AFL Brings McPherson to Its Level
Dan Ryan
Wednesday March 10, 2004
Most of the time, our tiny little media contingent has pretty much the run of the place at any given arena. In Orlando, where Dan Pearson spoils us, we spend most the final minutes next to the dancers (Bada Bing!) and get Gruden, Fleming, et al within seconds of the final buzzer.
Even at the ArenaBowl, the grand daddy affair of our niche, we’re on the field as the confetti is still streaming. Then, of course, we get shepherded to the antiseptic media conference after the event that looks like a press conference, feels like a press conference, but isn’t as much fun.
So when our guy from Indiana needs to stage an event on the road bigger than his own media day, we get we what we had last Friday: something reserved for the Tracy McGradys, A-Rods and Derek Jeters (who must be sick of having to do joint conferences). It felt like we were really big time for a moment before getting shoved back to page nine and web sites that won’t give their columnists golf shirts.
McPherson’s that big, folks, because he’s that good. Damn, the kid’s only 20!
As you might know, McPherson got himself into a little trouble at Florida State. I know, that’s the biggest understatement since, well, ol’ Eli used it two weeks ago. Since he’s in our niche and we are a nation of second chances, all I’m gonna’ say is the kid needs to make the most of it.
Talk about a road to repentance: playing for a winless arena team that doesn’t have a defense and can’t compensate for the mistakes a rookie QB is going to make. But it’s worth watching for his athletic ability and the knowledge that one day he’ll be playing on Sundays in the fall, where he’ll have a media conference all the time.
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.
