Despite Defeat, Wranglers are Winners
Adam Markowitz
Wednesday May 24, 2006
Unfortunately, most of what I am about to say, no one else outside of Austin will truly understand unless they’ve experienced game days with the Wranglers. This is written with all of my new found friends in Austin in mind, as each one of their jokes for what I "should have" put in my last article have all been added to this one.
I begin with a plea to all Arena Football fans. Come visit this city just once. It doesn’t matter what uniform you’re wearing, you’re always welcome at the Erwin Center. Heck, three Dallas fans, of all people, drove the four and a half hours down I-35 decked out in their Desperadoes uniforms. That’s almost like some Tampa fans traveling up I-4 wearing blue and gold and expecting Orlando fans to welcome them into the Jungle for a game their team isn’t even playing in! Oh, and if you’re in Austin and haven’t experienced a Wrangler game… shame on you. Grab a phone and call (512) 339-3939 and reserve your place at the biggest party in Austin now.
It began 18 hours before the game even started. I walked off of the plane in Austin to be greeted by a few of the die-hard Wrangler fans. The experience started at a local bar. Normally when someone yells something at the top of their lungs in a bar, everyone stops and looks at them, thinking in unison, "Have another beer, man..." Not in Austin, though. This is how you find your fellow Wrangler fan. "Austin!" Just listen. "Wranglers!" Didn’t hear them? Try again. "Austin!" "Wranglers!" Now that they’re in sight, try it once more. "Austin!" "Wranglers!" It’s amazing how quickly you can find friends in a loud bar.
After touring some of the city and getting a few hours of rest for the night, the festivities continued at 8:00 AM. With the amount of food and drink at this tailgating party, you would have thought a Texas Longhorns game with 80,000+ in attendance was a few hours away, not a Wranglers game with a shade over 10,000. It was a pleasant surprise for me to see Mike Feder, Erin Griffin, and a few other members of the front office and training staff come out early in the morning to greet the fans.
Though Austin fans would probably rather forget it, there was still a game played on Sunday afternoon. The 10,060 fans in attendance were treated to an electric atmosphere that could only be described as playoff football. However, the electricity seemed to come from the visitors more than the hosts. This showed right out of the gates when Philadelphia took a 14-0 lead after touchdowns by FB/LB Wes Ours and OS Rob Milanese. The Wranglers got on the scoreboard on a 9 yard pass from QB John Fitzgerald to WR/LB Darrin Chiaverini. Following an Ours fumble, the Wranglers leveled the score at 14-14 with a touchdown pass to OS and Rookie of the Year candidate, Derrick Lewis. Lewis was a bright spot in an otherwise dismal performance offensively for the Wranglers, as he finished the day with 108 receiving yards and 4 touchdowns. After a Philadelphia score, Austin quickly gave the possession lead back to the Soul, as Austin went 3 plays and out, resulting in a long missed field goal. However, with the half winding down, Austin blocked a Todd France kick, resulting in Lewis’ 2nd touchdown on the day, this one coming on an acrobatic catch in front of Philadelphia DS Eddie Moten. At halftime, the score was 21-21. With Austin getting the ball in to start the 2nd half, the Wranglers had to go to the locker room feeling that they had a real chance to advance to the 2nd round.
Those hopes were dashed right from the start of the 2nd half. Austin was stopped on three of their next four possessions, including an interception returned for a touchdown by Soul WR/DB Sean Scott. With the score standing at 49-28 with just under 11 minutes left to play, the outcome was no longer in doubt.
But give this to the Wranglers. They went out fighting. Though the final score read 52-35, Coach Foster and his Wranglers deserve all the credit in the world for trying their best to get back in the game. They used the hurry-up offense to change the tempo of the game and played hard-nosed defense. The nail in the coffin was secured by France though, as his 26 yard field goal with just 2:38 left in the game pushed the Philadelphia lead to 17 points, the final margin of victory.
Most impressive to me, though, was the very end of the game. Philadelphia had the ball at the Austin 21 with inside a minute left. FB/LB Chad Dukes found a hole in the Austin defense on a run and appeared ready to rumble into the end zone, if not for the efforts of All-Ironman FB/LB Dane Krager tackling Dukes a yard shy of the end zone. Needing forward progress to keep the clock running, the Soul were denied progress on back to back plays with a complete effort on defense. The final score of this game very well could have read 59-35, but the Wrangler defense stood tall all the way to the last play of the game.
So why did I just spend a paragraph ranting about a couple plays that ultimately meant nothing to the Wranglers’ 2006 playoff lives? Team president and part owner Doug MacGregor summed it up best. "It was the first play of next season." With the Wranglers already returning over half of their team from this season and more signings on the horizon, there is certainly merit to the comment. The Wranglers fought all the way to the end of games, where other teams with less character would have perhaps lied down. It was the theme of the year for a team that improved by 4 wins this season. A team that was dubbed, "soft" by many in the national media before the season started was anything but, and one needs to look no further than these plays to see why the Wranglers were a success in 2006 and why they will once again be an Arena Bowl contender in 2007.
Normally in a loss, particularly one that ends the season, the fans have no desire to stick around, and the players have even less of a desire to talk to them after the game. Not in Austin. The party was just getting started. For the next five hours, a post-game party right in the parking lot ensued just like the morning festivities. No, the Wrangler fans weren’t nearly as jubilant as they were three hours before, but the party atmosphere was still there. You want proof? Ask the half dozen players and perhaps 20 front office members that came out to share in the event instead of having their own party, separate of the fans afterwards.
No, Austin didn’t win their first playoff game, but if I could stress one thing to the fans after the game, it was that they enjoyed themselves a lot more in the first week of the playoffs this year than they did the previous two seasons when the Wranglers were sitting at home watching other teams battle it out for the championship. By the time 10:30 rolled around and the party was finally dying down, there wasn’t a person, myself included, that didn’t leave with a huge smile on their face.
This is a league for the fans. It always has been and always will be. Whereas other teams in the league are all about their corporate sponsors and statistics, the Wranglers do it right. So to Doug MacGregor, Glyn Milburn, Mike Feder, Erin Griffin, Jake Schneider, and the rest of the Wrangler front office: Thank you. Thank you for welcoming me to Austin with open arms, but thank you more for "getting it." You have something truly special going on in the heart of Texas between your fans, front office, players, and coaching staff, that I can only hope the rest of the league will see and emulate in time. Austin is the epitome of what the Arena Football League should be. The book on the 2006 Wranglers might be closed, but the last chapter was something that can definitely be built upon for 2007. But before I finish up, there's one more thing that has to be said from this fan to the rowdy Wrangler fans…
"Austin!" "Wranglers!" "Austin!" "Wranglers!" "Austin!" "Wranglers!" "Woooooooo!"
Adam Markowitz is an accountant living in Orlando. Adam is an old school AFLer, having followed the AFL since 1991. He attended or covered well over 200 games, including 17 ArenaBowls. Adam worked for the Arena Football League for two years as a columnist and historian before retiring in 2017 when the 50-yard indoor war left the Sunshine State. Adam still muses about the AFL on ArenaFan from time to time, and you can follow him on Twitter @adammarkowitzea.