Firebirds Roll into Indiana
Matthew Pickut
Sunday February 25, 2001
After introductions and a slick marketing video, team director of Media Relations Justin Campbell turned the press conference over to Firebirds’ General Manager Joe Hennessy. Despite losing three players via free-agency in the offseason due to the new collective bargaining agreement, Hennessy remained upbeat, pointing out that the Firebirds took advantage of free-agency to sign several players, including former Indiana star QB Chris Dittoe (6’5” 210).
WR/LB Greg Hopkins, who looks more the part of his offseason job of male model than five-year veteran of the Arena League (until you see him up close), said that the new bargaining agreement, “adds a lot of things that are benefits to players that we’ve never had before. It makes for a lot more comfortable working environment.”
Hennessy, who has been with the team for ten years, contrasted the TV coverage in Albany with the team’s current situation by announcing television deals signed on Friday morning. Fox Sports Net and WB4 will cover twelve games, broadcast locally, with each network airing six. A radio deal was also nearing completion.
Speaking of the effect relocation had on his job as General Manager, Hennessy said, “if any effect it’s positive, it’s a much larger market than Albany, NY, and Indianapolis is a tremendous sports market. That makes it easier to recruit players to come to your football team.”
 Commissioner C. David Baker poses with Indiana`s Firebird uniform Image courtesy of T.R. Knight |
While speaking of the AF2, Baker inserted his hope that it would serve as a “building experience” for minority coaches. According to Baker, minority coaches could gain head-coaching experience for their resume in the AF2 “without color being a factor,” and then move to the AFL and NFL.
He spoke of the AFL’s eventual goal of 36-48 teams, including interest in Asian and European cities, plus 70 AF2 teams. He reported from an ESPN/Chilton poll that while fan support for the NBA and Major League soccer fell 2.6% and 6% respectively, AFL’s number rose 18%. Citing the 2 million fans that attended AFL and AF2 games last year Baker revealed that the league estimates total attendance to top 3.5 million this year.
Ex-retiree Offensive Specialist “Touchdown” Eddie Brown and Hopkins, both flown in by the team, attended the press conference. Brown, who seems to have kept his conditioning up over the last year described himself as “nervous . . . but excited” to be in Indianapolis. Brown listed his daughter and late father as inspiring his comeback to Arenaball and intends to make Indianapolis his full time home.
According to Hopkins, while the Firebirds have “a pretty good core of players that will be coming back who were with us last year,” there are also “a couple new guys battling it out for the quarterback position, and we’ve switched around the defensive backfield. Those are probably the two biggest areas that we’ll have to see where we’re coming from when we get into camp.”
With one of the most stable ownership teams in the AFL and the support of Indiana Pacer top brass, the Firebirds are set to make the Fieldhouse their nest for a long time. If their performance on the field matches their performance Friday, Indiana may be home to a champion soon.
Matthew Pickut is a pastor in northern Indiana and a long time AFL fan. He also writes for his own website: The Brown Paper Blog. He graduated from Taylor University in Upland Indiana (class of `96) with degrees in Biblical Literature and Sociology as well as a healthy respect for the medicinal properties of coffee.
