“Cowbellgate” Controversy doesn’t Sidetrack SaberCats
Tim Ball
Sunday June 13, 2004
San Jose fans slowly entered their house of infamy. As the number of seats filled with the loudest fans in the history of the league, the intensity that is now Arena Football League legend started to flow into the SaberCats players.
The most expensive spectators in the AFL watched their team earn a spot in the championship. Fined ten thousand dollars for distributing incredibly loud cowbells to the faithful in attendance last week, San Jose corporate executives were anything but apologetic. About the other $10,000 in fines for “not cooperating” with NBC, the silence was as deafening as the bells last week.
Every question from dirt digging reporters was met with cold stares and frozen clichés. “Football is about fans and players,” said one top brass from the pack of business suits on the field during pre-game warm-ups.
Unfortunately as well, the talk at every table in the pressroom was not about match-ups and personnel on the field, it was about those bleep, bleep, and bleep bells. The terror and pain suffered last week was all too fresh in the minds and skulls of those reassigned to cover this week’s game.
What next, softer padding in San Jose than other arenas?
Pinhead pundits who opine publicly may make a big deal about the way San Jose does things differently, in the way it runs it team and obviously its promotions, but one thing is sure, they are sincere about the “fans and the players.”
“They took my husband’s cowbell away before he could go to pre-game party,” said a furious wife in the elevator on the way down to a SaberCats pre-game party. “I think he didn’t even go to the breakfast. I think he went to the car and went home.”
And the HP Pavilion security was taking away cowbells. It was hilarious to watch. As fan after fan dragged themselves into the arena for another insanely early game—in Bay Area biological clocks—they were hustled over to an area where “cowbell confiscation” was serious business. This ended as soon as SaberCats management got word about what their fans were enduring.
Though the fear of having John Ashcroft possibly listing them as enemy combatants quieted most, you could still hear the occasional shrill, clanging bovine blaster making its presence known to all. San Jose fans are now the stuff of myth and folklore that will be told forever more.
Game time
For a franchise that has built support around 7:30 p.m. games, SaberCats fans show up to midday games like the first day of summer school. One after another straggles in until the place is buzzing.
The Chicago Rush cared nothing about the controversy swirling around “Cowbellgate.”
They took control of the game in the first quarter and showed why they are one of the most feared teams in the league. Whether there were ten fans watching or ten thousand, the Rush simply overwhelmed the SaberCats with a perfect defensive performance in the first quarter.
Home field advantage is self-explanatory. At halftime, with the score 21-21 and Rush backup quarterback Chad Salisbury in for the injured Raymond Philyaw, the SaberCats started heating up. Stopping Chicago on their first drive of the third quarter sent the message that a SaberCats second half collapse was not being offered this week to visitors of San Jose.
After answering the SaberCats’ score in the third quarter, San Jose took the momentum, the lead and the game away from the Rush in the fourth quarter.
“There’s no good way to explain how I feel,” said Rush head coach Mike Hohensee. “You can’t dwell too much on what did or didn’t happen, but I know that I’m proud of this team and the season they have had.”
“They got some breaks that went their way,” said Rush fullback Bob McMillen who was a member of the 2002 San Jose championship team. “I know this team. They will take what you give them and pour it on. I give them a lot of credit for what they did to finish off the game.”
All year, SaberCats quarterback Mark Grieb has had a revolving lineup due to injuries to several veteran players. Most notably the loss of favored receivers James Hundon and James Roe and their constant replacements caused Grieb to search for rhythm and timing with new players each week. It was Grieb’s consistent performance game after game that has brought the SaberCats this far.
“You have to give yourself the chance to be in it by not making mistakes and doing what you’ve trained and practiced all year to do,” said Grieb. “We have the personnel to come in and do the job. We didn’t get this far by luck.”
“Mark has been great all year,” said head coach Darren Arbet. “He has maintained an attitude to bring his best to every game and not let the loss of key players be the determining factor. His leadership has played a big role in making it to the ArenaBowl.”
While other quarterbacks have gained the media attention and league honors, they are at home with a remote in hand searching channels, while Grieb has a ball in his looking forward to the ArenaBowl.
The bullseye
It seems like the SaberCats are the Oakland Raiders of the AFL and have a target on their backs every game. Hating San Jose motivates teams to beat them “just because,” and it gives them bragging rites. None of the other teams making up the “Big Four” (Tampa Bay, Orlando and Arizona) motivate the madness to defeat them like a shot at playing San Jose.
There is a stigma attached to San Jose that seems oddly placed. Other than having a private jet to fly them from town to town, they certainly don’t have it any easier than any other team. Snide innuendo from some TV analyst does not a fact make. In ten years, the SaberCats have only two trips to the ArenaBowl. That certainly puts them behind many other teams historically and the only thing different in San Jose is that, with only one championship to date, they have been since 2000 “the team to beat.” Ask yourself, “Why?”
Does passing out cowbells to faithful fans make San Jose different? Does treating Arena Football players like the elite athletes that they are make San Jose do things differently? It’s ridiculous to the extreme to consider either question, as both belittle incredible teams and amazing players on every other franchise in the league. Tampa Bay, Orlando and Arizona rate higher than San Jose in accomplishments. Do the math and give credit where credit is due. San Jose could only be number four on that talked about list.
Two other pillars
While being on the team to beat, Grieb has born the pain and suffering of every sack or late hit, because if he gets shaken the SaberCats stumble. This season, they are still standing because he is still standing.
“You don’t really think about those kinds of things,” said Grieb. “Every player and every team has the same situation facing them. Each week it’s a battle.”
While San Jose’s season was propelled by Grieb’s consistent excellence as quarterback, two other players maintained calm in a season of many disturbing events. Defensive specialist Omarr Smith is going to his third ArenaBowl in as many years. He can be the only player in AFL history to play for three consecutive championship winners and Smith has acted like a player/coach and guided new players every step of the way.
“Losing Clevan Thomas so early in the season made our job on defense much tougher,” said Smith. “I did feel the pressure of having to step up my game with Clevan out, but look at the performances of guys like Rashied Davis, Fred Coleman and Charles Pauley. No one player can bring a team this far, but I’ll do whatever it takes.”
He giveth and he taketh away. No not “that” guy, I’m talking about Barry Wagner. Like Danny White said: “Barry makes a thousand good plays . . .” Wagner was there at the beginning of the game, and it was Wagner’s hit on Etu Molden on Chicago’s final kickoff return that sealed their fate. So Wagner made up for the dropped pass against Arizona, and 999 more plays are on the way.
“Wagner was huge for us all game long,” said defensive coach Michael Church. “It was not a surprise that it was him who put this game away.”
The path
It’s easy to try and single out players or certain plays for the success or failure of a game or a season, but this is Arena Football. One call going this way or that, one catch made or dropped, and the season is good or bad.
Before the season, picking San Jose to be there in the end proved to be smart guesswork. To San Jose, every game included playoff intensity and, with the added pressure of multiple injuries to key players and rumors and controversy fueling the intensity of each game, the SaberCats without a doubt earned their way into the championship.
The “Cowbellgate” scandal, unfounded rumors and a private jet, didn’t seem to stop San Jose from losing five games this season. And the only way to win a football game is to have more points then your opponent when the game ends.
A noisemaker, gossip and ticket-less travel have nothing to do with what goes on during a game.
But guess what? There is still two more weeks to talk about it before the ArenaBowl.
Oh, by the way, did you here that the SaberCats have softer padding under their turf then other teams? You heard that, right?
Tim Ball is a writer in the Chicagoland area. Married and father of three, his opinions on Arena Football reflects the positive aspect of the game as a family event second to none in pro sports.
