Rattlers Not About to Give Up
Patrick Daly
Friday March 25, 2005
Here in Arizona, the nightmare continues for the Rattlers (1-7) after a 66-63 loss this past Saturday night to the Las Vegas Gladiators (5-3). You don’t have to look hard to find plenty of people who believe they know exactly what’s wrong with this team, but it’s not always easy to explain. There are times in life where it doesn’t matter how hard you work at something it doesn’t seem to work out the way you want it. Does that mean it’s time to give up? For some people, the answer has already been made. For the Rattlers, quitting is not an option.
"It’s hard to explain," said Rattlers head coach Todd Shell. "You come out, you work hard and you fight at it. I told them things just aren’t going our way. Unfortunately, that’s the way the game is. I told them that if you’re a real man, a real professional, you just keep fighting. If you quit in something like this, you’ll quit in everything you do in life. The only thing we have control of is how we go prepare and how we keep fighting, and the chips will fall where they will."
Even Arizona’s most recent opponent had the same sentiment.
"Arizona, and I hate to say this and no pun intended, is snake bit," said Gladiators quarterback Clint Dolezel. "They can’t catch a win and I’ve had years like that where you can’t catch a win."
In a business where you’re rated on the number of wins you produce, particularly in the big games, it’s easy to throw in the towel if things don’t go your way. But it’s times like these that a person’s true character shows through.
"These guys have the courage to put themselves in this type of position and do this for a living," said Shell. "There are plenty of guys who can deal with winning, but there are very few people who can deal with this type of adversity and really step up and keep coming out and fighting. We could have given this up a few weeks ago, but they’re coming out and playing hard. That says a lot about where we’re at and what we’re doing. Somehow, we’ve just got to get over that hump and figure out a way to walk off that field with a W."
The Rattlers have lost each of the last three games in the closing minutes. They’ve been losses that define the course of the current seven-game losing streak. During a normal season or even taken one at a time, these would be tough losses that you learn from before moving on, but this season they’ve simply added to a string of misfortune that very few players ever experience.
"Losses are losses," said Shell. "You either win or you lose. We’re trying to win every football game and we’ve been trying to do that from day one. Do they hurt more now? Yeah, they hurt more now, because I know what everyone in our organization is going through right now. There’s nobody here that likes to lose. I’ll take a bunch of guys that hate to lose over a bunch of guys that like to win."
With the door to the playoffs all but slammed shut at the midway point, there still remains a tiny glimmer of hope. However, the point of focus remains taking each game as it comes in order to get the next win. The Rattlers can’t worry about games further down the road.
"We need some help now, obviously," said Shell. "You’ve got to go play each game, and next week we go play Nashville. We’ll come out and work hard this week, like we have been, and try to do the things we need to do to win the football game."
Despite the losses and adversity, Shell still believes in his team.
"I told them the most important thing right now is that they just keep battling hard," said Shell. "There’s a lot of character in that room and I believe they’ll do that."
Gladiators on Offensive
The Las Vegas Gladiators are definitely a different team with quarterback Clint Dolezel running the show. The team struggled on the offensive side of the ball with QB Rod Robinson and QB Craig Whelihan at the helm and it was the defense that keep the ship righted during Dolezel’s absence. Aside from his obvious ability, it doesn’t hurt that he’s also the primary developer of the offense as the team’s offensive coordinator.
"It’s my offense and when you have a guy in there that’s not used to running the offense you’re going to struggle a little bit," said Dolezel. "Thank God our defense was playing well through those weeks so we could scratch out some wins."
Even with Dolezel back, there were a few glitches that might normally cost Las Vegas a win, but they were able to work through it and break the 60-point mark in the win.
"It was definitely not a very good game for us offensively," said OS Marcus Nash. "We had some turnovers. We had some dropped balls and miscommunication. It’s great that we were able to get over 60 points and another win."
Unlike the Rattlers, Las Vegas was able to take advantage of the situation and post a win that keeps them in the driver’s seat in the Western Division.
"You can’t catch Arizona like this very often, so when you do you have to get the win," said Dolezel.
Patrick Daly has been an Arena Football League enthusiast since he first stumbled across the late-night ESPN broadcasts and has followed the Arizona Rattlers since their inaugural season in 1992. He graduated from Arizona State University with an engineering degree and is currently a member of a web development team for Direct Alliance in Tempe. Patrick currently resides in the Phoenix suburb of Chandler, Arizona with his beautiful wife, son and a very large football helmet collection.
