Rush Still Believe, But Time is Ticking
Kevin Sheller
Wednesday April 23, 2003
Looking back, those five wins come against two of the league’s worst teams (combined record of 6-18), two .500 teams, and the league’s current number one seed.
To characterize the below-.500 Chicago Rush, one would use terms like injured, inconsistent, and mistake-ridden.
Perhaps the team’s identity can best be described as confusing. Don’t believe me? Consider the team’s traveling record: 1-4 at home and 4-3 away. Does the home crowd support the Rush? Without question. Chicago opponents have been frustrated by noise-related penalties throughout the home stand. Let’s not forget multiple broken-attendance records, including two sellouts.
Of course, the excuse goes that the Rush have been playing the good teams at home – and they have. Visiting opponents have a combined record of 37-23. But if a franchise expects to play as one of the best, they should be expected to beat the best. Besides, wouldn’t a player or a coach rather play all of the most challenging opponents in their own house?
So will the trend continue? Count on it. Three more home games: Grand Rapids, Arizona, and Indiana. One more away game: Carolina.
Meanwhile, the best teams are blowing out opponents – often by more than 20 points. So where does that place the Rush?
“We can’t worry about what Arizona is doing. We can’t worry about what New York’s doing,” said DS Cedric Walker. “We have to take care of our business first. If you look at the beginning of the season, we’re picked to do this, we’re picked to do that. But we haven’t yet started taking care of business.”
It’s true. Last season, the Rush finished as the third seed. This season, they are currently 13th.
“We feel as a team that we’re starting to play good football,” said OL/DL Marcus McKenzie. “As far as playing-wise, we’re getting up there near the top, but as far as records go, we’re in the mix in the middle to bottom.”
Against Dallas, the Rush squandered another win by making multiple mistakes in the second half, but the players and coaches still believe.
“It hurts. It’s another loss,” said DS Marvin Taylor. “But, we’re going to let it go and get ready for next week. You never know what can happen in this race. We can still try to get in the playoffs. I’m not going to give up. We still got four more games.”
The Rush would have to win out to earn a winning record on the season. Not easy, especially when the Rush played one of their best games of the season on Sunday and still couldn’t close the door on the Desperados, even after getting ahead early.
“We know we can beat Dallas. They just got lucky,” said Taylor. “They got a break. That’s just the way the dice rolled. We know we can beat Grand Rapids. That won’t change. The day that we change our philosophy and stop believing -- that’s the day that whoever that guy is, needs to leave this game. Because we’re not going to stop believing. I don’t care what the records say. We’re going fight. We’re going to play football right here on this field. When that clock is rolling, it’s time to show up.”
The time is now. With a month to go, it’s time for these Rush to show up or start planning for next season.
Speaking of Next Season
Of the eleven starters listed on the Chicago Rush depth chart before Sunday’s game, six players’ contracts will end after this season. The list includes big names like Antonio Chatman, Walker, Taylor, Dameon Porter, Linsay Fleshman, and John Moyer.
Chatman leads the league in kick returns for touchdowns (5), Moyer holds the second spot on the list of sack leaders (6), and Walker, Porter, and Fleshman have become important team leaders on and off the field. Taylor appears to be the right fit for the second DS spot, and is quickly becoming one of the Rush’s young leaders on the field.
Contracts for James Baron, Riley Kleinhesselink, and Billy Dicken end after 2004. Bob McMillen and Frank Moore are signed through 2005.
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.
