Post by AZ Adrenaline Junkie on May 5, 2008 12:35:36 GMT -5
Adrenaline's power trio
Special to the Courier
Adrenaline QB Chad DeGrenier (above) and Quincy Jackson have are two big reasons Arizona ranks second in the AIFA in scoring (66.5 ppg).
Football life begins after 30 for Arizona threesome
The American Indoor Football Association represents a mishmash of athletes looking to start their careers, better their careers, play while continuing other careers or find out the hard way that they need to consider different careers.
It's not normally thought of as a league where players finish their careers.
But take a quick look atop every passing category in the AIFA and you'll see the names of three guys who have been there ... done that ... and are doing it again.
It's the Arizona Adrenaline's 30-somethings. Quarterback Chad DeGrenier, 35, wide receiver Maurice Bryant, 34, and fellow wideout Quincy Jackson, 31, have accounted for 70 completions, 915 yards and 28 touchdowns through just five games for the second highest scoring team in the league at 66.5 points per game.
Add 31-year-old running backs Paris Moore and Ty Evans to the mix and 87 of the Adrenaline's 100 pass completions are the work of players who will never again celebrate their 30th birthday.
But none of the team's Big 3 is ready to utter the words "never again" just yet. Instead, all are having far too much fun getting drilled by 300-pound linemen and splattering into dasherboards. And all ran far different routes to Prescott Valley:
Chad DeGrenier
He last played competitive football in 2004, and that was a brief, if not forgettable experience.
With his seven-year AFL1 career in the rearview mirror, DeGrenier received a phone call from Cape Fear, N.C., of af2. In his first game with the now defunct Wildcats, the quarterback who had played five years with the Arizona Rattlers suffered three broken bones in his face on a helmet-to-helmet hit by a jack linebacker who had rushed illegally.
That ended DeGrenier's season and gave him good reason to concentrate on teaching and coaching at Cave Creek's Cactus Shadows High School. That's where he coached freshman basketball, frosh and junior varsity baseball and won a State championship as the Falcons' head varsity football coach in 2007.
He still coaches football and hoops at CSHS, but with his athletic clock ticking, he wanted to give indoor football one last shot.
"I hadn't played in four years and just really wanted to get back into the arena game," DeGrenier said. "A guy who had coached in the NFL for about 20 years, Rod Dowhower, had been a great mentor to me and I wanted to put the things that he taught me as a coach and as a player to use."
So, in late 2007, DeGrenier, the former Washington State QB, went to work out for the Rattlers, who were looking for a quarterback after Sherdrick Bonner - who DeGrenier backed up for five years - moved on to Chicago.
"From there, some of the people who were putting the Adrenaline together got to talking to me and things just sort of fell into place."
Have they ever. Entering Tuesday's game at Utah, DeGrenier leads the AIFA in passing yards per game (244.0), completion percentage (66.4), is second in touchdown passes (28) and has yet to throw an interception.
"When you're surrounded by veterans like Quincy Jackson and Maurice Bryant, guys who really know how to play, it sure makes things easier," DeGrenier said. "It seems like Maurice and I have been doing this together for a long time after playing together with the Rattlers. Now we're ending our careers together. Then you have a young guy like David Penland who is learning from the older guys and is doing a great job in the third receiver role. I think it's great."
Quincy Jackson
Long drives are not normally associated with indoor football. But Quincy Jackson was making plenty of them when his cell phone rang and Adrenaline head coach Andrew Moore was on the other end.
At the time, Jackson was driving a truck for a living in his native Alabama.
After playing for the Crimson Tide, having a short stint with the Cincinnati Bengals, playing AFL1 and even making an appearance in Vince McMahon's short-lived, but loud XFL among other stops, Jackson found himself out of football following the 2006 season.
While driving a truck he continued to train in preparation for joining the outdoor "All American Football League," a newly devised entity that was slated to begin in April of '08 and would be open only to athletes who had earned a four-year college degree.
But the league folded before it started and Moore, who was on the coaching staff for the same Tri-Cities Fever (Kennewick, Wash.) team that Jackson had played for in '06, seized the opportunity.
The results have been devastating, if not immediate.
The savvy receiver who runs crisp routes and catches anything in his neighborhood leads the AIFA in receptions per game (8.8), is tied for the top spot in touchdown catches (16) and is the man that DeGrenier calls "my go-to guy."
"I'm really not that surprised that things came together this quickly for us," Jackson said of the passing game's chemistry. "Even if you haven't played in awhile, when you're a veteran player it's just a matter of getting a feel for the game again.
"And Chad's among the three best quarterbacks I've ever played with, and that includes the NFL and AFL1 guys."
Maurice Bryant
If football had a batting order, Maurice Bryant would hit cleanup.
The quintessential deep threat still has big-time speed at age 34, and his big-play abilities have helped open things up underneath for the likes of Jackson and Penland.
Once his AFL1 days came to an end in '07, he looked online and discovered the Adrenaline, then made a phone call and scheduled a workout.
Coach Andrew Moore didn't need much convincing. A quick look at Bryant's resume included a two-year stint with the Tennessee Titans' practice squad, 62 touchdown catches for the Rattlers and Las Vegas Gladiators of AFL1 and a successful collegiate career at the University of Houston.
He and DeGrenier played four years together with the Rattlers, and the chemistry hasn't faded. To date, Bryant is second in the AIFA in yards per catch (17.0) and tied for third in TD catches (12) as he continues to simply outrun defensive backs 5-10 years his junior.
"When I was a free agent for the Tennessee Titans I always glued my eyes to the veteran receivers and learned every little trick," Bryant recalls. "Hopefully our young receivers are picking some things up from me."
A Southern California native, Bryant's flair for the dramatic comes with good reason.
He's played the role of a wide receiver in three very popular movies, "The Longest Yard," "We are Marshall" and "Invincible," where he played former Dallas Cowboys great Drew Pearson.
As for the big offensive numbers that the Adrenaline vets, and team, are putting up:
"Honestly, I thought they might be a little higher."
Special to the Courier
Adrenaline QB Chad DeGrenier (above) and Quincy Jackson have are two big reasons Arizona ranks second in the AIFA in scoring (66.5 ppg).
Football life begins after 30 for Arizona threesome
The American Indoor Football Association represents a mishmash of athletes looking to start their careers, better their careers, play while continuing other careers or find out the hard way that they need to consider different careers.
It's not normally thought of as a league where players finish their careers.
But take a quick look atop every passing category in the AIFA and you'll see the names of three guys who have been there ... done that ... and are doing it again.
It's the Arizona Adrenaline's 30-somethings. Quarterback Chad DeGrenier, 35, wide receiver Maurice Bryant, 34, and fellow wideout Quincy Jackson, 31, have accounted for 70 completions, 915 yards and 28 touchdowns through just five games for the second highest scoring team in the league at 66.5 points per game.
Add 31-year-old running backs Paris Moore and Ty Evans to the mix and 87 of the Adrenaline's 100 pass completions are the work of players who will never again celebrate their 30th birthday.
But none of the team's Big 3 is ready to utter the words "never again" just yet. Instead, all are having far too much fun getting drilled by 300-pound linemen and splattering into dasherboards. And all ran far different routes to Prescott Valley:
Chad DeGrenier
He last played competitive football in 2004, and that was a brief, if not forgettable experience.
With his seven-year AFL1 career in the rearview mirror, DeGrenier received a phone call from Cape Fear, N.C., of af2. In his first game with the now defunct Wildcats, the quarterback who had played five years with the Arizona Rattlers suffered three broken bones in his face on a helmet-to-helmet hit by a jack linebacker who had rushed illegally.
That ended DeGrenier's season and gave him good reason to concentrate on teaching and coaching at Cave Creek's Cactus Shadows High School. That's where he coached freshman basketball, frosh and junior varsity baseball and won a State championship as the Falcons' head varsity football coach in 2007.
He still coaches football and hoops at CSHS, but with his athletic clock ticking, he wanted to give indoor football one last shot.
"I hadn't played in four years and just really wanted to get back into the arena game," DeGrenier said. "A guy who had coached in the NFL for about 20 years, Rod Dowhower, had been a great mentor to me and I wanted to put the things that he taught me as a coach and as a player to use."
So, in late 2007, DeGrenier, the former Washington State QB, went to work out for the Rattlers, who were looking for a quarterback after Sherdrick Bonner - who DeGrenier backed up for five years - moved on to Chicago.
"From there, some of the people who were putting the Adrenaline together got to talking to me and things just sort of fell into place."
Have they ever. Entering Tuesday's game at Utah, DeGrenier leads the AIFA in passing yards per game (244.0), completion percentage (66.4), is second in touchdown passes (28) and has yet to throw an interception.
"When you're surrounded by veterans like Quincy Jackson and Maurice Bryant, guys who really know how to play, it sure makes things easier," DeGrenier said. "It seems like Maurice and I have been doing this together for a long time after playing together with the Rattlers. Now we're ending our careers together. Then you have a young guy like David Penland who is learning from the older guys and is doing a great job in the third receiver role. I think it's great."
Quincy Jackson
Long drives are not normally associated with indoor football. But Quincy Jackson was making plenty of them when his cell phone rang and Adrenaline head coach Andrew Moore was on the other end.
At the time, Jackson was driving a truck for a living in his native Alabama.
After playing for the Crimson Tide, having a short stint with the Cincinnati Bengals, playing AFL1 and even making an appearance in Vince McMahon's short-lived, but loud XFL among other stops, Jackson found himself out of football following the 2006 season.
While driving a truck he continued to train in preparation for joining the outdoor "All American Football League," a newly devised entity that was slated to begin in April of '08 and would be open only to athletes who had earned a four-year college degree.
But the league folded before it started and Moore, who was on the coaching staff for the same Tri-Cities Fever (Kennewick, Wash.) team that Jackson had played for in '06, seized the opportunity.
The results have been devastating, if not immediate.
The savvy receiver who runs crisp routes and catches anything in his neighborhood leads the AIFA in receptions per game (8.8), is tied for the top spot in touchdown catches (16) and is the man that DeGrenier calls "my go-to guy."
"I'm really not that surprised that things came together this quickly for us," Jackson said of the passing game's chemistry. "Even if you haven't played in awhile, when you're a veteran player it's just a matter of getting a feel for the game again.
"And Chad's among the three best quarterbacks I've ever played with, and that includes the NFL and AFL1 guys."
Maurice Bryant
If football had a batting order, Maurice Bryant would hit cleanup.
The quintessential deep threat still has big-time speed at age 34, and his big-play abilities have helped open things up underneath for the likes of Jackson and Penland.
Once his AFL1 days came to an end in '07, he looked online and discovered the Adrenaline, then made a phone call and scheduled a workout.
Coach Andrew Moore didn't need much convincing. A quick look at Bryant's resume included a two-year stint with the Tennessee Titans' practice squad, 62 touchdown catches for the Rattlers and Las Vegas Gladiators of AFL1 and a successful collegiate career at the University of Houston.
He and DeGrenier played four years together with the Rattlers, and the chemistry hasn't faded. To date, Bryant is second in the AIFA in yards per catch (17.0) and tied for third in TD catches (12) as he continues to simply outrun defensive backs 5-10 years his junior.
"When I was a free agent for the Tennessee Titans I always glued my eyes to the veteran receivers and learned every little trick," Bryant recalls. "Hopefully our young receivers are picking some things up from me."
A Southern California native, Bryant's flair for the dramatic comes with good reason.
He's played the role of a wide receiver in three very popular movies, "The Longest Yard," "We are Marshall" and "Invincible," where he played former Dallas Cowboys great Drew Pearson.
As for the big offensive numbers that the Adrenaline vets, and team, are putting up:
"Honestly, I thought they might be a little higher."