Steamwheelers Add 13-Year AFL Veteran Fleming
June 3, 2004 - arenafootball2 (af2)
Quad City Steamwheelers News Release
DAVENPORT, Iowa â At age 39 he is two years younger than his new head coach. He won two ArenaBowl's with his new assistant coach. No, Quad City Steamwheelers head coach Rich Ingold is not adding another assistant to his coaching staff. Instead, he is adding another fullback/linebacker in the form of 13-year Arena Football League veteran Flint Fleming to his roster.
Fleming (6'4 â 290 lbs.) was assigned to the Steamwheelers by the arenafootball2 league office on Wednesday. Fleming just recently finished the season as an assistant coach in the AFL when he coached a former Steamwheeler. Fleming was a part of the Indiana Firebirds coaching staff. Steamwheelers 2003 starting quarterback and af2 Offensive Player of the Year Tony Zimmerman was a backup to Firebirds' starter Adrian McPherson this season. Fleming has also coached for the Carolina Cobras of the AFL as the defensive coordinator in 2003.
The 1988 North Dakota State graduate started his Arena Football career in 1990 and was teammates with Steamwheelers associate head coach and line coach Jon Roehlk with the Detroit Drive until 1993. While there, the two were apart of the Drive's two ArenaBowl championship teams. In the 1992 ArenaBowl, Fleming had three tackles, a blocked kick, two sacks and a rushing touchdown and was named Ironman of the Game. He hoisted the James Foster Cup a third time in 1997 with the Arizona Rattlers.
Roehlk has no doubt that that Fleming still has it in him to get the job done.
"His first day he was telling me that he was rusty, and I was sitting there thinking, he is just as good as anybody else we have," Roehlk said. "He has always been able to keep himself in good shape for as much as he is around football. He was and still is a top-level arena player. He still has some serious game left in him."
There will be no special treatment for Fleming either.
"I am not going to be treating him any differently than any other player," Roehlk said. "You have to understand that once you step foot on the field that there is a difference in being friends and being a coach."
In his AFL career, Fleming played in 14 of the possible 16 positions, including wide receiver/defensive back. He played in a total of six ArenaBowl's (winning three) in his 13 years of play in the league. He played with eight different teams, including Detroit, Massachusetts, Orlando, Tampa Bay, Arizona, Milwaukee, Buffalo and Florida. He was named to the AFL's 15th Season Anniversary Team and to the First Team of the All-Time ArenaBowl Team three years ago.
Fleming went to camp with the Atlanta Falcons of the NFL and played a season with the Calgary Stampede of the Canadian Football League.
With starting fullback/linebacker Brian Berg on the long-term injured reserve list and backup fullback/linebacker Jesse Beckom moving to the short-term injured reserve list, Fleming's assignment came at the right time. Offensive lineman/defensive lineman Brandon Graves was also placed on the short-term injured reserve list. Fleming is also capable of playing the line, if the team needs it. With linemen Bear Brown and Graves on the short-term injured list and Brandon Williams and Pete Traynor on the long-term list and Harvie Herrington battling an arm injury, don't be surprised if you see him playing both positions this Saturday.
The Steamwheelers travel to Louisville this weekend to take on the Fire in a mid-season showdown of the National Conference's top teams. Both teams bring in a 6-2 record and are tied atop the Midwest Division as well. The matchup between the No. 2 Steamwheelers and No. 3 Fire will be broadcast live on Mediacom in the greater Quad Cities area, Dubuque, Clinton, Maquoketa, Burlington, Iowa City-Cedar Rapids area, Des Moines-Central Iowa area, and western Illinois.
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