Shocking thought: Spokane is better
To see the scores – 65-38, 55-19, 60-28 – and nothing but the scores is to reach a convenient conclusion.
Expansion from 23 to 30 teams this year watered down the football product in af2 something fierce, and the Spokane Shock were the beneficiaries.
But Rob Keefe played the games and concluded something else.
“I think this team is better than last year’s,” said the Shock defensive back. “Not taking anything away from that team whatsoever, but we’re better athletically and we have more guys capable of moving up to the next level. We’re just stronger and the potential of our team is greater.”
Well, officially, that’s impossible.
The 2006 Shock were runaway champions of af2, 17-2 on the season, winners of the ArenaCup in a three-touchdown laugher, the surprise love interest of Spokane’s summer. Potentially, the only way the 2007 team could improve on that is to settle the Corbin Park garbage flap, find affordable housing for displaced downtowners and win the Cup by forfeit because the opponent says, “What’s the use?”
The impossible encore. The Shock resume it in earnest Saturday night against the Louisville Fire in the first round of the af2 playoffs.
When it comes to the Shock and the indoor game, it’s healthy not to stray from the entertainment value into the argument value. But then, maybe that’s what the price of a souvenir jersey buys. In any case, the evolution of the Shock in year two has been instructive, if predictable. Patrons spoiled by an initial season of destiny have grumbled about the 3-3 start, the dip in late-game drama, the quarterback derby. Now there seems to be some agitation that the game is not yet a sellout, though neither was last year’s playoff opener.
All of which is silly, but also undervalues the wonderment which was last season.
“I don’t know if I really realized what was happening,” said Keefe. “I’d never experienced a championship on the pro level. The whole thing was entirely new to me. I didn’t know what a champion was in this league, until it was so close that you could wrap your fingers around it. It’s not like we expected to go 14-2.
“This has been completely different. We had seven guys back from last year and by the sixth game, even though we were 3-3, looking at the talent level we had, I expected to be in the playoffs and compete for another championship. The first year had the ‘wow’ factor. Now you expect it.”
But are these Shock really better?
Or just different?
The alteration in af2’s rules that has allowed more freedom in substitution has obviously had a profound effect at least on some of the league’s teams – the ones ambitious enough to use it to their advantage. The two-way players are not yet dinosaurs, but they are less and less a factor.
“What you have now is a true offense and a true defense,” Keefe pointed out. “When you’re playing two positions, you’re not going to be at your best for either one – no matter what sport you’re playing. I can play wide receiver, but I’m not as comfortable doing it as I am playing defense. It’s hard for a defensive lineman to block the blind side for a quarterback on offense. It’s different skills, and a different fatigue level.”
But it’s also killed the happy surprise of discovering that a Charles Frederick, who as a college player at Washington was written off as soft (even by his own disenchanted coaches), has a nasty streak that made him a pretty fair jack linebacker.
“People will argue that arena football is iron man football,” Keefe acknowledged. “That’s part of the appeal. But I think putting the best guys on the field is good for the league, and the game.”
And it’s why Keefe feels the 2007 Shock are a more gifted team.
“What you saw last year were the heart-stopping games, the last-second touchdowns,” he said. “That team had a unique ability and belief in itself to pull those games out. The scores you’re seeing now are a reflection of this team’s athletic talent.”
For instance?
“Kelvin Morris is unbelievable – as fast as a DB and as tall as a receiver and he’s playing linebacker,” Keefe said. “Anthony Brown can play wide receiver and defensive end – he has Arena-1 written all over him. Last year I was the biggest DB. This year I’m the smallest. We’re bigger, faster, stronger. Yeah, some of these guys are still learning the game, but they’re hungry. Last year we were happy to get out of some games with a win. Now you see guys upset because we only win by 20. That’s the hungry feeling.
“If we play the football we’re capable of, I don’t see how we can lose or who can beat us. If it happens this year, it will not be a surprise.”
Maybe just an improbable encore, then.