Marking his Mark
Andy Lopusnak
Thursday June 5, 2008
San Jose SaberCats’ quarterback Mark Grieb’s story reads like an Arena Football fairy tale. The San Jose native rose from relative obscurity after playing at a small Division II school to become one of the game’s best.
 Image courtesy of Andy Lopusnak |
Even while pursuing his graduate degree, Grieb’s desire to play football never completely receded. During graduate school he continued to stay connected to football as a graduate assistant for his alma mater team, traveling between Davis and Los Angeles. At the suggestion of UC Davis head coach Bob Biggs, he decided to send some game film to the closest AFL team to the UCLA campus – the Anaheim Piranhas.
"He called me one day and said, 'I don't want to be in a lab the rest of my life. I still have a real desire to play football,'" Biggs told the Bay Area New Group.
A few days later, Piranhas head coach Mike Hohensee watched Grieb’s game film and immediately called him and offered him a contract.
“I signed him right off his film,” said Hohensee, who is now the head coach of the Chicago Rush. “Mark had a great sense of timing. I could tell he was a playmaker. He had tremendous feet, moving well in the pocket and very was a very intelligent quarterback. When we were starting that thing in Anaheim, I wanted a nice young QB that would work at it and work on his technique, mastering a system and becoming a leader.”
 Image courtesy of Andy Lopusnak |
“I can’t take a bit of credit for Mark – he’s done everything since on his own.”
For Grieb’s though, it’s been a journey of learning and improvement. In 1997, the future AFL star was struggling to adjust to the indoor game and began his first professional training camp as the Piranhas’ third-string quarterback. He had never attended or even watched an AFL game before suiting up for the Piranhas.
Due to a rash of injuries and some good luck on his part, Grieb was starting by Week Four and in his first start beat the Florida Bobcats 62-45 after recording five touchdowns (three passing and two rushing), earning him Game MVP honors. He started three more games before Hohensee made a trade for his former QB, John Kaleo, and Grieb backed him up for the remainder of the season. Observing a seasoned AFL journeyman like Kaleo gave him the opportunity to learn a lot about the game.
“For a kid coming right of college to us, he did a tremendous job without having a chance to really watch someone else and learn the game.”
Anaheim finished 2-12 and ceased operations at the end of the year when owner David Baker was named the Commissioner of the AFL (a post he still holds today). The expansion Buffalo (now Columbus) Destroyers selected Grieb in the dispersal draft for the 1998 season; however, he opted to play for the Scottish Claymores of NFL Europe. With the Claymores, Grieb was named MVP in his first start and finished with 499 yards and three scores on the season.
After the NFL Europe season ended, Grieb received a call from San Jose SaberCats general manager Terry Malley (he’s now the team’s offensive coordinator) telling him that the team had traded to get his rights and that he wanted him to play for the SaberCats.
For Grieb, it was like a dream come true to play professional football in his hometown. He was a three-star athlete at Oak Grove High and grew up just a few minutes from HP Pavilion, where the SaberCats play their home games.
 Image courtesy of Andy Lopusnak |
In his first season with the SaberCats (1999), Grieb was primarily the team’s backup QB behind Scott Wood, but did have a chance to start one game - a 54-50 win over Arizona. At this point in his career, Grieb was nowhere near his current AFL elite status. The future AFL all-time leader in completion percentage and passer rating had completed a mere 51.7% of his passes and had a lowly 87.4 passer rating. That changed in 2000.
Grieb believes his biggest influence in this transformation has been Malley, who moved from GM to offensive coordinator midway through the 1999 season. Malley had never coached a down in the indoor game, but was a star QB at Santa Clara University in the 1970s and its head coach from 1985-92. He used this experience to mold Grieb during the 1999 off-season into the team’s starter for the 2000 season.
In the SaberCats’ first five seasons, the team had just two winning seasons (8-4 in 1995, 8-6 in 1997) and were considered at best an average team in the league. Their three playoff appearances ended with them being beaten by teams from Orlando, Iowa and Tampa Bay.
Once Grieb and Malley became accustomed to each other, after a 1-2 start in 2000, they led the SaberCats on an eleven-game winning streak to end the season that gave San Jose its first double-digit winning season (12-2) and first playoff win – a 63-40 win over the Oklahoma Wranglers. Since that year, the SaberCats have won more games than any team in league history over any eight-plus year span, as well as three ArenaBowl championships.
The following year, Grieb had a chance to play in the XFL with his former NFL Europe coach, Jim Criner, who was the head coach of the Las Vegas Outlaws. Grieb was signed in Week Two and started, and won, his first start just five days later. To date he’s been with four different professional teams and won each of his first starts, along with being named Game MVP all four times.
When he returned to the SaberCats starting lineup, they were 5-3 and had lost three of four. Grieb guided San Jose to wins in five of the team’s final six contests – the lone loss, a 66-63 defeat at Indiana, was on a last-second win for the Firebirds. He again led San Jose to a playoff win, but lost for a second-straight year to Nashville (who went on to lose the ArenaBowl both seasons).
In 2002, San Jose opened 12-0 and was just two games from becoming the first AFL team to finish the season undefeated. That quest and Grieb’s season ended in the third quarter of the team’s lone loss – 59-52 against Arizona – when he was sacked by Stacy Evans, fracturing his clavicle (collarbone). San Jose did go on to win ArenaBowl XVI a month later, avenging the loss to the Rattlers, but did so without Grieb’s services. His backup, John Dutton, led the SaberCats to victory in ArenaBowl XVI and is now the starting QB for the Colorado Crush.
“I was happy for the team (when we won ArenaBowl XVI), but it was frustrating not being on the field to win the title,” said Grieb, who earned 2002 All-Arena First Team and AFL Offensive Player of the Year honors after tossing 70 TDs and 3,346 yards.
The following season, he had more passing yards and passing touchdowns, but battled week-to-week with the nagging pain left behind by the clavicle injury. It took its toll in the 66-49 semifinal loss to Arizona, where he completed less than half of his passes.
“I started to question if I was good enough to take our team to the next level,” Grieb said after back-to-back season-ending losses to Arizona.
Grieb quelled his concerns in 2004. He was clavicle had finally healed and there was no pain anymore. As a result, he played like a man on a mission and led the SaberCats to the ArenaBowl after posting the first of his AFL record four straight 4,000-yard passing seasons. The fact that the ArenaBowl victory was over the Rattlers, who ended his season the previous two years, and in Phoenix, made the win even sweeter. He tossed an ArenaBowl record eight touchdowns in what is arguably one of the most exciting championships in league history – a 69-62 win.
“To win it (ArenaBowl XVII) the way we did in a shoot out against a great team like Arizona in their house was one of the best moments in my career,” said Grieb, who earned ArenaBowl XVIII MVP honors for his performance.
Three seasons later, he had another dominating performance in the ArenaBowl and set another record by completing 82.9% of his passes (24-of-29) along with four TDs in ArenaBowl XXI against Columbus en route to ArenaBowl MVP honors for a second time.
“Mark’s going to go down as one of the best to ever play in this league, if not the best,” said San Jose head coach Darren Arbet. “He’s a champion through and through.”
Hohensee, who brought Grieb into the AFL, echoed Arbet’s assessment then added the thoughts of every other coach, player and AFL fan not wearing the green and gold, “I love him, but hate playing him.”
With the 2008 postseason mere weeks away, the eleven-year vet is arguably playing the best at his position in the league. Over the last four contests, he has tossed 32 touchdowns to just two interceptions while completing 74.1% of his passes for a passer rating of 131.6
His SaberCats are on their bye this week and return to action for two home games against Tampa Bay (June 14) and Georgia (June 21) before heading into the playoffs for the ninth straight year in hopes of becoming the first team since 1996 to win back-to-back ArenaBowl championships. San Jose can clinch the Western Division the next time Arizona loses or with a single win against the Storm or Force.
Andy Lopusnak is an 11-year AFL front office veteran, spending time with the Tampa Bay Storm, San Diego Riptide and Grand Rapids Rampage. He works as a statistician for NFL and college sports for CBS Sports and is a freelance photographer. Lopusnak received two Bachelor of Arts degrees from the University of South Florida and has been a fan of ArenaBall since its inception.