Puzzling and Potent, AFL Pulls it Off

By: Chicago Sports Review

I was impressed. Very impressed. Weird too - the game hadn’t even started.On Sunday, at a packed All-State Arena, the Chicago Rush put on a show. Launched upon over 15,000 live spectators and an NBC audience in their season opener, Chicago’s Arena Football League team did the impossible. Or perhaps it was the people running this fan-friendly organization.

Unleashed onto the field under an arc of intense flames, with mist covering half the field and fireworks going off, the Rush successfully were introduced with a pyro-technics display that didn’t cover the field in a blinding fog for half the game, something rarely imaginable after innumerable NFL displays.

Odd? You bet. Entertaining? Absolutely.

In this league, peculiarities are prevalent everywhere, and choreographed crisply, the aim is to entertain. And that’s just the beginning. Sunday, during a 50-30 drubbing of the visiting Grand Rapids Rampage laid down by the Rush, I witnessed…

  • Not just players, but cheerleaders given a grand entrance under a foreboding torched arc. Initially, I thought this seemed a little out of character, like Winnie the Pooh’s Eeyore being introduced by Michael Buffer. But hey, it worked.
  • I saw those same cheerleaders in several different outfits. Who has the biggest equipment budget, players or cheerleaders? I’d say it’s a toss-up. Regrettably, the ladies did not have Janet Jackson’s equipment manager.
  • I viewed a football game where two head coaches at one point were screaming in opposing plays while not more than five yards from each other, while standing five yards out onto the playing field. Yes, this is similar to half the Dads at a peewee game, but probably with less cussing, and fewer post-game guilt trips. Inspiring.
  • I witnessed Rush football player Lindsay Fleshman catch a touchdown pass on one possession, and intercept another and return it for a touchdown on the Rampage’s ensuing possession. After the game, to my astonishment, Fleshman told me that playing both ways requires that he be in better shape than most players. Who knew? Fleshman does, as well, have the look of a player that may get a chance to play on Sunday’s in the fall. Many AFL players have, and many will. The name Kurt Warner ring a bell?
  • I heard Umpire Rick Podraza state into his microphone, to a national TV audience, after a penalty was declined, “So we’re going to leave it the way it is.” Bet NBC studio execs loved that. The NFL it is not. Entertaining? Yes. At least, unlike the NFL, he got the call right, without resorting to a 45-minute video peep show consultation.
  • I witnessed at one point, by my count, that one-third of the people on the playing field were not actually involved in the game. Between referees, coaches, cameramen and confused cheerleaders, it may have been closer to one-half. Choreographed to a TV audience, it works. Live, it keeps your eyes open for sure. During one sick fantasy, I secretly wondered what would happen should a preoccupied cheerleader wander out into a play like a butterfly onto the Expressway.Sick fantasies and flaming arches aside, I also saw good football, being played in Chicago, to a national TV audience. Funny, I didn’t see much of that in the fall.

    All-State Arena was packed with 15,082 fans, who were dodging take-home game-balls flying into the stands, while an obscene amount of free T-shirts were heaved at them by cheerleaders and slingshots worthy of launching Ricki Lake.

    The crowd was vociferous and, aided by an actual marching band, stayed to the last minutes, even with the outcome a foregone conclusion. Perhaps the only disdain I felt towards the announced audience was when I witnessed a father wearing a Cade McNown jersey - being lovingly hugged by his daughter. Painful, yes, but I simply chalked up this callous emotional failure to adolescent naivety and gazed elsewhere.

    The venue itself is a great host for the game. It appears custom made for 50-yard football with excellent sight lines from everywhere in the arena. Further, the intimacy of the arena game allows young and old fans alike to see intricacies of football often missed from the usual Row 647, Seat triple-Z NFL stadiums often provide - for $50.

    The game I watched is a fast-paced athletic display. Speed and quickness are necessary in here, and are apparent on every play. The game has the hitting football is supposed to have, the scoring you crave, and jawing between players that gives you the warm fuzzy feeling, knowing you’re watching a sport predicated on skill and teeming with violence and attitude. Like fresh air, isn’t it? The players, after unleashing 50-yard hell upon each other, also stayed after the game - for what seemed like forever - signing autographs for hundreds of fans outlining the playing field. You’ll find few prima donnas here.

    The result? A great time. Go to the games for close-up football, in an intimate setting, and as well sit back and enjoy everything else. Believe me, you will. From press row, the game was a thrill to watch. Everything else? It’s just a bonus. From the looks of it, hitting up a Rush contest might also allow you to catch a rare glimpse of winning Chicago football players.

    Then again, Brian Urlacher won last week. So what if he was wrestling in a staged event? Speaking of which, you should have seen the Tug-of-War at halftime. Epic.

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