One Fine Month
Matt Krueger
Saturday July 1, 2000
The team went 4-1, had the week 10 MVP in Mike Black and the week 11 Ironman in Tony Jones and are now in legitimate playoff contention.
After an 0-8 start, the Destroyers, under rookie coach Ray Bentley, have transformed themselves from the joke of the league into a team on the fast track to the post season.
“Our playoffs started early, because of the hole that we were in early on in the season,” Bentley said. “It’s fortunate that the Arena Football League brings a dozen teams to the playoffs and we still have the opportunity.”
As one of the teams in the dogfight, over the last two playoff-spots, Buffalo’s path is clearly laid out for them.
“We can’t afford to lose another game and expect to be around at the end of the year,” Bentley said. “It has heightened their sense of urgency and we also understand that there is very little margin for error at this point.”
As far as the fans are concerned, Bentley is the man to get this team into the playoffs.
Carmen Vallone, a loyal Buffalo sports fan, who brought his son to the game on Thursday, said “As life-long residents of the Buffalo area and life-long season-ticket holders of the Buffalo Bills, we think that it was excellent that Mr. Hamister (chairman, owner, ceo) decided to bring Ray Bentley in to coach this team. We feel that his attitude, intensity and attention to detail will definitely turn this team around.”
Another fan, Chuck Caple said “With Bentley being the coach and the way Nagle’s playing now, you can’t stop them.”
Bentley has seen a huge turnaround not only in the league standings, but his players as well.
“These guys truly believe now, and we’ve seen it manifest itself over the last four weeks,” he said.
With their backs up against the wall in the standings, the Destroyers are putting in every effort to improve and enjoying the results.
“I couldn’t be happier with the way this team is paying attention to details,” he said. “They bought in to what we’re trying to do and they’re not afraid of hard work. In fact, I think they’re starting to enjoy the fact that they’re working real hard, but they’re reaping huge rewards for it.”
The fans are coming around too. This week the Destroyers drew 8,523 fans to HSBC arena. That’s over 2,000 more than their average attendance the rest of the season.
The Destroyers have a bye week coming up and will get ready to host the Los Angeles Avengers on Friday July 14.
Matt Krueger was a writer for ArenaFan Online during the 2000 season.
