ArenaBowl XVIII -- Unfinished Business
Tim Ball
Wednesday December 22, 2004
Anyone see the awards ceremony after the ArenaBowl?
Not if you were watching on TV. The importance of the success of the AFL on NBC is the only reason why they televise games. And this was the ArenaBowl between the number one and number two seeded teams in the league.
NBC left the ArenaBowl just moments after the last play (the last incredible play) and the league and the game of Arena Football is still on pause waiting for someone to push the right button.
Look, I’m not here to bash NBC but not showing the victory celebration was bad for many, many reasons. The league deserves and needs the award presentation to be played on the first telecast of the season. In fact it should be THE first broadcast.
I’m betting not one fan is asking why and I’m hoping corporate executives don’t need too.
Show and tell
Unfinished business was on one man’s mind before the start of this game and he wasn’t in a Rattlers uniform but was certainly connected to the their drama. San Jose’s Mark Grieb was more than a quarterback winning his first championship at the helm. Grieb missed his chance in ArenaBowl XVI by being injured in the second to last game of the regular season at Arizona.
The ArenaBowl XVIII victory had a storyline just built for TV drama.
In 2002 in a season like no other, with his team undefeated at 12-0, it was on this same Arizona turf at “The Snake Pit,” that Grieb suffered a broken collarbone in a questionable tackle that ended his season. With Grieb out, San Jose’s quest for an undefeated season ceased as well. Backup QB John Dutton’s pass to James Hundon to tie the game on its final play to force an overtime that could have kept perfection intact would fall incomplete in the end zone, just inches from the offensive specialists outstretched hands.
The “what ifs” in the mind of every SaberCats fan if Grieb had stayed in that game is not wishful thinking, it’s a matter of statistical probability as Grieb, Hundon and the rest of the SaberCats set a pace for excellence in 2002 that may never be equaled again.
With Grieb watching from the sidelines, San Jose fought its way through the playoffs. Dutton would go on to earn the MVP award in ArenaBowl XVI in the most lopsided victory in league history.
“There’s no question that Mark has feelings about this game that other players don’t have,” said offensive coordinator Terry Malley. “He is a big reason for our success over the last few seasons and in 2002 he had to watch ArenaBowl from the sidelines. This has to be very special to him.”
The last championship game wasn’t like ArenaBowl XVI where San Jose dominated from start to finish. In this ArenaBowl, Grieb had to answer every Arizona score without flinching. To not see, hear, and feel Grieb’s reactions to winning this ArenaBowl in Arizona, after all he went through on that field, robs the entire league.
And let us not forget that Grieb completed a staggering 73 percent of his passes last season and finished the year with a record setting 133.5 passer rating. “Playing catch in the back yard you’d be lucky to equal what Mark did this year,” joked Malley.
NBC would benefit the 2005 season by highlighting the 2004 ArenaBowl.
Truth, consequences and controversy
True league legends and certainly the AFL’s most anticipated match up between Hunkie Cooper and Barry Wagner, both of whom have been in the league for over a decade, were highlighted the entire game by NBC commentators Pat Haden and Tom Hammond but we heard nothing from them when the drama ended.
The brief post-game interview with SaberCats head coach Darren Arbet was as lacking in substance as a political handshake. The game ended on a sensational defensive play by the next generation of superstars San Jose’s second-year player Rasheid Davis on the aforementioned legendary Cooper. Arbet mentioned the defensive play to end it, but he would be the only voice we would hear on the AFL’s championship game. The network left seconds later to go to gymnastics.
And what about the severity of the injury to SaberCats OS James Hundon? His nose was shattered not by striking the sideline barrier with his shoulder, which was inaccurately mentioned by NBC’s Haden, but by Arizona’s DS Ricky Parker as he swung his arm forward into Hundon’s face. Watching the tape, it’s easy to see Parker’s action on the play.
Was Parker trying to punch the ball out of Hundon’s arm, or trying to hit him precisely where he was hit? Since Hundon’s nose was shattered in two places, and required extensive surgery, this question begs to be asked by league authorities. It certainly was not asked when Hundon returned to the game and the condition of his nose was plain for all to see.
In all fairness
The ArenaBowl pre-game show with Glen Parker, Ray Bentley and Bill Weber was upbeat, showed emotion and was superbly accurate in prediction. Any novice to the league tuning in knew something exciting was going on and the people on the screen knew it as well.
Holding up San Jose’s Grieb and receiver James Roe as the players that would make the difference showed that Parker and Bentley not only did their homework but were not afraid to show it before the final exam as Grieb and Roe simply took center stage all game long.
Haden trumpeted his excitement for the game of Arena Football, and fans found they could find a voice in a Rhodes scholar that openly likes the league. Haden kept the storylines going all game long – including the story of Omar Smith, who is now the only player in AFL history to win back to back to back championship games – but that added to the unfinished business in the way the broadcast ended.
The victory celebration is as much a part of the championship game as what happens on the field. Not showing the presentation by AFL commissioner David Baker to the now two-time champion San Jose SaberCats and the trophy hoisted over players’ heads is unthinkable in American sports.
NBC is a plus for the AFL; there’s no doubting that anymore. It is time to bring to the AFL the quality of broadcast that had people watching their Olympic coverage like a cult classic literally 24-hours a day.
It is important to have ArenaBowl highlight to start this season. NBC and the AFL have got to finish what they did not end at ArenaBowl XVIII.
It is the only proper way to begin the quest for ArenaBowl XIX.
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.
