Measure of Men
Rob Hammersmith
Sunday April 15, 2007
See, I was always taught that a measure of a man is revealed by how a man responds to failure. A man that follows a failure with a poor effort is a quitter. He’s thrown in the towel and is just going through the motions. On the other hand, a man that follows a failure with his best effort is a winner. That’s not to say that a best effort will produce a win every single time. But they walk off the field knowing they played the best game they could have played.
So what measure of men would my son see in his first AFL game? The Destroyers suffered arguably their worst failure in the nine year history of the franchise (Buffalo and Columbus) when they lost to Dallas after surmising a 37-7 lead just before halftime last week. Their measure of men would be revealed in this game. Did they throw in the towel this week, and will come out just to go through the motions? Or did they regroup, refocus, and find reasons to recover the season. As the final ticks of the game ran off, I told my son he just witnessed real men playing football.
The Destroyers came out and produced one of the best efforts that they’ve ever put on the field since arriving in Columbus. And that’s saying a lot given they thumped some pretty good teams last year, like Colorado (65-21) and Philadelphia (53-20). Yet, Austin was playing well in this game too, matching the Destroyers score for score (28-28) until just under a minute to go in the first half.
At that point the Destroyers were able to produce their first stop of the game. A missed 29 yard field goal for some reason sent the Austin Wranglers spinning out of control. The Wranglers ended up being their own worst enemy as the first half came to an end. With 3 seconds left on the clock and the Destroyers stopped at midfield, the Wranglers committed an unnecessary roughness penalty putting the Destroyers 10 yards closer to scoring. Kicker Peter Martinez put the Destroyers up for the first time in the game with a 35 yard field goal to end the first half, a kick that would have been a lot harder to hit from 45 yards out.
That mistake that turned the favor of the game over to the Destroyers must have gotten under the skin of the Wranglers in the locker room. Because they played like a completely different team in the second half. Austin Quarterback Adrian McPherson ended up throwing three 2nd half interceptions and the Destroyers defense produced another stop with a turnover on downs, to allow Matt Nagy and the Destroyers offense to manufacture a 31 point lead (66-35) well into the 4th quarter.
But before any one could utter the words “surely the Destroyers can’t find a way to lose this lead this late in the game”, Nagy was intercepted, Austin scored a one play TD, recovered an onside kick, and McPherson ran over 40 yards for a TD on a broken scramble play. Were we about to witness the Destroyers blow another big lead? The Wranglers were only down by 17 (66-49) now, but this time their onside kick failed, and Nagy led the Destroyers in for the last score of the game. Destroyers win 72-49.
It was easy to drive home after this game. A sense of pride is felt. Not in the light of the Destroyers winning big. But pride felt in the light of recovery. Pride felt in the light that this team did not throw in the towel, and come out in this game to just go through the motions. Pride felt in the light that we now know these players are playing to win, and not just to get paid and make a living. Pride knowing that the next time we play a winning team (Philadelphia on Monday night football), they are just concerned about playing us as we are about playing them.
So here we stand a week later. Did the team recover? Yes. Did the team respond with its best effort? Yes. Do the questions of what this team is made of still remain? Maybe, but far less than there were last week. Does the bitterness of the loss to Dallas still remain? Yes, and don’t let go away. Hold on to that pain. Let it constantly remind us that even the best are not perfect, and that’s why at no time during the game can we ever lose focus. We believe…. Because we will not forget.
Rob became an Arena Football League enthusiast when the Destroyers moved from Buffalo to Columbus after the 2003 season. Rob and his wife have been season ticket holders for the Destroyers since they arrived. Rob was born and raised in Central Ohio, attended The Ohio State University and has now worked for the past 15 years in the area. Despite attending Buckeye games for decades, Rob has found that Arena Football tops his list of sporting events that he likes to attend.
