Destroyers, Soul on different pages with QBs
David Grimes
Friday April 1, 2005
But Spielman agrees that the inconsistent play at the quarterback position has hurt the Destroyers this season and is helping the notion that his team is not worthy of being labeled a good football team. On the other hand, Jaworski believes the Soul have found their consistent man in quarterback Tony Graziani.
Both Jaworski and Spielman agreed that the quarterback position is one of the key elements that make up a good football team. Both men went searching this past off-season and grabbed two new quarterbacks for their respective teams. Jaworski brought Graziani aboard and Spielman nabbed quarterback Chad Salisbury for the Destroyers.
From that point, the similarities end with the two Eastern Division opponents. Graziani is turning his team around with two back-to-back wins against the Tampa Bay Storm and the Grand Rapids Rampage. The Soul are now 4-5.
Jaworski said that they are a young team that found the needed leadership abilities along with quarterback skills in Graziani. "Tony brought a lot to the table," Jaworski said.
The Destroyers found themselves letting go of their new quarterback in just two games.
"We started off with Chad Salisbury who had a pretty good career and a pretty good interception to touchdown ratio," Spielman said.
But the team soon realized that he was not producing the numbers that the coaches anticipated. Before the Destroyers released him, Salisbury completed just over half of his passes and threw four interceptions in two games.
Spielman is still trying to search for that consistent quarterback. When Salisbury was released, quarterback Matt D’Orazio took over the starting job and led the Destroyers to victory over the Chicago Rush. But after that win, D’Orazio has not been able to lead his team to another victory.
Spielman then brought quarterback Ryan Vena into the mix. But, according to Spielman, Vena has had his ups and downs. While putting up impressive numbers with 729 passing yards and 11 touchdowns, his 6 interceptions are limiting him to become that consistent quarterback that Columbus needs this season.
"I would love to have one quarterback, but until I get one guy who can do it week in and week out I’m going to keep searching for him," Spielman said. ""It starts and ends with the quarterback."
David Grimes has worked as a sports reporter for the Viking Views (North Canton), an editor for The Lantern (The Ohio State University) and was a columnist for the Destroyers here at ArenaFan. After he moved to Columbus to attend college, the Destroyers became an expansion team. Now, after moving to Salem, OH, the Mahoning Valley Thunder became an arenafootball2 expansion team. It seems like Arena Football follows David throughout the Buckeye State.
