Ah, the Good Old Days...Wait. The XFL?
Dan Ryan
Monday February 5, 2001
Tom Jones can have his green, green grass. If you were an original Orlando Predator fan, this could have been home, or at least the early ‘90s, as the Orlando Rage debuted the XFL with a 33-29 victory. I’ll leave all that quality of play comparison stuff to [Arenafan Staff Member] Joe Kauffman. Remember, I’m new here.
Ah, the early days of the Predators. Can’t remember much about those games, except by the time the third quarter rolled around, Barry Wagner had his three or four touchdowns and Orlando was whomping somebody as the party rolled on in the “Jungle” with its rowdy 20-something crowd and babe action in the stands.
It was a proven fact that Predator fans consumed five times as much beer as the Orlando Magic fans. Predator games were the hot ticket, the best party in town.
The gathering has mellowed these days. They only drink three times the beer compared to Magic fans these days. Oh, yeah, Skyrnd’s "Sweet Home Alabama" still generates more cheers than a Connell Maynor touchdown, but face it, we’ve gone the way of Hank Williams Jr. and all the rowdy friends have settled down. We have become the establishment we once rejected. Must be something to do with the championships and the NFL deal.
So here comes the XFL, finding its niche. In Orlando, it’s the old Predator niche. Old-timers can gripe that the XFL is raiding for players and marketing dollars, but give them credit: they made it fun for the fans. All that was missing was Billy McGhee and a hot tub in the south end zone. Give that time.
The crowd below the press box reminded us of the “Jungle’’ of old. Young, having fun. Slightly inebriated. Jerks making trouble were ostracized quicker than Deb on Survivor and given the heave-hoe. And say, wasn’t that Storm coach Tim Marcum hanging out and having a good time, maybe looking for an offensive lineman?
Of course the Rage had good-looking cheerleaders, whose antics were flashed on the big jumbotron in the end zone. Been there. Done that. Britany Spears was still a mousekateer when that was a Pred staple.
"I appreciate those fans," said Chicago running back John Avery a former Miami Dolphin first-round pick who scored two TDs and seems destined to be the XFL’s first star. "I didn’t appreciate them throwing chicken bones at us, but at least they were into the game."
Hey, John, the Jungle poured beer all over former Storm owner Bob Gries once. At least you got on Sportscenter.
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.