why, why take such a huge risk when you have finally battled back to a position to tie the game? Why take all of that hard work and throw it away on a play that has a 25% or less chance to succeed? And yes, it was a 25% chance at best. You can’t ask a guy who hasn’t thrown a pass since halftime during warm-ups to throw the ball across the width of the field, plus another twenty-some downfield.
That, my friends, is how you throw a game away. Just sprinkle a little denial on top, and you have yourself another fine loss.
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.
