McNair - Back in the Groove
Darryl Hammill
Thursday July 19, 2001
Earlier in the season Fred passed the 15,000-yard career passing mark and said, “That’s a lot of yards. I’m not sure how many miles that is, but it’s a credit to my teammates. It’s all them. The only thing I have to do is throw it to wide-open receivers.” Fred had not seen an interception up until the ninth game at Buffalo - and even then the Cobras were victorious. The Cobras took the lead in the Eastern Division after that game and it seemed they were on their way to a Championship season.
Then the league’s road team, Houston, came to Raleigh and with the first loss at home this season the "wheels" seemed to come off.
After the Houston game Fred said, “I am supposed to be the leader. I am disappointed in the loss. I made some bad decisions and I played terrible. I played like I have never seen a football before in my life. We had a couple of breakdowns, but I still have to be smart with the ball. Sometimes I guess I should have just thrown the ball away instead of trying to make something happen. It was just bad judgment on my part. When you do that, you’re subject to making a mistake."
That loss began a three-game losing slide. In his desire to help the team to a badly needed victory against the powerful Toronto Phantoms, he began to push too hard, resulting in bad reads, bad protection of the ball, picks returned for TD’s, and ultimately the team’s first Division loss. Fred`s best intentions had backfired on him and the team. What just two weeks before would have been unthinkable began to happen as open discussions about benching Fred McNair circulated in the press.
After the Toronto loss, Coach Kay plainly stated, “I was a hair away from Funderburk coming in last night. If he [McNair] didn`t make that throw that [Kevin] Jackson dropped, I wouldn`t have put him in on that last drive."
But, as a mark of Fred`s true professionalism during this adverse time for him and the team, he never blamed anyone else or began to point fingers at the other players during the three-game slide. Regarding these losses he said, "I hate to lose, and this losing falls on me."
Even in that record setting loss at New York, you could see Fred beginning to return to his old form. He did a better job of protecting the ball, made much better reads, and took what the New York defense gave him. Offensive coordinator Mike Neu said, "Fred McNair is a guy that I believe deserves to have success in this league. The last couple of weeks he`s made some mistakes that are out of character…"
With the win at home this past Friday against the Los Angles Avengers, McNair got back on track, and back in the groove. He picked up his level of play and utilized the Cobras` ball control offense to control the clock and keep the LA offense on the bench. I talked with Fred in the locker room after the victory.
Fred Said, “We needed this win real bad - after dropping three in a row. We had to play with intensity and I had to step up and play a better game than I have been playing.”
When asked if he felt this was the biggest win ever for the Cobras he stated, "Most definitely. This was a big game for us, for our character. To be able to come off of three losses and win a ball game in front of the home crowd is real important."
At this late point in the season perhaps Fred`s record speaks for itself: he is fifth in the AFL pass Rating [average of 63.9%, ratio of 116.6] and is eighth in Total Offense [233.0 yards per game]. His overall consistent play this season has put the Cobras in fifth place for Total Offense [56.6 average] and fourth place in Team Passing [pass rating of .640 and a 116.7 rating] He has surpassed the 15,00 career passing mark earlier this season.
Darryl Hammill was a writer for ArenaFan Online during the 2001 season.
