Inside UFL Championship Weekend

by Fran Stuchbury
November 30, 2010 - United Football League (UFL 1)

This was the second season in a row I was able to cover the United Football League championship game. I hadn't been to Omaha before so I was looking forward to seeing that city, plus it was nice to cover the last sporting event at Rosenblatt Stadium which opened in 1948 and was home to the College World Series and the UFL's Omaha Nighthawks.

After a safe flight from Philadelphia to Omaha on Tuesday, I went to my hotel and then to Rosenblatt Stadium to cover media day. The Las Vegas Locomotives players were the first to arrive and I spoke to several of them.

I asked Locos backup QB Drew Willy, who played college football at Buffalo, how was it to lead his team to their first ever bowl appearance, the International Bowl in 2008. He responded, "It was great, we have never been to one, having head coach Turner Gill there was huge for us and it was nice to have the game in Toronto so many Buffalo fans were able to make the trip."

Locos tight end Adam Bergen started up a charity called "87 Plays" that raises money for youth sports in Las Vegas. With many youth sports being cut due to the economy, Bergen does everything to get money for the charity. Findlay Toyota in Las Vegas donated a 2010 Toyota Prius so they are selling 10 dollars raffle tickets and the winner will get that car. Youth sports is very important, and it's wonderful to see Adam involved in this.

Locos WR Sammie Parker talked about his experience playing for the Chicago Rush of the Arena Football League this past season: "It was fun, especially having Russ Michna as the quarterback." Parker also said he does not plan to play in the AFL in 2011; he wants his body to heal and plans to focus on the UFL.

I asked Locos LB Teddy Lehman about getting another chance to play in the NFL, and he said, "Yes, that is the ultimate goal, but it's been great to be in the UFL and have the chance to win a championship."

Locos head coach Jim Fassel on how important the running game will be to set up the passing game: "The best friend a quarterback has is a strong running game and good defense and we have those things, so hopefully Chase Clement doesn't feel the pressure to have to make all the plays".

I asked Locos starting quarterback Chase Clement if playing a wide open offense at Rice helped prepare him to play in the UFL. He said, "The good thing was I was able to see a lot of different coverages and a lot of different pass patterns against defenses so it was an opportunity to develop myself as a passing quarterback." Clement also said his mobility has helped him a lot since he is a shorter quarterback and being able to run gives him an advantage.

UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue then made an announcement talking about the UFL. The major news was that the 2011 season will begin in August and they will play on Sundays that month.

That's a good move for several reasons: fans are use to watching NFL games on Sunday so the UFL will get extra exposure and hopefully some more television viewers. Also with the championship game a month earlier, more out of town fans should be able to travel to see the UFL Championship because now they will be able to spend Thanksgiving with their families. The UFL will also save money because traveling around a holiday is very expensive.

The Florida Tuskers then arrived. I spoke to Tuskers RB Dominic Rhodes and he said winning a championship for the team is just as important as the Super Bowl ring he won when he played for the Indianapolis Colts.

Tuskers LB Odell Thurman who was questionable for the game due to a knee injury said he was not 100% but he would be ready to go.

Tuskers kicker Nick Novak on being named UFL Special Teams Player of the Year: "To me it's a great honor. My personal goal when I signed with the Tuskers was to be the best kicker in the UFL."

Tuskers head coach Jay Gruden on winning three straight games after the team started 2-3: "We knew we had the talent to do it and all we needed to do was execute." Gruden said coaching in the UFL Championship is similar to when he coached in ArenaBowls.

Tuskers starting quarterback Chris Greisen went straight from playing for the AFL's Milwaukee Iron to the UFL said, "I've been very fortunate to be able to play all these games; this will be my 27th game this season. I'm excited about the opportunity to continue playing. I've been able to take care of my body and I thank the Lord for keeping me healthy."

I asked Greisen if he will play in the AFL in 2011. "I won't be playing in arena football," he said. "That was a very long season. As much fun as I had, if the money was the same, a lot of people say it shouldn't be about the money, but you do have to take care of your family. You have a mortgage, car payments and all that kind of stuff. If arena football was like it used to be, I would definitely continue playing. The UFL seems to be growing, and now that I have been given an opportunity to show what I can do, this looks like the league for me."

After media day was over I went back to the hotel and caught up on sleep.

Wednesday afternoon I ran into UFL head of officiating Larry Upson. Here are a couple of things he mentioned.

He was happy with the progress the referees made especially without any preseason games in the UFL. He is also happy with how instant replay has been handled.

On line judge Sarah Thomas being the first woman to ref a championship football game, "Sarah is a great official; I know one day she will be in the NFL. She has really made tremendous progress this year. She said to me last week she learned more in these five games than she has worked in her college career, so that's a great thing for her and this league, so she really has developed."

On lifting defensive restrictions next season and having it like the NFL he said, "If it was up to me we would eliminate those defensive restrictions. We are going to sit and talk about them after the season and talk about what we want to do. Personally, I would like to see them ended because it really puts some parameters on officials and the replay officials we are not used to seeing. If we eliminate those, we can just go back to officiating the game normally and the defense can play the way they normally would play, just like the NFL. I hope it's eliminated."

On quarterbacks being able to intentionally ground the ball, "I think that is an important rule. Quarterback safety is the main reason we put that in, to prevent injury on the quarterback, so you can let up on him, so he can dump it wherever he wants to dump it, as long as he gets it back to the line of scrimmage. We can't give on that one, that's a good rule. I think that's in place for the quarterback safety and we have to keep that one in place."

Thursday morning I ran into Versus announcer Doug Flutie and asked him how he compared the talent to when he played in the CFL to the talent in the UFL. He said the talent is comparable but one big difference in the CFL you have to have a certain amount of Canadian talent on the teams so they might have been a little weaker at some positions.

Friday afternoon I was relaxing in the lounge watching the Auburn-Alabama game and ran into someone who looked familiar to me. He was Larry Orrico, a back judge in the UFL and an alternate referee for the championship, and also an Arena Football referee. I ran into him a couple of times at the six ArenaBowls I covered.

On TV, an Auburn player on offense fumbled the ball and it went out of the endzone so the ball was ruled a touchback and handed over to the defense. In the UFL this past season, they made the rule the ball goes back to the offense. I was telling Larry hopefully that doesn't happen in the championship or else you will hear complaints from fans and the team the rule goes against.

I spoke to Hartford Colonials owner Bill Mayer and commended him on being one of the most fit sports owners. At the age of 70 he was able to run the New York City Marathon and raised over $62,000 for charity with his son Will, who ran next to him.

Mayer was very pleased with the fan support the Colonials received in Hartford this past season and feels the support will be even better next season.

Friday night I went to a UFL Commissioner party and ran into some more familiar people including Tuskers Directory of Player Personnel/Assistant Secondary Coach Bret Munsey. I was in New Orleans when Munsey led the Philadelphia Soul to a 59-56 victory over the San Jose SaberCats at ArenaBowl XXII on July 27, 2008. Munsey had a regular season record of 30-18 in his three seasons with the Soul. I spoke to him with other members of the media after every home game. He told me he is very happy to be working for the Florida Tuskers and loves working with Jay Gruden who he worked with when he was with the Orlando Predators.

Munsey told me how much he liked how I covered the Soul when he was there and anytime I want any Tuskers guests on "Inside the UFL" to give him a call. The Tuskers defense was decimated by injuries, and Munsey did an outstanding job finding players to fill in this past season.

I also saw Tuskers assistant PR guy Jason Lucas. Jason was a loyal listener to my Arena Football radio show "ArenaZone". I spent a lot of time hanging out with Jason at ArenaBowls and stayed with him when I attended some Orlando Predators games. When the UFL adds more teams I hope a team would consider hiring him because he did a solid job working under Tuskers Director of Public Relations Dan Pearson.

I saw Versus announcer Craig Minervini and was talking to him about when he broadcast the XFL for its only season in 2001. I wrote a weekly column called "Inside the XFL" and Minervini agreed with me that XFL wasn't as bad as people made it out to be and he said he enjoyed doing the games. For you wrestling fans, Minervini was also a WWF announcer in the late 1980's under the name Craig DeGeorge.

Overall the party was nice; Commissioner Michael Huyghue added a toast to the UFL accomplishments this past season.

Saturday I got to Rosenblatt Stadium early, and they had a lot of nice activities for the fans. They had free waffles for fans by Waffle Man. They also had nice activities for the kids and had a lot of UFL Championship and Omaha Nighthawks merchandise on sale.

I ran into a scout for the San Diego Chargers, who I saw at last year's game. He said the talent level in the UFL is much better than last season.

The Las Vegas Locomotives defeated the Florida Tuskers 23-20 in the title game that day. Here are my observations.

It looked like pass interference by Las Vegas at the end of the game, but it wasn't called.

Tuskers head coach Jay Gruden felt it was, too. I saw the replay several times, and it looked for sure it was. Bottom line is sometimes there are controversial calls in championship football games; take a look at Super Bowl XL in Detroit when the Pittsburgh Steelers defeated the Seattle Seahawks 21-10. There were complaints of some questionable calls that went against Seattle in the game.

When I covered my first ever ArenaBowl, ArenaBowl XII in Tampa Bay when Jay Gruden's Orlando Predators defeated the Tampa Bay Storm 62-31, some Storm fans were so mad at the officiating one fan threw a beer at a referee.

After talking to Gruden later I told him I felt the same way. His response was they had their chances but they just didn't capitalize on them.

At the end of the game the Tuskers were called for a delay of game that turned a 40-yard field goal attempt to a 45 yard one but here is one amazing point to make. The guy who blocked the kick, Locos DT Alfred Malone was not in on the play before the delay of game was called. Malone said, "Just a good push. When they got a delay of game and it pushed them back 5 yards, I knew the ball would come out with an even lower trajectory."

No way at the end of the game you should have a delay of game called on you in that critical of a situation. Tuskers fans have the right to be mad at the non-pass interference call, but it should have never got to that point.

You have to give Locos head coach Jim Fassel a lot of credit. When starting quarterback Tim Rattay tore his ACL earlier this year, he could have looked for a quarterback with some NFL experience. Instead he stuck with the guys he had in training camp. Drew Willy started and then Fassel decided to move to the third stringer Chase Clement which paid off for them.

Jim Fassel on Chase Clement, "I didn't know who Chase Clement was in July. It's interesting how things turn out. When I saw him on tape for the first time...we looked him up, watched the tape and said, 'I like this guy.' I knew he could do it."

He also said about Clement on his game performance' "He made really good decisions. He managed the game, and then he made some plays."

Clement was 16-25 for 237 yards with 2 TD and 1 INT. His mobility also helped him with five carries for 30 yards. His big play in the first quarter was a 75-yard throw to WR Andrae Thurman. Clement's performance earned him the MVP of the game.

He said, "It feels good. It's crazy the way it worked out. You start the season off as No. 3...not the way I thought it was going to end, but it was awesome."

Also Clement said having injured QB Tim Rattay on the sideline helped a lot. "Having a guy like Tim around, a guy who's done it, it's a huge confidence booster. Having his presence on the sidelines was huge."

What amazed me was the Locos offense was still productive enough to win the game without RB DeDe Dorsey, who missed the contest due to a knee/thigh injury.

Running backs Marcel Shipp and Hakim Hill combined for 76 yards, and Chase Clement's 30 put them at 106 rushing. That ended up filling the void left by Dorsey.

As for the Tuskers, Chris Greisen showed enough in his four starts he can be a very good starting QB in the UFL. For the game Greisen was 24-42 for 346 yards and two rushing touchdowns. Gruden was very happy with Greisen's performance. "He played great. He had two touchdowns rushing, scrambled, made plays with his arm. Overall, it was a heck of game."

The announced attendance was 15,310. UFL Commissioner Michael Huyghue was happy with the turnout. "I'm always pleased with attendance. In this economy, with as many people that are out of jobs and people shopping on Black Friday...was an incredible statement of support. I'm thrilled with the crowd and the people that came."

Later that night I went to an after party and had a chance to relax and talk to a lot of different people.

That Sunday morning I flew out and made it back to Philadelphia safely. Overall it was an outstanding trip. As good an experience as I had covering the championship in Las Vegas last season.

I've had a great time covering the UFL. It's been nice doing the OurSports Central UFL Offensive, Defensive and Special Teams players of the week. I like giving UFL players the recognition they deserve. It's always fun to compare the players I pick and the one's the UFL did. A couple of times we agreed.

Last year I did my show "Inside the UFL" with Nation Hahn, who is now director of digital media for the UFL. Anytime I have any UFL questions he always gets back to me as soon as possible.

This year I did the show with Dusty Sloan, who now works for the UFL as well. Dusty is a walking alternative football encyclopedia. He has so much knowledge and came up with some greats stats during the show. Dusty worked very hard at the championship, and wrote a ton of stories for the league site. When he got a job with the UFL he became an immediate asset to the league.

I did my AFL show for ArenaFan "ArenaZone" for seven years. I wanted to run the UFL show similar to my AFL show, having UFL fans gather and interact in a chatroom and it worked very well having the fans involved like when I picked games, asked them UFL questions, and when they asked me and Dusty questions during the show. Also we have one of the few radio shows on which fans can ask the guests questions.

When the AFL suspended operations after the 2008 season. I thought I was done covering alternative football. Then the UFL started up in 2009 and the passion I had for the AFL I now have for the UFL. I've met so many good people in such a short period of time, and some friends I made that I will talk to for the rest of my life.

The UFL is going to get bigger and better as time goes by. If you have a team in your city, I recommend checking them out. If you see a game on television, it's worth staying on that channel and watching the game.

If you have any questions or comments about this column. Feel free to write me at arenazone@yahoo.com and I will be more than happy to get back to you.

United Football League Stories from November 30, 2010

• Inside UFL Championship Weekend - OSC Original by Fran Stuchbury

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.