The Arena Football League will soon make its home debut in the Delta Center, under the nom de plume Utah Blaze. It is an unveiling of the indoor game's pre-eminent level, although local teams from scrub leagues have made earlier ill-fated attempts to stay afloat here.
This time is different, foremost because the AFL is, indeed, the best this bastardized brand of ball has to offer. And if it's the best, whatever the endeavor, sports fans in Utah will give it a chance. Remember those massive crowds watching curling and skeleton and short-track skating and two-man luge and that cross country skiing thing where competitors covered long distances across vast stretches of ice and snow before stopping to load up and shoot at stuff before skiing off toward the finish line during the 2002 Olympics?
I'm telling you, football played on 50 yards of verdant fake turf between dasher boards and trampoline netting might just make it.
Soccer caught on in its first Major League try. What's Jason Kreis got that Joe Germaine doesn't? If guys named Nelson Akwari and Dipsy Selolwane can help settle a footy franchise in Salt Lake City, why can't Orshawante Bryant and Siaha Burley help take Vince Lombardi's game indoors, all to acceptable profit margins?
Beats me.
I've never seen an Arena League game in person, just like I had never seen a Major League Soccer game. But once I did, I kind of liked it, and my family loved it. I sat in on a Blaze scrimmage at the Delta Center the other day, and it was weird watching touchdown passes thrown in the house Stockton and Malone built. The speed of the game stood out in closed confines, and the hits seemed explosive and exaggerated.
"It's a physical, hard-nosed game," says Blaze offensive coordinator and former AFL MVP Hunkie Cooper. "And it's fast.
Once you get used to the speed of this game, it's hard to go back to more traditional football. Plus, fans get to keep every ball that goes into the stands. They are part of the show."
Teams in the AFL come and go, but this particular organization, headed by the Garff Family, appears to have a handle on its new adventure. It hired former Dallas Cowboys quarterback and Arizona Rattlers coach Danny White, who took the latter team to the league's championship game five times in 13 seasons, as its head man. He's built the Blaze from scratch, loading it up with proven veteran players and relative neophytes.
"I think we can win some games," White says. "I hope."
In the long run, beyond the curiosity of a virgin season, the Blaze will have to win to keep Utah sports fans interested. But the team has the advantage of offering a version of a game that has come on strong over the past 25 years, perhaps supplanting pro and college basketball as the state's most keenly followed sport, combining college football with the NFL.
But that's the traditional rendition played outdoors.
Arena Football has some things going for it, bound to appeal to fans. It's all about offense. It's mostly passing. Unsuccessful drives are uncommon. A fistful of defensive stops is considered more than enough.
"It's a ridiculously fun game to play," says offensive and defensive lineman Hans Olsen, who formerly played with the Indianapolis Colts and also played his college ball at Brigham Young. "And it's ridiculously fun to watch. It's wild and outrageous. I wish everyone could put a helmet and pads on and give it a try. It's much more fun than the NFL."
White concurs. He's had opportunities to return as a coach to the NFL, but for now, prefers the AFL, saying, as he took the first steps over the summer to establish the Blaze in Utah: "At some point, I could see myself going back to coach in the NFL. But if I did, it wouldn't be as much fun. I really enjoy this game and the players who play in it. Properly promoted, the game and this community are a match made in heaven. It's quick-paced, family entertainment. I see grandparents, parents and kids coming together to watch some football. That's kind of my dream for what Arena Football should be."
Much the way Real Salt Lake utilized its players to make a connection with fans, White said the Blaze hope to do likewise.
"There's always been a gap between pro athletes and Joe Fan, and that's gotten wider and wider," he said. "The guy making $10 million can't relate to the fans, and vice versa. We can penetrate that gap with Arena Football League players. They like to play and they like spending time with fans. And the game itself is really exciting."
Exciting is in the eye - and the brain and synapses and the nervous system - of the beholder.
The question is, how many beholders are there?
The Blaze expect a sellout crowd of more than 13,000 for their home opener Feb. 4.
If they win, they can capture the interest and the imagination of fans here. In part, because those fans embrace athletic superiority at the top level, on account of the civic comfort it brings. And, in part, because football, even football in an arena, beats the bejeebers out of some forms of college basketball and all forms of the biathlon and the two-man luge.
Gordon Monson can be reached at gmonson@sltrib.com. To write a letter about this or any sports topic, send an e-mail to sportseditor@sltrib.com.
