Fury’s Thabiti Davis Left Off AFL All-Arena Team
Neal Ruhl
Tuesday June 29, 2004
8.47 catches per game. That’s more than the All-Arena Second Team OS Damian Harrell had. That should be good enough right?
127 catches for 1,557 yards and 26 touchdowns. I know that’s good enough, right? You say Cory Fleming had more catches, more yards, and more touchdowns? Okay, he should be All-Arena First Team WR/LB. I have no problem with that. My problem is how in the world the Tampa Bay Storm’s Lawrence Samules is on the All-Arena Second Team over Detroit Fury WR/LB Thabiti Davis?
Just in case you don’t believe me, I provided the numbers here for you:
| Samuels | Davis | |
| Catches | 81 | 951 |
| Yards | 127 | 1,557 |
| Touchdowns | 9 | 26 |
I don’t want to hear about tackles either because Fleming only recorded 18 tackles this season. This is one of the most ridiculous things I have ever heard. Davis is among the league leaders in many receiving categories and he is up there with the big name offensive specialists like Marcus Nash, Chris Jackson and Damian Harrell. And these guys don’t even have to play defense.
“The bottom line is that this is a team game, and if your team doesn’t play well, sometimes individual accomplishments get overlooked,” said Detroit Fury head coach Tom Luginbill in an interview from his home in Alabama. “It’s surprising to me because when I think of All-Arena First or Second Team guy, I think of a player who makes a difference in a game, and Thabiti is that kind of player. I feel bad because maybe I didn’t do my job of getting our team to win enough games to get Thabiti that kind of recognition.”
It looks like the AFL dropped the ball on this one, and, as some one who covered this team all year and saw the all out effort Davis gave on every play, it’s disappointing to me that he got overlooked. It’s too bad this wasn’t an election, because a recall would definitely be in order.
Neal Ruhl lives in the Metro Detroit Area where he has covered the Detroit Lions as well as the Motor City Bowl.
