Embarrassment and Uncertainty
Kevin Sheller
Monday May 28, 2001
Therefore, I was really looking forward to the newly-energized Mustangs, with McDougal back at the helm. They’d just put on a good showing against the Sabercats, and I thought that their winning ways would return.
But then the game actually started.
By the third quarter, the Mustangs were losing 42-6. (They had only scored that many because kicker Remy Hamilton hit two long field goals that were actually punts.)
Never in 2000 were the Mustangs so outplayed – even when they were struggling early on in the season. In this game, the receivers dropped passes. McDougal made bad reads. He forced the ball too often. The line’s pass protection broke down consistently. The receivers weren’t getting open. They bickered amongst themselves. There was confusion before the snap. The receiver would go one way, McDougal would throw it another, or he’d overthrow his target entirely. The tackling was lazy. The defensive line could put little pressure on Rush QB Billy Dicken. They couldn't stop the running game. And when the Mustangs would occasionally make a nice play, it would be negated by a penalty. (It’s a sad day when coaches are penalized for unsportsmanlike conduct.)
 Jamie Bowers contributed to the humiliation by powering through the Mustang defense on the goal line Image courtesy of Drew Kennedy |
Did I mention that the crowd would cheer graciously when the Mustangs actually managed to simply get a first down? Truly, it was one of the most pathetic performances I’ve seen in a long time. No. Check that. I’ve never seen one like that in person. These guys are in a world of hurt.
In the post-game press conference, the Milwaukee media faithful were hurting too. They couldn’t understand what was wrong. Here was a team with a very similar roster to last year’s playoff squad, and they were performing nothing like the professionals they were supposed to be.
When Head Coach Rick Frazier finally arrived, the Milwaukee press simply asked him to explain what was wrong.
“Well, tonight we just weren’t a very good football team,” said Frazier, “At least in five other losses, despite the quarterback problems and changes that we went through, the guys played hard. We were competitive. I would sum it up as simply saying that we played bad football tonight, period.”
The shockingly bad performance comes after a good one against the Sabercats, and “a great week of practice too,” said Frazier, “We had some intensity. We had some fire. We had things you wouldn’t expect to see out of a team 0-5.”
“I’ll tell you what, I’ve never seen anything like it in my 26 years of coaching. It beats me. I do not know. I’m so disappointed right now, guys, I can’t hardly talk. I couldn’t even talk to my coaches after the game, because I don’t know what to tell them.”
“If I’m able to,” said Frazier, referring to his potential unemployment, “I’ll get up in the morning, go back to work, grade the film, and see what in the hell went wrong in the first half and why we looked as bad as we did.”
Truly the Mustangs are a team in disarray. Each week the head coach wonders if it will be his last. Each game is marred by rumors that the team is sold or is going to be sold and moved to Las Vegas. This is all punctuated by the uncertain future of the Mustangs’ home in the Bradley Center.
And who are the victims here? As always, it’s the fans. 10,907 showed up to see an 0-5 team embarrassingly go 0-6. They stayed until the end – an amazing testament to their loyalty. The Mustangs organization owes their fans everything. These devoted supporters packed the house during the first year – an 0-12 campaign. And they continue to come back, even when the season and any future in Milwaukee is filled with dread.
Really, if you think about it, the only good thing the Mustangs organization can be proud of is their fans. And that’s the only thing over which they have no control.
Don’t get me wrong, it was great to come back and see a game in Milwaukee after covering them so closely last year. It was fun to see my fellow media members again. But this time I returned as an outsider looking in, and what I saw just wasn’t pretty.
Kevin Sheller ia founder of Arenafan Online and was the principal owner until 2004. Kevin graduated from the University of Akron with a degree in technical writing, and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1993. He has worked as a professional web programmer and is also the executive producer for a computer/video game company. The most recent Xbox title to his credit is called Hunter: The Reckoning.
