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Maniacs Lose Spinner, Fourth Straight Game

April 11, 2010 - Indoor Football League (IFL)
Maryland Maniacs News Release


An already difficult season for the Maniacs was made more trying Sunday afternoon when the team lost its leader and star quarterback Bryson Spinner to a horrific knee injury just prior to halftime of Sunday's 16-point loss to their division rival Rochester Raiders.

Maryland went into halftime only down 26-24 but that is where the momentum seemed to stop. Spinner's injury, along with the continued bombardment of penalties and lack of discipline from the players derailed the team's chances of dominating in the second half.

Backup quarterback Duane Smith filled in admirably for Spinner, tossing a third quarter touchdown bomb to wide receiver Terry Moss and even handed off to Bryson's brother and offensive tackle Tyree Spinner for the team's final score in the fourth quarter. Smith was also able to show off the type of elusiveness that Maniacs fans were familiar to seeing with Spinner when he was avoiding a pass rush.

The Maniacs only put up 12 points in the second half and allowed another 26 to Rochester as they fell to the same 52-36 score that they managed in the season opener against the West Michigan ThunderHawks on February 26th.

Unfortunately today, the game took an unusual turn when the officials decided to end the game with 1:36 remaining in the fourth quarter due to a large scuffle that broke out between players from Rochester and Maryland, which had been the culmination of a very emotional game on both sides of the ball.

As of Sunday night, Spinner was still in the hospital. His X-rays were negative and he will have an MRI next week when the swelling decreases, Maniacs team owner Messay Hailemariam said.

There is no official word yet on the type of injury or its severity but Spinner appears to have suffered a torn ACL and will miss the rest of the season if that is the case. An ACL tear usually requires a minimum of four to six months to recover from for an athlete.

Hailemariam said an injury like that is devastating to the team because a quarterback like Spinner is hard to find in this area but he also said the team has full confidence in Smith whenever he is on the field and that he played very well in relief against the Raiders.

The Maniacs travel to play the Bloomington Extreme on Saturday April 17th at U.S. Cellular Coliseum at 7:00 PM.

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