Exhibition Football Exceeds Expectations

Adam Markowitz
Sunday November 3, 2013

HONOLULU - I'll be the first to admit that I thought the 2013 AFL China All-Star Games were going to be relatively lousily played games where there would be a bunch of sloppy defense, hardly any hitting, and a lot of half-hearted football. However, what we got on Saturday night at Blaisdell Arena was really none of that, as the 39 players that were on the field were all going for it. There were some big defensive plays, some big special teams plays, some quirky plays that you would never see in any other league but this one, and of course, 130 points on the board.

Quarterback play was a bit rough at times, but that was to be expected. A lot of these players only just stepped on a field for the first time together five days ago, and in the case of Nick Davila and his receivers, they had never completed a pass together in their lives prior to the live bullets flying on Saturday. The teams only essentially had one practice together for offense and defense and one practice for special teams, and neither of the practices happened indoors.

It goes without saying that there were issues with Blaisdell Arena, and it had to be tough to try to play a 50-yard game on a 40-yard field. However, all of the quarterbacks seemed to figure it all out after a while, and that was a lot more than I was expecting.

In a brief post-game interview, West Head Coach Kevin Guy told me that it wasn't about winning and losing (though he sure looked like he was into winning when he was jumping up and down over a recovered fumble in the fourth quarter of the game). He's right. It wasn't about winning and losing. It was about putting on a good show for the good people of Hawaii, and that mission, as far as I'm concerned anyway, was accomplished.

The guys were having some fun out there for sure. Carson Coffman did his little hula dance at the start of the game, and Terrance Smith enjoyed taking his time waltzing into the end zone after his first pick six of the night. Smith loved the fact that he could go both ways, and men like Bryan Robinson clearly looked like they were having a lot of fun out there as well. Robinson jumped up in frustration in the third quarter when he was tackled at the West's 1-yard line, costing him a chance at a rare touchdown for a big man. However, fellow biggy, CJ Cobb was thrilled to have caught a touchdown in this game on a tight end screen that this writer never even saw the East team run one time in practice on Thursday or Friday.

The highlight of the night might have come from a man who isn't even a regular in the AFL. The Hawaii Gridiron League's Wide Receiver of the Year, Scott Carr, made a diving one-handed grab in the fourth quarter. It went down in the stat sheet as a relatively menial nine-yard reception, and the truth of the matter is that the ball hit the ground on the way down, but there was no way that a ref could take that moment away from Carr. It was the best individual effort on a play in the game, and it was certainly one that got the players, announcers, and those in attendance going.

The mission in Honolulu was a tricky one, knowing that there were plenty of barriers along the way. The staff was clearly undermanned and was working around the clock to get the arena setup as best as possible (trust me, I was amongst them), and just getting all 39 players ready to go in these games was a hassle in and of itself. However, at this point, the AFL China guys have to be thrilled, and they must consider this first game a true success. The main goal though, certainly wasn't this exhibition at Blaisdell Arena. That goal is still seven days away in Beijing.

If the game we get next Sunday is every bit as good as the game turned out to be on Saturday night, the people of China are going to go crazy for it and start to snatch up tickets to the AFL China league games like mad in 2014. That's the end result for Marty Judge, David Niu, Peter Fong, Ken Bozarth, and the rest working here with AFL China, and it's a result that is starting to look more and more promising as the days go by.