Preseason Games Impact Season Openers
Gary Stibolt
Monday April 2, 2007
I can recall the days of yester-year when af2 teams wanted to do an exhibition game but were not allowed to. The Arena Football League doesn’t do them at all and the af2 has always followed suit of their bigger sister. There are some things that bid well in the af2 despite whether or not ‘Big Sis’ does them and one of them are preseason football games.
When the af2 started play in 2000, it was under the aggressive direction of Mary Ellen Garling. As the infant leagues inaugural director, Mary Ellen went after things that she thought made sense for the af2. Expanding the af2 was one area and the league has learned quite a bit from those adventurous and explorative days of the af2. Some of what she brought to the table laid some ground work for the league to learn and grow from both good and bad. However, the af2 took a stand that they would not endorse their teams to participate in full preseason games. Scrimmages were allowed but not full games.
Then Jay Marcus took over for Mary Ellen and despite the league weathering through its’ most difficult years management-wise, exhibition games were introduced between af2 teams and international teams. The first was an Arena Football team created from a group of athletes who played a version of football in Australia and New Zealand. Mike Sea was the program coordinator and head coach for the “Aussies” and he brought them state-side to play the Quad City Steamwheelers in an exhibition game in 2002. The game was not to keep score and was originally scheduled to be an exhibition of only 2-12 minute quarters. That was a move that many thought ridiculous. Here you had a team in which the players invested several hundred, if not thousands, of dollars to come over to the United States and play football. Despite it being a meaningless game of sorts, its’ purpose in the bigger picture of Arena Football was to expand the sport along the Pacific Rim (recall the af2 Hawaiian Islanders). Fortunately, some level headed thinking took place and the game was allowed to proceed within the full context of a regular game. That really set the stage for preseason football games in the Deuce but af2 teams still were not allowed to compete against one another prior to the start of the regular season unless it was a controlled scrimmage. In the years following, the “Team from Down Under” played Quad City again and then Columbus. Another team was introduced from Japan in 2004.
Japan has their own professional football league and their all-stars were treated to Arena Football. The” Japan All-Stars” represented their own Japanese teams by wearing their own helmets just like that of the NFL Pro Bowl. Japan played Louisville in 2004 and San Diego the following year. These International games served a purpose from a marketing perspective for Arena Football under the direction of Jerry Kurz, the then Director of international Development for the AFL.
The side effect of these exhibition games is that af2 teams wanted to do them regularly for themselves. The league started to warm up to the idea following the international experience. About the same time period, Jerry Kurz was asked to take over the af2 as the leagues first president as they reorganized its’ management structure. That is when the af2 started to mature as a young professional football league and endorse preseason football games. “Very much so, we do endorse our teams to play preseason games,” explained Mr. Kurz following the Quad City versus Cincinnati game last Saturday. He continued, “But remember, prior to the commissioner asking me to take over af2, you could only do scrimmages, you couldn't do games. One of the things I changed was allowing teams to do games. As a former player, I understand: You need to get reps and you need to get reps against other people other than your team mates because the intensity is different than when you're playing your team mates or playing some fresh blood.”
Not every team does a preseason game. Many don’t even do scrimmages. These are additional financial burdens on teams that are already doing what they can to keep operating costs to a manageable level. I believe every team wants to at least engage an af2 opponent in a scrimmage. An opponent that is geographically close by to better manage traveling costs. This year, many teams did scrimmage one another but only a few did a preseason game.
“If the teams want to do a preseason game, then absolutely they can do it. What we do is we don't try to force financial obligations on the teams. We give you a range of when to go to camp. You don't have to go to camp for as long as other teams. They go from this day to this day, you may have two preseason games but we're not going to dictate to a team that they have to spend more money,” stated Kurz.
Teams that scrimmage are growing from those days of international play and doing them helps. However, it is the preseason game that really makes a difference. Take the Quad City Steamwheelers and Cincinnati Jungle Kats for example. Quad City did a scrimmage with Tulsa and a preseason game against Green Bay during camp this season. Cincinnati scrimmaged Louisville but no preseason game. The outcome was lopsided when they met in the season opener. I’m not saying that if you do a preseason game, you will wallop your opponent a good one in the opener. Just look at Green Bay; following their preseason game with Quad City, they lost to the Fort Wayne Fusion. It must be said that if your team is prepared mentally and physically as well as from an organizational perspective, the preseason game allows you to polish up what is left from camp. It won’t, however, fix all of your problems and if you have many, it is going to take a few more games to do so.
Jerry Kurz explains, “the AFL really has a challenge because they don't really do any scrimmages or exhibition games. Cincinnati didn't really get a chance to play against anybody else until tonight. Quad Cities was smart. For the past three years they did a pizza bowl, they get to go against fresh meat. That really makes a difference. And I don't think you can hit on all cylinders and especially when you get a brand new quarterback to our game which they had from Cincinnati. You know, he's a top player with two seasons in NIA but that's the outdoor game. I think he's demonstrated tonight that he's got the talent but the adjustment to the indoor game is difficult, he held the ball too long and they did a shotgun too, it's an adjustment. But I think the biggest thing is Quad Cities knows how to prepare. They’re a better team, an established team and by doing that preseason game, that really helped. I think all teams need to do that.”