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Desperados are in unchartered territory
Arena team's travels filled with some of the same travails as ours
11:59 AM CDT on Sunday, July 1, 2007
By TODD ARCHER / The Dallas Morning News
tarcher@***BANNED-URL***
DENVER – American Airlines Flight 2281 from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Denver is boarding like any other. Passengers walk down the aisle, looking left and right for their seats.
Mixed among this group are members of the Dallas Desperados, wearing suits and business casual attire.
While the Cowboys travel on chartered flights to road games with choices of meals and mostly uncramped quarters, the Arena Football League's all-time leader in touchdown passes, Clint Dolezel, finds himself sitting next to a man who works for NASA. A row behind him, a mother tries to coax a tired 1-year-old boy to sleep.
"We're a big tennis team," 6-5, 275-pound defensive end Colston Weatherington tells a couple as they walk back to their seats.
Weatherington spent parts of three seasons with the Cowboys and remembers that somewhat pampered existence with hassle-free travel.
"There was no waiting with the Cowboys," Weatherington says. "We were all straight to get in, and to get off we were straight to where the buses would be waiting for us. This right here, we're like a normal person, sitting and waiting, which isn't really bad. You have to do what you have to do."
Welcome to life on the road with the Desperados.
Travel day
The AFL salary cap is $4.8 million, or $200,000 less than the Cowboys gave left guard Kyle Kosier as a signing bonus last season. The players' salaries range from the $28,000 league minimum to the more than $100,000 earned by Dolezel.
Only one AFL team flies by charter (San Jose). The Desperados leave their cars at Texas Stadium and bus to D/FW. When they get to the airport, they have to go through the same security measures as everyone else. The Cowboys are bused to the plane on the tarmac with a security check before they board.
Most Desperados players are just as large as their Cowboys counterparts, so the exit-row seats are as valued as guaranteed contracts.
Dolezel has one of those exit-row seats, but 6-8, 335-pound offensive lineman Devin Wyman switches seat assignments without telling him.
"No more tight end screens for him," Dolezel jokingly says loud enough for Wyman to hear.
Some players stop for food in the terminal. Others play cards. More watch movies or read magazines. Wide receiver/defensive back Will Pettis has a book full of Sudoku puzzles. Headphones buzz with the pumping bass lines coming from MP3 players.
All the while, the other passengers give them sideways glances, knowing they are a sports team but unaware which one.
"Usually we say we play hockey or soccer," Dolezel says.
The trip, normally two hours, becomes three hours because a thunderstorm is settling over Denver International Airport. For the oversized players stuffed in the S80 aircraft, the extra time in the air makes them restless. So does the turbulence before landing.
The team's departure to the hotel is delayed about 20 minutes because the bus cannot be found. The trip to the Denver Marriott West in Golden, Colo., is 30 miles.
On the drive, kicker Todd Sievers points out some parts of Denver's downtown to teammates. He spent the off-season here with his brother, who is watching Sievers' dog, Lucy, a pug. Wide receiver Willis Marshall is also having a homecoming, having won an ArenaBowl title with the Crush two years ago.
Once the players get to the hotel, the suits and business attire are replaced by sweat suits and shorts. With $110 in meal money for the trip, the players are free to do what they want, and a handful eat in the hotel bar. Another group, including the coaches, head to a steakhouse.
Curfew is 11 p.m., but coach Will McClay does not have a bed check.
"I went to Rice," McClay said. "We go on the honor system."
Game day
Meetings are at 11 a.m., but some players gather for breakfast in the hotel at 9:30. A few bites away from finishing his omelet, Dolezel's cellphone rings. It's ESPN calling for a production meeting with announcers Mark Jones and Merril Hoge.
Dolezel gives Hoge some tips on his playcalling and what he will try to do against the Crush before he hangs up. With McClay now at the table, the conversation turns to the NFL. McClay gets frustrated when AFL players aren't considered for jobs in the outdoor game. Dolezel remembers his workout with Jacksonville, set up by McClay, who was working for the Jaguars at the time. The tryout lasted about 10 passes.
At the meeting, McClay is motivator, teacher, friend and father as he addresses the team, reminding them that a win guarantees home-field advantage in the playoffs.
"The process starts now," McClay says of what he hopes is a four-game run to a championship.
Highlights of the Desperados' most recent win against New York play as the room darkens. Big hits, touchdowns and interceptions are greeted with hoots and hollers, and then McClay calls on Pettis.
He reads from Hebrews 12:1-2 and relates the perseverance in the scripture to the Desperados' season and last year's loss in the conference title game to Orlando. He has the attention of his teammates, and they applaud when he finishes.
Next, video of the Desperados' only loss, to Georgia, comes on the screen. The room falls silent with players remembering the 78-63 defeat that wasn't that close.
The final score stares back at them on the screen.
"Put yourself in that mind-set of what it felt like at the end of this game," Pettis says.
The meetings then break into two groups – bigs (linemen, linebackers) and smalls (quarterbacks, receivers, defensive backs).
"Todd, you go in the corner and talk to yourself," McClay says to Sievers, the kicker, who returns to his room.
By 12:30, the meetings are over and players are free until the 3:30 team meeting.
The bus leaves for the Pepsi Center at 5.
"I just get off my feet and relax," Wyman says. "Call my queen, and I'm all good."
Game time
The bus ride to the Pepsi Center is mostly quiet, but the players continue to tease each other. A woman is holding a sign "We still love Willis M." near the entrance to the arena.
"Willis paid that woman $400 to be there," a loud voice says from the back of the bus, a charge Marshall jokingly denies.
Earlier in the day, equipment managers Steve Mangus and Jason Faulk and trainer Wes Miller set up the locker room. The traveling baggage includes 21 player bags, four equipment bags, two ball bags, a video trunk, a trainer's trunk and a coach-to-quarterback radio system.
"It's three or four more times that with the Cowboys," Mangus says.
With two hours to kickoff, Miller sets off taping ankles, knees and wrists. Mangus and Faulk make sure the players have everything they need. As the music blares, Wyman, Pete Lazare and Duke Pettijohn dance. An ultimate fighting match plays on the television. There is no tension in the room. The excitement builds.
"I'm in a rush to crush the Crush," Pettijohn sings out in a reggae lilt.
Soon he would be right. The Desperados are never challenged in winning, 77-58. John Elway, one of the Crush's owners, watches from a suite. The Desperados not only finish the regular season 15-1, an AFL record, but they also clinch home-field advantage in the playoffs.
Post game
The sore back that has made McClay feel older than 40 the last few days isn't so sore now.
The Desperados' locker room is a mix of loud, thumping music, jubilant players hugging and high-fiving and equipment managers trying to pack up for the trip home. As McClay ponders his speech, chief operating officer Shy Anderson is scribbling the team's record on a football he will give to commissioner David Baker. Once Marshall, the last player off the field, gets in the room, the music is turned down and McClay is ready.
The Desperados' run to ArenaBowl XXI on July 29 in New Orleans begins Saturday, but McClay's message is simple: Don't be happy. He knows and they know that having home-field advantage guarantees nothing. Last season's loss to Orlando has lingered all year.
"Great preseason," McClay tells the team. "Now more than ever, you've got to focus in."
The day after
After the game, McClay reminds players that the bus to the airport leaves the hotel at 6:15 a.m., but the postgame adrenaline makes it difficult for most players to sleep.
A handful of players head to a nearby casino where the minimum and maximum bets for the blackjack tables are the same: $5. Some walk to the hotel bar, play pool and order pizza. Upstairs in the concierge lounge, McClay and Fuller play spades against two players. Defensive back Jermaine Jones lounges on the couch, eating grapes, watching television.
As the clock on the bus ticks toward 6:15, McClay calls the only unaccounted for player, defensive lineman Rickey Simpkins, who arrives just on time.
"He's always last," McClay says later.
With Flight 1178 scheduled to leave for D/FW at 9:15 a.m., the hotel departure seems early, but the team doesn't want to take a chance with traffic issues and airport congestion. When they arrive at the airport 35 minutes later, they learn the flight is delayed 45 minutes because of the storms that hit Dallas the night before.
By 7:15, the players have received their boarding passes and are through security. Mangus, Miller, Faulk, and Adam Prasifka, the team's salary cap manager and football operations coordinator, wait for the equipment bags and trunks to be checked and then head for breakfast.
Sitting outside Gate C35, card games are ongoing. Backup quarterback Nick Browder is watching a movie. Defensive lineman Daleroy Stewart, limping because of a gimpy ankle, elevates his leg on a chair.
Just like at D/FW, the other passengers give the same sideways glances.
And the news gets worse. The departure is delayed further when the flight attendants can't be found. Then the boarding process is stopped when the airport is closed because of a security breach.
As the pilot begins his approach to D/FW, he tells the passengers the radar system is not working and he will "wing it" the rest of the way. He lands without a problem.
The Desperados are home one hour, 37 minutes later than expected. A bus is waiting outside Terminal A for the short ride back to Texas Stadium where the players' cars await.
"Just another day," Jones says. "Just another day."
LINK
Arena team's travels filled with some of the same travails as ours
11:59 AM CDT on Sunday, July 1, 2007
By TODD ARCHER / The Dallas Morning News
tarcher@***BANNED-URL***
DENVER – American Airlines Flight 2281 from Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport to Denver is boarding like any other. Passengers walk down the aisle, looking left and right for their seats.
Mixed among this group are members of the Dallas Desperados, wearing suits and business casual attire.
While the Cowboys travel on chartered flights to road games with choices of meals and mostly uncramped quarters, the Arena Football League's all-time leader in touchdown passes, Clint Dolezel, finds himself sitting next to a man who works for NASA. A row behind him, a mother tries to coax a tired 1-year-old boy to sleep.
"We're a big tennis team," 6-5, 275-pound defensive end Colston Weatherington tells a couple as they walk back to their seats.
Weatherington spent parts of three seasons with the Cowboys and remembers that somewhat pampered existence with hassle-free travel.
"There was no waiting with the Cowboys," Weatherington says. "We were all straight to get in, and to get off we were straight to where the buses would be waiting for us. This right here, we're like a normal person, sitting and waiting, which isn't really bad. You have to do what you have to do."
Welcome to life on the road with the Desperados.
Travel day
The AFL salary cap is $4.8 million, or $200,000 less than the Cowboys gave left guard Kyle Kosier as a signing bonus last season. The players' salaries range from the $28,000 league minimum to the more than $100,000 earned by Dolezel.
Only one AFL team flies by charter (San Jose). The Desperados leave their cars at Texas Stadium and bus to D/FW. When they get to the airport, they have to go through the same security measures as everyone else. The Cowboys are bused to the plane on the tarmac with a security check before they board.
Most Desperados players are just as large as their Cowboys counterparts, so the exit-row seats are as valued as guaranteed contracts.
Dolezel has one of those exit-row seats, but 6-8, 335-pound offensive lineman Devin Wyman switches seat assignments without telling him.
"No more tight end screens for him," Dolezel jokingly says loud enough for Wyman to hear.
Some players stop for food in the terminal. Others play cards. More watch movies or read magazines. Wide receiver/defensive back Will Pettis has a book full of Sudoku puzzles. Headphones buzz with the pumping bass lines coming from MP3 players.
All the while, the other passengers give them sideways glances, knowing they are a sports team but unaware which one.
"Usually we say we play hockey or soccer," Dolezel says.
The trip, normally two hours, becomes three hours because a thunderstorm is settling over Denver International Airport. For the oversized players stuffed in the S80 aircraft, the extra time in the air makes them restless. So does the turbulence before landing.
The team's departure to the hotel is delayed about 20 minutes because the bus cannot be found. The trip to the Denver Marriott West in Golden, Colo., is 30 miles.
On the drive, kicker Todd Sievers points out some parts of Denver's downtown to teammates. He spent the off-season here with his brother, who is watching Sievers' dog, Lucy, a pug. Wide receiver Willis Marshall is also having a homecoming, having won an ArenaBowl title with the Crush two years ago.
Once the players get to the hotel, the suits and business attire are replaced by sweat suits and shorts. With $110 in meal money for the trip, the players are free to do what they want, and a handful eat in the hotel bar. Another group, including the coaches, head to a steakhouse.
Curfew is 11 p.m., but coach Will McClay does not have a bed check.
"I went to Rice," McClay said. "We go on the honor system."
Game day
Meetings are at 11 a.m., but some players gather for breakfast in the hotel at 9:30. A few bites away from finishing his omelet, Dolezel's cellphone rings. It's ESPN calling for a production meeting with announcers Mark Jones and Merril Hoge.
Dolezel gives Hoge some tips on his playcalling and what he will try to do against the Crush before he hangs up. With McClay now at the table, the conversation turns to the NFL. McClay gets frustrated when AFL players aren't considered for jobs in the outdoor game. Dolezel remembers his workout with Jacksonville, set up by McClay, who was working for the Jaguars at the time. The tryout lasted about 10 passes.
At the meeting, McClay is motivator, teacher, friend and father as he addresses the team, reminding them that a win guarantees home-field advantage in the playoffs.
"The process starts now," McClay says of what he hopes is a four-game run to a championship.
Highlights of the Desperados' most recent win against New York play as the room darkens. Big hits, touchdowns and interceptions are greeted with hoots and hollers, and then McClay calls on Pettis.
He reads from Hebrews 12:1-2 and relates the perseverance in the scripture to the Desperados' season and last year's loss in the conference title game to Orlando. He has the attention of his teammates, and they applaud when he finishes.
Next, video of the Desperados' only loss, to Georgia, comes on the screen. The room falls silent with players remembering the 78-63 defeat that wasn't that close.
The final score stares back at them on the screen.
"Put yourself in that mind-set of what it felt like at the end of this game," Pettis says.
The meetings then break into two groups – bigs (linemen, linebackers) and smalls (quarterbacks, receivers, defensive backs).
"Todd, you go in the corner and talk to yourself," McClay says to Sievers, the kicker, who returns to his room.
By 12:30, the meetings are over and players are free until the 3:30 team meeting.
The bus leaves for the Pepsi Center at 5.
"I just get off my feet and relax," Wyman says. "Call my queen, and I'm all good."
Game time
The bus ride to the Pepsi Center is mostly quiet, but the players continue to tease each other. A woman is holding a sign "We still love Willis M." near the entrance to the arena.
"Willis paid that woman $400 to be there," a loud voice says from the back of the bus, a charge Marshall jokingly denies.
Earlier in the day, equipment managers Steve Mangus and Jason Faulk and trainer Wes Miller set up the locker room. The traveling baggage includes 21 player bags, four equipment bags, two ball bags, a video trunk, a trainer's trunk and a coach-to-quarterback radio system.
"It's three or four more times that with the Cowboys," Mangus says.
With two hours to kickoff, Miller sets off taping ankles, knees and wrists. Mangus and Faulk make sure the players have everything they need. As the music blares, Wyman, Pete Lazare and Duke Pettijohn dance. An ultimate fighting match plays on the television. There is no tension in the room. The excitement builds.
"I'm in a rush to crush the Crush," Pettijohn sings out in a reggae lilt.
Soon he would be right. The Desperados are never challenged in winning, 77-58. John Elway, one of the Crush's owners, watches from a suite. The Desperados not only finish the regular season 15-1, an AFL record, but they also clinch home-field advantage in the playoffs.
Post game
The sore back that has made McClay feel older than 40 the last few days isn't so sore now.
The Desperados' locker room is a mix of loud, thumping music, jubilant players hugging and high-fiving and equipment managers trying to pack up for the trip home. As McClay ponders his speech, chief operating officer Shy Anderson is scribbling the team's record on a football he will give to commissioner David Baker. Once Marshall, the last player off the field, gets in the room, the music is turned down and McClay is ready.
The Desperados' run to ArenaBowl XXI on July 29 in New Orleans begins Saturday, but McClay's message is simple: Don't be happy. He knows and they know that having home-field advantage guarantees nothing. Last season's loss to Orlando has lingered all year.
"Great preseason," McClay tells the team. "Now more than ever, you've got to focus in."
The day after
After the game, McClay reminds players that the bus to the airport leaves the hotel at 6:15 a.m., but the postgame adrenaline makes it difficult for most players to sleep.
A handful of players head to a nearby casino where the minimum and maximum bets for the blackjack tables are the same: $5. Some walk to the hotel bar, play pool and order pizza. Upstairs in the concierge lounge, McClay and Fuller play spades against two players. Defensive back Jermaine Jones lounges on the couch, eating grapes, watching television.
As the clock on the bus ticks toward 6:15, McClay calls the only unaccounted for player, defensive lineman Rickey Simpkins, who arrives just on time.
"He's always last," McClay says later.
With Flight 1178 scheduled to leave for D/FW at 9:15 a.m., the hotel departure seems early, but the team doesn't want to take a chance with traffic issues and airport congestion. When they arrive at the airport 35 minutes later, they learn the flight is delayed 45 minutes because of the storms that hit Dallas the night before.
By 7:15, the players have received their boarding passes and are through security. Mangus, Miller, Faulk, and Adam Prasifka, the team's salary cap manager and football operations coordinator, wait for the equipment bags and trunks to be checked and then head for breakfast.
Sitting outside Gate C35, card games are ongoing. Backup quarterback Nick Browder is watching a movie. Defensive lineman Daleroy Stewart, limping because of a gimpy ankle, elevates his leg on a chair.
Just like at D/FW, the other passengers give the same sideways glances.
And the news gets worse. The departure is delayed further when the flight attendants can't be found. Then the boarding process is stopped when the airport is closed because of a security breach.
As the pilot begins his approach to D/FW, he tells the passengers the radar system is not working and he will "wing it" the rest of the way. He lands without a problem.
The Desperados are home one hour, 37 minutes later than expected. A bus is waiting outside Terminal A for the short ride back to Texas Stadium where the players' cars await.
"Just another day," Jones says. "Just another day."
LINK
