Dutton Believes Season is Salvagable
Chuck Fasse
Wednesday March 19, 2003
Dutton has had quite the start of a career in professional football. Originally drafted out of the University of Nevada by the Miami Dolphins in 1998 Dutton was tutored by none other than Dan Marino.
“Dan was great to work with. He really helped me out a lot while I was with the Dolphins.”
From Miami, Dutton went on to spend time in Atlanta and Cleveland before joining the Arena league in 2000 when he signed with the San Jose Sabercats.
Dutton became a free agent after the 2002 season and when the Colorado Crush and John Elway came knocking, it didn’t take long for the ArenaBowl MVP to become the first free agent and first player signed to the AFL’s newest expansion franchise.
“This is really great. Here I get to work with two of the greatest quarterbacks ever in Dan (Marino) and John Elway, it’s quite the experience.”
Speaking of experience, I asked John what it is like going from ArenaBowl MVP and a championship to a 1-6 expansion franchise where your first three losses all fell in the last seconds of play.
“It’s frustrating and it’s tough losing like that, especially when we were right there and we lose in the final seconds. We’re good enough to win in this league. We just have to eliminate the mistakes and play our game and we’ll be fine.”
Mistakes have thus far been the downfall of the Crush -- be it an interception here or a fumble there, victories have often been decided by a timely turnover. When I asked John about this, he told me that he just has to go out and play his game and not force throws or try to do too much and that the Crush will be fine.
When asked about the comparison between the AFL and NFL, Dutton said it really is a learning curve, especially for quarterbacks in relation to the shortened field and game plans that are almost entirely pass-oriented.
“For me I really have to concentrate and make the right reads because everything develops so fast.”
Dutton has been fortunate to have an excellent receiving core highlighted by Damian Harrell and Joe Douglass and the added blessing of working with Quarterbacks coach Mike Perez, a successful AFL veteran.
“They really make my job easy, and with this team’s talent the playoffs aren’t an impossibility.”
Only in the Arena league where 6 of the 8 teams in each conference make the playoffs could Dutton’s statement be prophetic. The Crush sit at 1-6, but as they enter the meat of their divisional schedule and finally get to come home after four straight weeks on the road, Colorado could very suddenly be in the playoff hunt.
“We are good enough to put a number of these together (wins) and be right there at the end.” John told me. “One last thing…” he concluded “I expect us to be there at the end.”
Chuck Fasse was a writer for ArenaFan Online during the 2003 season.
