Damon Bowers, A T-Bear Terror
Tom Ando
Thursday June 28, 2001
After a successful stint as a running back at Monte Vista High School in northern California, Damon attended the University of Pacific, rooming with 49ers quarterback Giovanni Carmazzi his junior year, before the school dropped the football program. Then Damon played his senior season at San Jose State before transferring back to the University of Pacific to get his degree.
After college, Damon tried to live out his childhood dream. “After college I soaked through a shot in the NFL. I went for some workouts in San Francisco, nothing happened, and then I got a call from the (Arena Football) franchise in New York. They wanted me to come to training camp. I didn’t have a contract yet, so I just went out there, things worked out, and I was able to stick around for a little while.”
By sticking around, Damon got his feet wet in the Arena League with the City Hawks with 22 receptions for 310 yards and five touchdowns. After the 1998 season, the team moved to New England, and became known as the Sea Wolves. He had 38 receptions for 527 yards and four touchdowns, adding two on the ground and two on returns as well, in what would be his lone season in New England. He was then off Nashville, where he wouldn’t even play a game before being shipped off to Houston.
In 2000, with the ThunderBears, Damon set career highs with 44 receptions for 570 yards and 10 touchdowns, once again adding four more via the run and returns. At the end of that season it was time to make the important decision that most arena league players had to make: The XFL or the AFL?
“I talked to San Francisco and I thought I was going to go to Las Vegas for a long time, but at the last minute it didn’t work out,” said Damon. “I could’ve persisted. My agent talked to other teams, and if I would’ve stuck with some of the conversations in negotiations, maybe I could have played somewhere, but I honestly didn’t have a good feeling about the XFL. And my eye site is 20-20, because obviously it didn’t work out, but I’m glad that I stayed around in focus. I was injured all off-season, so I wasn’t really a hundred percent until about a month before the season started, so I wanted to just focus my energy in the off season to getting better and getting a hundred percent, and getting ready for this (AFL) season.”
Getting ready for the arena league season meant getting ready to stay on the road. The league bought the Houston ThunderBears on February 16, 2001, and decided to have the team play all eight scheduled home games in neutral cities, but Damon thought it presented a great opportunity for the league to showcase it’s uniqueness.
“I think for the situation that came up, it was probably a blessing for the Arena League as far as us being able to go out there and test different markets either for the League or the af2. They’re being able to kind of gauge the fan support of these different cities to some of the smaller markets. We travel in a pretty comfortable fashion; it’s not like we’re ever really pressed for time or kind of feel rushed, but it would be nice to play in front of a home crowd once in a while. Last week in Lubbock, they supported us because we were the ‘home team,’ but they really didn’t have a background of the players, things like that. It’s nice to be able to relate to the fans that you’re playing with in the city.”
This season, despite missing the first three games, Damon has 21 receptions for 263 yards and four touchdowns. The biggest blow to the team came in week six when Ben Bronson was lost for the season with a torn ACL.
“I think guys have stepped up. Obviously, you can’t replace Ben, he’s a great player, but in this age of football, obviously there are going to be injuries, that’s not going to change. So when that happened we just had to rally around each other, certain guys had to step up, and do more than what was originally asked of them. Once he went down, the ball had to be moved around a little bit more. Ben got a majority of the ball as an offensive specialist. TD (Terrence Davis), had to really step it up, when he got switched to offensive specialist. Everyone had to adjust a little bit.”
Although Damon is on pace to put up decent numbers, he still is not satisfied with his performance thus far.
“I don’t really ever live up to my expectations. I think a lot of athletes would probably say the same thing. We tend to have such high expectations for ourselves, and then once we start getting closer to them, we might be close to containing them. Then we bump them up even higher, and that’s what’s best about being an athlete, is that we always expect the absolute best of ourselves. It’s been kind of a frustrating season; I was hurt, and it was the first time that I’ve ever missed a game since I was in high school. I missed three weeks with a turf toe, so that was a set back. With a 2-8 record, it’s hard to say that I’ve lived up to my expectations, because I want to be the kind of player that contributes to a winning organization, so losing… It’s hard to say that any of us have lived up to our own expectations.”
Damon’s personal expectation of his career is to make it to the NFL. “Every year you get older, the window starts closing a little more, but I’m still holding onto the dream. I don’t think anyone totally gives up on it. I think once you give up on a dream like that, you’re pretty much done being an athlete. Everyone always wants to get to the pinnacle of their job, and in our job, that’s the pinnacle. It’s a hard goal, but that’s the dream I’ve chosen ever since I was a little kid.”
Ever since Damon was a little kid, the same role model has inspired him: his father.
“He played football at Wichita State. He coached me when I was in Pop Warner. He just always instilled in me good work ethic, a never quit attitude, and we talk after every game; he’s the first person that I call. I always want him to see my film and critique me and go over certain things. He is definitely my biggest inspiration, even to this day.”
After the season, the league will make a decision on whether the team will fold or move to a new city, and if Damon gets his way, the team won’t fold.
“I’m hoping that this team sticks together. Despite our record, we’re a close-knit team, a hard working team and a dedicated team, and we haven’t had the results. With the close games we’ve had, it’s been a heart-breaking season. It’s definitely made us a lot closer. I think anytime you have to go through adversity of the group, it kind of forces a certain bond between the players.”
There has been no official word on where the T-Bears can end up in a move, but Damon did drop a few hints.
“I’ve heard earlier that San Diego was an option; I would definitely be in favor of that. I love it out there. Being from California, I like getting close to the west coast, but I’m starting to like Texas. I hear rumors about Dallas, playing for Jerry Jones or someone from his ante rage; that would be a good situation. I just want to be in a city that we can get identified with and make an impact in the city. I want to go to a place that really respects and appreciates Arena Football. Unfortunately in Houston, for whatever reason, it never really took with the community. We didn’t have real good fan support; commotion wasn’t all that great. I want to go to a town where we get 10,000 fans each game, and it’s an exciting, enjoyable part of the community.”
Arena Football is an exciting and enjoyable part of most communities, and for the Houston ThunderBears, Damon Bowers is an exciting and enjoyable player to watch.
---In an unusual error, Arenafan misinterpreted a Damon Bowers' quote in this article. The error has been corrected and it was entirely Arenafan's misunderstanding. Damon Bowers has the greatest respect for all of his coaches.---
"Touchdown" Tom Ando is a free lance writer from South Buffalo, NY and has been covering the Arena Football League in one capacity or another since the 2000 season, when he was 17 years old. Tom Currently writes for Sports & Leisure Magazine in Buffalo covering the NLL's Buffalo Bandits and NCAA Division I football. In 2001, Tom was the only writer in the country to cover the Houston "Travelin' " Thunderbears, where he befriended his mentor John F. "Hondo" Hahn.
