Firebirds get Short Week, Mustangs get Bumped
Matthew Pickut
Thursday April 19, 2001
As someone who has actually been to and enjoyed an NPSL game, I still realize that getting pushed out of the Bradley Center is a bit of a reality check for the AFL. The AFL is celebrating its 15th anniversary season and looking for bigger things as it moving into bigger cities. That makes it a bit puzzling to me that they would allow the Firebirds (one of several teams that moved to a larger market this year) to be handicapped with a short week as they begin their stay in Indiana.
The change makes less sense when you understand that the last NPSL play-off game at the Bradley Center drew 5,212 fans while last year the AF2 averaged almost 2000 more fans a game than that in its regular season. The move means that the local broadcasts on WB4 and WNDE (1260) will have to compete with network TV’s Thursday night lineups.
But contracts are contracts, and it’s obvious the NPSL has a good one with the Bradley Center.
The change cannot help the Firebirds chances to rebound from their 60-59 overtime loss to the Grand Rapids Rampage. The defense looked like it could use an extra week of work last Saturday at the Conseco Fieldhouse, giving up eight touchdowns to Quarterback Clint Dolezel. Dolezel, last week’s AFL player of the week, exposed the inexperience of the Indiana defensive backfield. “We have two great defensive specialists [Cedrick Walker and Cornelius Coe], but they need to learn to work together,” coach Dailey said in his post-game comments.
Milwaukee (pre-season record 1-1) will have the opportunity enter their season opener well rested, unlike the Firebirds, because the Mustangs had a first week bye. Thursday’s game will be the team’s first chance to see if they can bounce back from their April 8th 76-55 loss to Florida.
The Indiana offense looked good last week when they scored five times on plays over 30 yards. The Firebirds look to continue that strong performance as they travel to Milwaukee on Tuesday after a morning practice. The offensive line (TE Mark Valvo, C Kyle Moore-Brown and G John Sikora) played well against Grand Rapids by giving up only five hurries and no sacks. The offensive line, who have taken on the moniker the “Big Uglies,” will have to be at their ugliest because they will face last year’s #2 sacker in DL Hugh Hunter and last year’s second-ranked sacking defense in Milwaukee.
If the Firebirds can make the most of a difficult situation they will return home with a 1-1 record and a long week to get prepared for their game against last season’s Arena League Champion Orlando Predators. If they fail they will face a long week with a lot of questions about an 0-2 start.
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.
