Wagner Receives Warm Welcome from Predator Fans
Dan Ryan
Sunday May 19, 2002
Why? In MacArthur`s case, the other side put up a fight. Roth never made another record with the boys. And for Charlie`s Angels... well I don`t have a joke, but watching the reruns makes me realize how underappreciated Cheryl Ladd`s babe factor went durning her tenure.
Wagner and San Jose 77. Orlando with no Wagner 45. Sabercats looked like a 5-0 team that can make a deep playoff run. Only needed two plays to score their first TD. Led 35-7 at half. Finished with an INT return for TD.
Preds looked like a 1-4 team with no direction or purpose. What`s wrong? What isn`t?
But this section of cyberspace deservedly goes to Wags. Times have changed. He "only" scored 3 TDs. He picked off just one pass and made a game-setting tone with a solo tackle on the Preds` first kickoff return. There used to be games where he seemed to do everything.
 Barry Wagner in 2000 Image courtesy of Jeff Marshall |
The only interesting part of Friday was the nostalgia. No boos and a classy cheer greeted Wags during introductions. Wags shedded his number two jersey and donned an "82" -- the number Preds fans best remember him. Post-game, Wags signed as many autographs and hugged as many people as any of the home-towners.
"My body might not be here any more, but my heart and soul still are," said Wagner "It wasn`t me that decided about leaving."
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.
