Big Upsets and Dumping on Dallas
John Hoh
Tuesday July 10, 2007
On Saturday the Columbus Destroyers (7-9 regular season) upset the Dallas Desperados (15-1 regular season), 66-59.
In case you were hibernating in the heat this last weekend and you think you just read a type, I’ll state it again. On Saturday the Columbus Destroyers (7-9 regular season) upset the Dallas Desperados (15-1 regular season), 66-59.
Of course one wonders if this is lightening striking twice. Last year saw the Chicago Rush with a 7-9 regular season record roll through the playoffs to win the championship.
What makes this even more improbable is that the Destroyers as a franchise, representing Buffalo, NY, and now Columbus, OH, had never won a playoff game. Now they are on a two-game playoff-winning streak.
Not that this was the first time there was a huge upset like this. See last year’s Rush team, who also knocked off the top-seeded team en route to a championship rout. The NBA has had two number one seeds fall to eighth seeds. Is it just coincidence the the last such example was the Dallas Mavericks sporting the NBA’s best record only to lose to the GS Warriors, coached by a former Mavericks coach? It used to be Houston was the playoff laughingstock in Texas (the Oilers collapse against the Bills in a playoff game).
All of which brings to mind the first 15-1 team to be upset in a playoff game. The 1968 Baltimore Colts, the powerhouse team of the powerhouse National Football League, were heavy favorites over the upstart New York Jets of the upstart American Football League in what is now known as Super Bowl III (although it may have been the first such game actually called a “Super Bowl” before the game was played). But the “upstart” Jets weren’t a low ranked team sliding into the playoffs. They had won their division and then their league title. But try telling Colts coach Don Shula that. He had to take a Perfect Season Dolphins team to Super Bowl victory to erase the bad memories of that one Super Bowl game.
The Desperados have been stopped short in two straight seasons. What does Jerry Jones have to do to go all the way so he can buy small rings for his small field team? Is Barry Switzer available to coach? Maybe Jimmy Johnson would like to learn the nuances of the indoor war on the floor?
Meanwhile Columbus is giving Arena fans in specific and football fans in general some excitement. We like seeing lower seeds upset higher seeds in the NCAA tournament (unless one’s team is actually the higher seed). We cheered the Steelers on their improbable run to victory as a sixth seed in a recent NFL playoff season (and how many times will a sixth-seeded team be the favorite when playing a one-seed?). So now the nation is behind the scrappy warriors from Ohio as they attempt the improbable but not impossible.
That’s why you play the games. And in Arena football, you don’t leave until the last blast sounds.
