Men in Black Get Luck of the Irish
Adam Markowitz
Sunday March 23, 2008
Dear Orlando Predators:
Happy Easter, Happy St. Patrick’s Day, Happy Fourth of July, Happy Birthday (to all 20 of you there were on the field last night), Happy Valentine’s Day, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Kwanzaa, Merry Christmas, and have a Happy New Year.
Signed—
Tom McCabe, Wes Fritz, Neil Brunner, Paul Engelberts, and Tony Lombardo
Not that I would ever accuse an official in this league of making a bad call, but Georgia Force receiver Charles Pauley sure looked like he avoided touching the sideboards on the final play of Saturday night’s game in Orlando. After a caucus that felt like it took about an hour, the refs made the call that he was short of the end zone and immediately bolted off the field.
Every fan that I spoke to that watched the game on AFLNet said that Pauley was in before he touched the boards. A fan at the game right on the sidelines at the goalline said that he was in. Makes you wonder when PREDATOR FANS think we stole one.
As ESPN Radio’s Erik Kuselias would say, “I’m not sayin’… I’m just sayin’”
The other 59:58 of the game was the best the Predators have had in this early season.
The special teams continued their solid play, as TT Toliver averaged 24 yards per kick return, while only giving up 13.7 yards per return to Georgia. Kicker John Vaughn wasn’t perfect, but he did convert five out of six PATs and hit a 23-yard FG on the game’s opening drive. Newly acquired defensive lineman Rob Schroeder took over snapping duties from Marlon Moye-Moore, and only had one questionable snap on the night.
Though it was probably the offense’s worst all-around showing of the season, QB Shane Stafford showed a lot of heart leading the Preds down the field for what ultimately ended up being the game-winning touchdown with 22 seconds remaining. His numbers were solid once again, going 20 of 28 for 278 yards and six touchdowns against one interception. On that final drive of the game, Stafford completed all five of his passes for 48 yards, including the 23-yard game winner to receiver Chas Gessner.
The defense matched their season total of legitimate stops on Saturday. Though the defense failed to record a sack for the third time in four games, Kenny McEntyre did record the team’s first interception of the season, when he leaped and reached full extension to pick of Force quarterback Chris Greisen. The 45 points allowed was easily a season low. In crunch time, when the defense needed to make a stand, they did… sort of…
I think we’ve all said it a million times before, and I’m going to say it again here. These officials need some real help in this league, and for a change, I’m not going to blame the officiating. I’m going to blame the league.
Let me start by saying that I hate instant replay. I hate it in college, I hate it in the pros, and when and if the day comes that we have it in our league, I’m going to hate it in the AFL.
But the time has come. It’s time to put instant replay in the Arena Football League.
Too many plays like this are deciding games. God forbid an ArenaBowl ends on a play like this, or the whole world as we know it may just implode. So I propose the following:
First off, we need an official for instant replays only. His job would be to review every play in the 35 seconds to determine if the play needs to go under further review. Run it like the college football instant replay. I don’t want to see coaches chucking red flags onto the field.
I can picture it now… Gruden throwing the red flag so hard that it flies into the stands, and then chucking his headset on the field to get the refs attention…
Obviously, this means more cameras are required at each AFL venue. Teams should be required to have cameras on each goalline, one in the middle of the field, and an overhead shot at bare minimum at all times. I know this is going to cost a lot of money to set up and to manage, but for a league that is really trying to make itself mainstream on the American sports scene, calls that appear to be this bad need to be corrected.
I guess at the end of the day, the Predators are officially 2-2 while the Force are 1-3. I usually show very little sympathy for the teams in my own division, but if this comes back to be the reason that the Force are out of the playoffs and/or the reason that the Predators are in the playoffs, it’s probably a real travesty.
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.
