An ArenaBowl for All
Tim Ball
Saturday June 26, 2004
No matter what happens tomorrow between the Rattlers and the SaberCats, how these teams got to the ArenaBowl has got to be savored. For the last two weeks we have read all about the “match-ups” and “league legends,” and players who have overcome the odds.
Now we need to remember just how they got there. This is an ArenaBowl for every team to think about. Many teams were there throughout the season with winning records and talented teams. At the end of the regular season many teams could have made it through to the championship game.
Arizona and San Jose took entirely different paths to the championship but ended up in the same place. Though pure rivals without exaggeration, this championship game is for more than just the players and fans of each team.
At 3-5 mid-season, Arizona was counted out and sent to pasture like an old racehorse whose time had come and gone. San Jose by all accounts was the number one team in the league virtually all season long and faced teams frenzied to take their place each and every game.
Both arrive at ArenaBowl XVIII on time.
The challenges they faced were the same—trying to win games—but both teams faced entirely different opponents.
Arizona was faced with teams trying to keep them down and out, and San Jose fought foes trying to take down them team with a reputation that could earn for the winner over them, a step in the right direction. Beating the best goes a long way towards being the best.
The Rattlers had to claw their way into another ArenaBowl. The SaberCats only had to take the place so many had reserved for them before the start of the season.
Faces and places
Barry Wagner, Hunkie Cooper, Sherdrick Bonner, and Mark Grieb… we don’t need their staggering stats to know we are watching an ArenaBowl that may never happen again. Or, it very well could be repeated next year.
James Hundon, Randy Gatewood, Orshawante Bryant, Wendall Gaines, Omar Smith and James Roe make the price of a program worth anything they’re asking. The teammates not mentioned are the real reason those famous players are once again leading another team into an ArenaBowl. Buy that program and learn those names. Some may end up on your team.
By the way, if you need to know the names of the teams the players mentioned play on, please go to another website for your info. I’ll bet any VooDoo, Wranglers or Soul fan needs no help. And, I bet they know who are free agents and who are not.
This ArenaBowl is between two of the “Big Four” of the league and it is setting the stage for all other teams to be on some day. Everything a coach could hope for in motivation is on the field Sunday.
The SaberCats endured so many injuries to veterans this season, the biggest loss being two-time MVP DS Clevan Thomas, that the idea of being a “backup” player just vanished from Arena Football manuals from now on.
The Rattlers were not given any respect or a chance to even make the playoffs, and are hosting the ArenaBowl and have to be favored to win it.
Think about what Indiana and Grand Rapids coaches will talk about in the off-season?
Colorado and Chicago could literally be in this year’s big game, and the VooDoo will not have to endure what the Crush did in their magnificent turnaround this year. Austin won more games in their first few weeks than former champions Grand Rapids did all season.
Many teams beat the SaberCats and the Rattlers soundly this year, so there is more to look forward to at this moment than meets the eye.
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s game has to be enjoyed by every fan of this league because it holds out promise of a championship for every team in the league.
Get some veterans and get players that can learn from them and your team is going to be around in the post season. There is no such thing as “no” until mathematics proves otherwise.
Arizona should be the motivation of any team with a losing record and the example of San Jose with a different roster of players suiting up every game has to be on the wall next to them.
2004 is the season of “what if.” Not as a question, but as a problem solved.
The coaches and players of both teams in this year’s ArenaBowl did not search for “team effort” in an those old motivation manuals on every coaches desk, they found it on the field by looking and counting on each other.
Every team has that same classroom. “Wait ‘til next year” is not an excuse for losing, it is a promise every team can keep.
Tune in
Set your recorders for this one. There are many storylines swirling around and you’ll need Tivo. Bonner and Cooper are leading their troops for the respect lost in the last two ArenaBowls and facinga San Jose,who crushed the Rattlers in 2002,has to be awesome motivation.
Grieb’s dream of a championship trophy brought to his mantle by his hands has to play on his motivation. It was on this field that Grieb was stopped from achieving that goal when a season ending injury had him watching from the sidelines of Arena Bowl XVI.
Cooper and Wagner are real legends for real reasons and will set the mark all other players will reach for in years to come. Smith is attempting to win his third ArenaBowl in row and,as a quiet leader, is an example for any player willing to achieve excellence for its own sake.
Being at this ArenaBowl is better than watching it on TV, as it is an Arena Football game after all, but there shouldn’t be a fan in the league not tuning in.
The winner and the loser need to be remembered for what they did and how they did it. You can’t win or lose a championship unless you get the chance to play in one. We haven’t just read about these teams for two weeks we have followed them all season.
They are rivals, but they are together in leadership. They are showing the way to each other and for every franchise to follow.
Each team in the league traveled some of those paths taken this season by both Arizona and San Jose. And the roads will once again be paved and waiting.
This is truly an ArenaBowl for everyone.
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.
