Kats Get Swamped by Grand Rapids
Charliy Nash
Tuesday June 12, 2001
I looked around a few minutes before asking Nashville FB/LB Rupert Grant about the disappointing game. The big man looked away quietly for a few seconds before responding, “We’re a lot better team than we played tonight. We expected a lot more from ourselves – we had high expectations. We let these guys hang around with us and they came back off mistakes we made. We killed ourselves tonight, we killed ourselves.”
The 60-54 loss was especially bitter because of way it unfolded in the Gaylord Entertainment Center. The Kats dominated Grand Rapids in the opening minutes, taking away their first two possessions and turning them into touchdowns. Then the flags started flying. I’ve heard from several fans who felt that the officiating cost Nashville the game, but while there were a few bad calls (and some very bad non-calls) the Kats defense gave the Rampage far too many chances with those three magic words: automatic first down.
Kats’ coach Pat Sperduto said, “It was a frustrating game. It was probably frustrating for the officials. It was just a sloppy football game for us, and having all those guys hurt didn’t help us. We didn’t play our A game.”
The locker room was too depressing to stay in for very long. The silence was unnervingly eerie.
One unusual sidenote to this game was the scarcity of rushing yards. These are two teams that like to run the football, and both do it very well, but at the end of the night Grand Rapids had a net of five yards rushing and Nashville was only slightly better with nine yards net.
… And the Bad News
 Andy Kelly assists Tyronne Jones after a TD Image courtesy of Charliy Nash |
The injuries to Jones and Stevens could force the Kats to activate WR/LB Cory Fleming sooner than they had planned. They had hoped to hold him out another week to allow him more conditioning time following his recovery from a broken leg. If Jones and Stevens are both unable to play, it may be necessary to put Fleming in the lineup against San Jose this week.
On the Brighter Side
This is a big week for one of the Kats’ Cheerleaders. Tara* is in Lexington, KY preparing for the Miss Kentucky pageant.
“We’ll be up there all week practicing,” said Tara. “Then on Wednesday afternoon I’ll do my interview competition. On Thursday night is the first night of preliminaries and I’ll compete in my talent, which is ballet to Music Box Dancer. Then on Friday night I’ll do evening gown and swimsuit competition. And then Saturday night’s when they call the top ten and do the finals.”
Tara, who has competed in this contest before, will be one of 31 contestants in the pageant. She represents the Bowling Green area, where she is a high school teacher and cheerleading coach. Several of her fellow Kats cheerleaders are planning to make the trip north to root for their friend. If Tara wins, we could very well have an Arena League cheerleader as the next Miss America.
*Arenafan policy doesn’t allow publication of dance team members’ last names.
Charliy Nash has covered both incarnations of the Nashville Kats, and now has make the 2 hour drive to Huntsville for an Arena Football fix. He also covers the Tennessee Titans as a blogger for nfl.com and still hopes this will eventually lead to a paying gig.
