Getting Your Arena Fix
Adam J Locascio
Wednesday March 16, 2005
I asked for the latest possible departure time on Sunday and I was granted a 3 p.m. take off. Nice and late. The only person this is late for is my sweet grandmother who eats dinner at 4:15.
10:18 a.m. I throw my suitcase which I am positive is over the 50 pound weight limit into the back of the car and head to the St. Pete Times Forum to catch at least part of the game between the Tampa Bay Storm and the Arizona Rattlers. I have this rule about leaving games early and, unfortunately, I have to violate my own rules to keep my job. I swear, sometimes a job really interferes with the life of a fan.
10:48 a.m. I arrive at the Forum and walk out to the field to speak to some of the players and coaches before taking my seat in the stands. While I am lucky enough to be granted a media pass which allows me free access to the press box, I still choose to sit in my seat in section 117, row C. I just find it difficult to judge a game when you're sitting next to birds in the rafters.
12:03 p.m. Kickoff. We are underway. The Storm take the opening kickoff and score on their first possession but the Rattlers bite back with a coast-to-coast bomb to Ironman Randy Gatewood to keep the score knotted at 7. I keep glancing at my watch to keep an eye on the time.
It doesn't appear that either team is getting the better of one another and even when one team gets a break, the other steps up and undoes their good fortune. Rattler quarterback Sherdrick Bonner throws a wild interception to Anthony Derricks where there isn't a Rattler jersey in the area code to close the first quarter. However, upon moving the ball to other side of the Forum for the start of the second quarter, Storm quarterback Shane Stafford drops the snap and turns it right back over to the Rattlers. Again, in another twist of irony, Bonner throws four straight incompletions and hands the ball right back over to the Storm.
Does anyone want to take control of this game?
Second quarter: I am still glancing nervously at my watch as the second quarter starts. Air travel is completely unpredictable. I've been arriving at the airport two hours early for every flight I've taken since September 11, only to be sitting in an uncomfortable vinyl chair for an hour and a half. I decide to take my chances and get to the airport one hour before my flight takes off.
Again, the Storm are still battling Rattlers as the two continue to trade scores. The Storm continue to fight to take possession back knowing that the Rattlers have the ball at the start of the third quarter. Clinging to a seven-point lead, they try and onside kick and the ball goes into the stands giving the Rattlers a short field, which Bonner & Co. cannot take advantage. A missed field goal gives the Storm the ball deep in their territory with under 30 seconds in the half.
Stafford shows his poise and completes two passes to Lawrence Samuels who always seems to appear out of nowhere when the clock gets under one minute. On the second pass, Samuels is tackled and his helmet is knocked off. He is then speared by a Rattler defender while he's lying on the ground without his helmet. Samuels shows his anger and shoves the Rattler defender off of him and he is promptly flagged for unsportsmanlike conduct. The penalty pushes the Storm back into their territory, making a field goal try for kicker Matt George harder.
The Storm miss the kick, but Siaha Burley is nearly decapitated by a very angry Ernest Certain, who I am sure wanted to show the 16,000 in attendance what was actually inside Burley's skull.
1:24 p.m. Reluctantly, I head for the exit. I feel like a hypocrite. I actually contemplated quitting my job, but I am sure that it us the sugar from my soda making me think that way. My girlfriend and Storm partner, Shari, climb up the steps as Storm play-by-play announcer Jack Harris takes the field to start the halftime festivities.
1:38 p.m. Shari and I are on I-275 southbound headed for the airport. We have been forced to switch to the radio broadcast to get an update on the game. Again, the Storm and Rattlers trade scores as we shuffle along the interstate. I don't know what the score is at this point.
1:51 p.m. My suitcase is too heavy, as predicted. The nine-year old behind the counter advises me to take things out of my bag. Like what? My shoes? If you ever see someone getting on the plane carrying shoes and a laptop, you know his bag was too heavy. What kind of solution is this to a problem?
By the way, if I take stuff out of the bag and carry it on the plane with me, IT'S STILL GOING ON THE PLANE!!! THE PLANE WILL WEIGH THE SAME NO MATTER WHERE YOU PUT YOUR STUFF!!!
I've been in Arena football depravation and I wasn't able to get a score off of the radio from Jason Dixon and Jack Harris, so who knows what's going on in the Forum. I walk from the check-in desk to the terminal where all the restaurants and shops are. I see a bar called the Wharf Brewhouse. Through the glass there are two televisions. One is tuned to CNN, the other to college basketball.
Since basketball is slightly more boring than CNN, I ask the bartender to change the television to NBC.
1:58 p.m. According to my boarding pass, my flight begins boarding at 2:25, but I am not getting on the plane 35 minutes early to sit on a tarmac, getting bumped and pushed by every idiot with a carry-on bag.
NBC returns from (endless) commercial, and the score is now 35-35. The Rattlers just scored and they are kicking off to Anthony Derricks who jumps to catch the kick before it clanks off the iron and runs untouched to the end zone, pausing to turn and taunt Rattler kicker Brain McLaughlin and pick up a 10-yard unsportsmanlike conduct penalty.
Anthony, you're taunting the kicker? I bet you took a lot of lunch money in elementary school.
The Storm are back on top, but again, here come the Rattlers who are unaware that I want this game to be over so I can stop rushing from medium to medium in search of information about the game.
2:10 p.m. The game is again tied at 45. The Storm get the ball back and a stat is posted that says that the Storm have yet to run the ball. Whoa. Stafford marches the Storm down the field and connects with Clif Dell to put the Storm back on top by a score. The Storm now lead 52-45.
About now, I realize that it is getting close to boarding time, but I forgot that getting on a plane isn't like getting on a Greyhound bus bound for Macon, Georgia. I hadn't gone through the security checkpoint yet. I cash out and walk toward the shuttle.
2:45 p.m. I am now standing blankly at the gate waiting for them to call my row. There are no televisions in this section of the airport and I need to get on the plane. I don't have a radio on me to go back to Jack Harris on 620 WDAE.
I pull my cell phone out of my pocket and dial up Shari who couldn't get back into the Forum after leaving to drop me off. She had to have been listening to the game. I desperately punch her numbers into the phone.
Shari answers with an enthusiastic hello. Before I can blurt out, "What's the score?" she begins passing the telephone around to the kids at this birthday party that one of her friends is having at a local bowling alley. Hey! Priorities? Hello?
Luckily, Shari is walking out to her car where she turns on the radio and I can hear the Storm game through the cell phone. If you want to talk about high-quality reception, try listening to a sporting event, broadcast on an AM frequency, over a cell phone connection, in a crowded airport. All I needed was the ticket agent to start a wood chipper in the background to make it all the more clear. At this point I am desperate and this is going to have to do.
2:51 p.m. I have the cell phone pressed to my head trying to decipher the action on the field. Bless her heart; Shari is trying her best to give me a literate description of the action. All I can tell is that the Storm are now within the one-minute time restrictions and the Rattlers have just scored with the point-after on it's way. It's good. The game is now tied at 56. The Storm have the ball.
I am now walking down the aisle of the plane to seat 14D, my seat in the exit aisle. I don't mind the exit aisle. If something happens on the plane, I can help out and that's important to me, because I might end up on Oprah as a result.
Shari is still giving me the play-by-play and she's not doing a bad job either. No frilly words or anything. She almost reminds me of Pat Summeral.
"Pass… complete to Solomon. Second down."
I am now in my seat, no sooner does the buckle click closed (and I didn't need the flight attendant to show me how it works either) I hear Jack Harris go into hysterics over the cell phone. He's screaming about something and causing the phone reception to fade in and out. Luckily I have Shari to translate.
"George. Twenty-two yard field goal. It's over. Storm win!"
Thank goodness. It would have been a long flight otherwise. Now if I can just find some space in the overhead for my shoes.
Adam J. Locascio is a financial advisor in the Tampa Bay area and a Board Member of the Tampa Bay Storm Surge Fan Club. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Phoenix and is a six-year season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Storm.
