McEntyre Returns for Final Curtain Call
Jason Lucas
Tuesday February 22, 2011
On Saturday during an ArenaFan exclusive interview, Kenny “The Glove” McEntyre confirmed that the 2011 season will serve as the final curtain call on his brilliant career.
“This is it,” McEntyre said inside the Amway Center at the Orlando Predators open house. “I’ve got to move on with my life and we have a lot of young guys coming up that need to play. I never want to stick around just for the sake of longevity. So it’s time for me to move onto the next thing I am going to do in my life. I want to go out with a ‘bang’ and we’ll go from there.”
At 40 years young, McEntyre is entering his 13th season in the Arena Football League. When he signed a new contract with the Predators back in September, I still had my thoughts that he may retire before this season. That speculation was mostly fueled by our conversations as members of the staff with the Florida Tuskers of the United Football League.
Any fan of the Preds will tell you that McEntyre has always been a showman on the field. When he picks off a pass in the Jungle, the fans in the end zone always have to be ready for him to climb up the railing for a celebration.
While getting his first look at the high walls in the new Amway Center end zones, McEntyre wondered aloud to Preds director of game day operations Keith Recine, “How am I supposed to climb up there?”
Knowing Kenny like I do, he will find a way to get up there as he will relish every last moment of his final season playing the game that he loves.
After recording 10 interceptions during the 2010 season that saw the Preds nearly reach the ArenaBowl, McEntyre and his teammates look poised to make another run at the championship this season.
They return quarterback Nick Hill, wide receivers Bobby Sippio, Josh Bush, and T.T. Toliver, fullback James Lynch, and short-yardage fullback Marlon Moye-Moore to highlight the skill positions on offense. Defensively, McEntyre will once again be joined by Rayshaun Kizer and Dion Byrum in the backfield. Moye-Moore, James Bryant, and Johnnie Balous return at linebacker. Frisner Nelson, Mark Robinson, and Paul Griffin return up front.
In 2008, the Predators started 11 rookies on opening night against the Philadelphia Soul. If head coach Pat O’Hara sees fit during camp, he could start 16 returning players from last year’s roster on opening night in New Orleans. The following week when Sippio returns from serving a one-game suspension that number could soar to 17 returning players.
McEntyre knows the roster looks strong and the team added even more talent in free agency, but they need to come together for a common goal.
“We know it looks really good on paper,” he said. “You can have all the pieces, but football is the ultimate team sport so if we don’t put that talent together on the field we will come up short just like we did last year.”
When McEntyre broke into the AFL back in 1998, the quarterback of that Predators team was now head coach Pat O’Hara who helped lead the team to its first ArenaBowl championship that season.
O’Hara became the only winning quarterback in the history of the ArenaBowl to throw just one touchdown pass and McEntyre had one of the Preds six interceptions in a 62-31 shellacking of the Tampa Bay Storm.
“Kenny and I were teammates and played on two championship teams together,” O’Hara said. “He has tremendous instincts and a passion for the game. He really takes care of his body which has allowed a long productive career in the AFL. His leadership is key to our team’s success.”
As training camp begins this Saturday, O’Hara and McEntyre are hoping it is just the beginning to a fantastic culmination of their player/coach relationship.
