Oronde Gadsden, Another ex-AFL, NFL star
John Hoh
Friday January 12, 2001
My ears perked when the announcers informed me that Oronde was an AFL Rookie of the Year in the just-concluded Arena Football League season. He played for the Portland Forest Dragons.
By now highlight reels show Oronde outstretched, the football nestled in his fingertips and his toes delicately inside the out of bounds line. He’s menaced the Indianapolis Colts twice with such catches in the end zone. It may be irony or it may be poetic justice—both times came at Indianapolis, a team that plays indoors!
But when I first saw Oronde and heard he had been the rookie of the year in the AFL, I thought to myself that more AFL receivers should have looks in the NFL. Think about it. The West Coast offense is used by many teams. The West Coast offense employs receivers catching the ball on crossing routes in the middle of the field. Where do you think a general manager should go to find a sure-handed receiver who will catch the ball knowing he will be hit—and hit hard? At the time, I had visions of Gadsden crossing the middle and catching balls in traffic.
What Oronde has shown is versatility, dedication, concentration, and talent. He has become a clutch receiver in the Miami mix. And his sideline catches? While I didn’t anticipate that he would be making such catches, someone needs to collect that footage for a receiving training video. Those catches are that good!
He hasn’t received the fanfare of Kurt Warner. But quietly Oronde Gadsden has proven that good players reside in the Arena Football League. Some get their breaks, others don’t.
John L. Hoh, Jr., is a free-lance writer from Milwaukee who grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, as an avid Dolphins fan. He followed Arena Football since its inception, at one point watching tape-delayed games on low-powered WAV-TV in Waukesha. His happiest day was when Milwaukee was awarded the Mustangs franchise; his saddest when the Mustangs were contracted out of the league. John is married to his wife Maija (13+ years) and has a young son, Matthew. John pines for the return of the Arena Football League to Milwaukee.
