Too many teams spoil the playoff ‘broth’?
Dave Carlson
Monday June 19, 2000
Mary Ellen Garling, the executive director of AF2, said the league approved the decision on Friday, June 16th. “(The resolution) passed by a two-thirds vote. It was the result of close to a month of committee meetings and several board meetings.” She later goes on to explain that the playoffs schedule has been an ongoing issue since the league began.
“This is one of (a few) issues at the onset of the season that we were concerned about: housing, rosters, the schedule, and several other issues,” said Garling. “Work in progress” was the league’s montra. Says Garling, “If we have to change things midstream, we are a new league, we need to be flexible. Doing this at the onset (of the season) would have been the best situation. But, I really am proud of the way the owners took the time to evaluate this. It was a tough issue; it was not an easy decision.”
Although five of the fifteen teams didn’t approve of the measure that passed, most of the people who opposed the decision have respected it and gone on. One who was very unhappy with the situation and decided not to keep his feelings to himself is Head Coach Frank Haege, of the 10-0 Quad City Steamwheelers. Haege made threats of quitting, or even grouping his players together to boycott the playoffs in the Quad City Times Saturday. And although he relaxed on that stance a tad after Saturday night’s game, he still was not happy about the league’s final decision.
“I think it’s ridiculous; I think it’s wrong; it’s not fair to the players,” according to Haege. “To ask these guys to play 4 games in 13 days is wrong, period, I don’t care what league, what level (you’re at)”. About leaving the team though, Frank seemed to have lightened his tune somewhat since Friday. “I can’t walk away from these guys; this is my team, (and) I’m not going to quit on them. But, to watch these guys have to play Friday, Tuesday, Saturday, (and) Thursday, that’s just wrong.”
Another issue with the change was how it would have changed his coaching pattern had he known that the team would have only needed to be in the top eight, vs. the top four. “Our first meeting (of the season), I told the guys our goal is to win the Arena Cup championship. To get in the playoffs we need to be 12-4 (under the old playoff setup). Every week, we’re prepared: ‘this game’s a must win, this game’s a need to win; who are we going to play, how are we going to attack them.’ Now, throw that all out the window, it’s gone. We have to restructure everything we’ve done as far as player rotation, the way we’re going to play, how we’re going to treat injuries, that was just a whole waste of two months, and now we have to restructure the whole thing and go after it from a different angle”.
Billy Dicken, the Steamwheelers starting quarterback, had a less emphatic look at the situation. “Well, it’s not something that I would have liked to (see) happen. The way I look at it, its another win on the schedule, another diamond in the ring,” said Dicken. He also didn’t think the compressed schedule would affect him much, but “I feel for the big guys and the guys who play both ways, but they’re going to have to suck it up and we’re going to have to play another game.”
Garling says that everyone was given a chance to express their feelings, and that these types of things are to be expected in a new league. “It would have been great to have a crystal ball when you’re starting a new league. But, you got to be realistic, there are going to be issues, bumps in the road that come up. It’s how you deal with them and approach them that really shows the credibility of the organization. Not the fact that you change, but how you deal with the change. Nobody felt that this wasn’t an issue that they were given an opportunity to speak on.”
For Haege though, it basically comes down to two things. “One, it’s a player safety issue. You cannot use and abuse players like that and expect to have a quality league. Two, it’s a legitimacy thing. It just makes the league look illegitimate. I’ve worked my butt off in (Arena Football) for six years, and I worked hard to try to do what I can on my part to make this a good football league, and to see people that never put on a helmet in their life make the decisions for the players, it’s wrong.”
Despite Coach Haege’s and others feelings on the issue though, the table is set, and now the second half of the AF2 season will continue, with renewed interest in cities like Birmingham, Tulsa, Little Rock, Tallahassee and Charleston. Now they can become part of the playoff ‘broth’ as well.
Dave Carlson is the Technical Director of Arenafan Online. Dave graduated with a degree in Computer Information Systems, and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1991. He is currently a professional web programmer, and has a history in programming sports statistics. Dave is married and lives in Indiana.
