Success in the AFL
Tim Ball
Wednesday June 6, 2007
The Chicago Rush
Success doesn’t happen by accident. Certainly not seven seasons in a row.
One thing is noticeable about the Rush making the playoffs again; everything is in its proper place.
Even when it looks like things are falling apart, Chicago finds a way. As in, last season’s ArenaBowl run starting with a record of five and nine.
If the Rush is to be examined as a great franchise, it is only right to start at the top. Owners may have the final say in business decisions, but that word is spoken through one man.
Mike Polisky, President and General Manager of the Chicago Rush is at the helm of a franchise that has made the playoffs every year since its inception.
A GM is no different than a starting quarterback, a star receiver, a lineman making a perfect block or a fan cheering on the team. He just moves more.
One moment he’s up in a corporate suite and the next he’s seeing to the needs of a family of fans, Polisky’s efforts have paid off for a franchise where players and fans find what they’re looking for.
In sports, we are quick to find a person to blame when things go wrong so when things are going right, it is only right to apply the same standards.
Polisky sees to it that the Chicago Rush is a team of talented and committed professionals from the ticket vendors, to the fans in the seats to signing the players.
“There’s no question that we have assembled a team of outstanding people,” said Polisky. “It takes the right people in the right positions to bring it all together successfully. No one person is responsible for the success of this team.”
“In Head Coach Michael Hohensee,” continued Polisky, “we have the leadership and talent to set things on the right track. With an ownership that is willing to be involved in getting the right players and staff, there’s an excitement and a commitment that flows through each person involved with this team.”
Though hard to pin down about himself Polisky doesn’t hold back about the team and staff that he feels he is just a part of.
“You can’t have a successful team without the right people,” said Polisky, “The Rush has motivated people at every level.”
In Chicago today, the masses of fans that crowd Rush games long before the opening kickoff, is an impressive sight. Win, lose, or draw, what is going on in Chicago is what should be happening for every team in the league.
And in Chicago, Arena Football has been handled the way it should be handled league-wide.
It’s professionals like Polisky whose commitment and effort to maintain a successful AFL franchises that we all owe the ability to go to Arena Football games. Sometimes the hardest working and most talented person in an organization or business is the boss after all.
Note: On September 28th 2006, at the Chicago Athletic Club, Polisky was honored by the All-American Football Foundation at its 80th Banquet of Champions as the Arena Football League’s Outstanding Executive.
Team players
We can look for the how and why of a successful franchise but it comes down to the people being paid to do their jobs, doing their jobs. There is no doubt that in Chicago what rolls downhill is the reason for a winning team.
“I’ve been on great teams and played for great organizations with Arizona and San Jose” said Rush Fullback Bob McMillen, “but playing for Chicago has been the best experience I have had in this league.”
“This team makes it so that you feel you are the only person that they wanted at your position,” continued McMillen. “I am proud to be retiring as a Rush player.”
Even the new players to the Rush express their feelings without hesitation.
“There’s a difference in playing on a team and playing for a team,” said Rush kicker and Two-time ArenaBowl champion Dan Frantz. “In Chicago, they look at the entire picture and that’s evident in the crowds they draw and the attitudes of the players and corporate personnel.”
Frantz, who has a degree in psychology, is eloquent and passionate in his opinion about the business and pleasure of football.
“A team comes together only if there is a team,” said Frantz. “Here in Chicago, adversity, or losing a game, is seen as a place where solutions are sought and not blame.”
“Yes, pro sports is a business,” said Frantz, “but from the first moment you sit down with the management and coaches here in Chicago, you feel you are part of an overall commitment to each other for success.”
Rush Defensive Specialist Jeremy Unertl came to Chicago in a deal with the Las Vegas Gladiators towards the last part of the 2006 season and was instrumental in the Rush making it through to the playoffs and eventually winning it all.
“I look into the stands a lot here at home and on the road,” said Unertl, “all of those fans are here in Chicago for a reason. It’s a great feeling to play for a team that puts so much work into doing things right.”
An overview
It’s easy to overlook the important things as we live our insanely busy lives these days, but stop for a moment AFL fans and think about Arena Football in the Windy City?
The city of the Bears, Cubs, Bulls and White Sox. The city of Walter Payton and Michael Jordan.
The AFL is still a new and growing league if reality is a concept that still has meaning to you.
The AFL is maybe seven or eight years old in the consciousness of the American sports fans. The cause is reasons far more complicated than just filling seats, or a strange looking game on TV that many football fans find hard to understand.
Arena Football was certainly far more than a club level league in concept but it struggled for well over a decade hanging on by only the blood and guts of its players and die-hard fans who love this game for all the right reasons.
The league has seen extreme and tumultuous times; it has had teams form and fold almost in the same breath.
(I still remember the Houston ThunderBears, a team that had no home field for its last season in 2001 and still managed to win three games. You Clint Dolezel fans out there should google this and see where this amazing QB came from.)
Chicago IS football.
Win lose or draw; like the love-hate rivalry of Bears and Packers, the place is one serious and beautiful venue for football.
Living near Chicago, I now realize that sports dreams have substance.
Arena Football has had a tough time fighting for and gaining respect against the cronyism and aristocracy of pro sports traditionalists over the years.
So seeing a successful Arena Football team in a city as historic as Chicago is its own reward.
One that Michael Polisky and the entire Rush organization can be proud of.
