Time Heals for Orlando Predators
Dan Ryan
Thursday February 5, 2004
Hootie and the Blowfish sang about time also, but they’ve either fallen off the face of the earth or playing at a shopping center grand opening near you.
So here comes the first offering from your humble correspondent for 2004 and we’re dealing with death of all things, so how come it’s easy to attempt a couple of lame one-liners? Like the sage says, time heals.
We all know what happened to the Orlando Predators last May. A tragic, and, since the words “blood alcohol content” are involved, senseless death of Head Coach Fran Papasedero in a car accident on a rainy night.
Remember a few years ago when Minnesota Vikings guard Kory Stringer died in training camp? The Vikings never truly recovered from that tragedy the rest of that season.
So on Saturday, we got our first look at the Preds and how they’re coping. It was media day, which means they had to deal with us scribes, and season ticket pickup day, which means they get to interact with the fans.
Even though it was overcast, there was hardly a gloomy pall over the proceedings. A feisty scrimmage, a lot of autographs signed, a marketing department scheming how to kick the Magic while they’re down, some bootylicious cheerleaders and our man Jay Gruden, the Johnny Unitas of arena football, concocting responses from people who think they’re funny and saying “Hey Jay, Keyshawn Johnson’s available. Going to sign him?”
Well, he is available.
“I don’t know if he would get the ball enough,’’ Gruden said. “He’d be a decoy.”
There’s a dedicatory page for Papasedero on the inside back cover of the media guide, a nice ceremony will likely take place at the home opener Feb. 13 and the helmet decal with “FP” will be in plain sight.
But time has been and is on the Preds’ side here. They’ve had an entire off-season to reconcile their grief, and this free agency situation has spread a lot of players to the four corners of the earth. Most of the current roster never played for Papasedero.
“I haven’t sensed anything lingering,” Gruden said. “We have had a tough time dealing with it, but the saving thing is that we had a long time to deal with it. We have to respect everything he taught us on and off the field and live with that and use it as a positive. We can’t come in here everyday sad, we have to move on.”
Dan Ryan has been involved with all forms of arena football since 1988, including writing for ArenaFan when Joe Kauffman and Tim Capper aren’t killing his columns because they don’t get his jokes or perspective. His day job is at Bethune-Cookman University, which has produced both an NFL Hall of Famer (Larry Little) and an Arena Football Hall of Famer (Stevie Thomas) and his hobby is tracking how many f-bombs Adam Markowitz drops in the chat room on game nights.