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TRAINING
CAMP PART 1 - NEW YORK STOPVER
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New York, New York. Not the site of NFLE training camp in 2004. Before getting down to Tampa for some camp, there the small matter of a social visit to check out the New York clown ... |
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The Cheddarheads are reunited on the floor of the World's Most Famous Arena - Madison Square Garden. (That's Shuggie on the right by the way) Since leaving the UK, Shuggie is a now a die hard Hoops fan and has renounced all other sports. We we are the Garden to see St Johns round out their miserable season against Notre Dame who still had NCAA tourney hopes. |
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Courtside seats under the hoop make for a great view. And you get to hear the REAL sounds of the games too. For example the squeaking sneakers you hear all the time on TV are not as loud in person. They are ramped up for effect on TV! The only downside is the potential for a 6'10" giant man giving you an unsolicited lap dance ...
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St John's have a proud traditionbut have suffered through a woeful season. For this final game they were down to a mere 8 players after having kicked off various 'bad boys' throughout the season. To go out on a high the uni had decided to wear throwback jerseys for the final game. But apparently during pre-game they opened the box and didn't find enough jerseys even for the 8 man squad! |
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Play of the deal came from Notre Dame's star Chris Thomas (#1). He stole the ball from a St Johns player and ran unchallenged to the hoop where he he did a sweet 180 degree spin in mid air dunking the ball on the backside. His effort made Sportscenter later ... |
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In the end it was no contest. An early 9-2 lead for the Red Storm was quickly erased by the Irish and they cruised to an easy win. FINAL NOTRE DAME 89 ST JOHNS 62 |
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To celebrate another St Johns loss, Shuggie decided to order the World's Largest Cheesecake at Michael Jordan's Steakhouse (located inside the magnificent Grand Central Terminal). Despite a team effort the cake survived another 24 hours before fully disappearing. Attempts to steal the Heisman Trophy from the Yale Club by hiding it in the half eaten cheesecake were also unsuccessful ... |
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NYC still has twin towers to marvel at - Empire State & Chrysler |
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Sunday morning breaks over Queens. What to do on a lazy Sunday? The obvious answer was of course to take the Long Island Railroad out west to see some Arena football!hat That's the Queensboro Bridge by the way - easy to spot from Hotel Shuggie. |
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The Dragons live! As in the New York Dragons of course. They play out at Nassau Veteran Memorial Coliseum, home of NHL's Islanders - and a long train ride from Manhattan. After changing at Jamaica, the line ended at Hempstead. From there we needed a taxi to make kickoff. Word of warning - get in an unmarked taxi at one's peril ... nuff said! |
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We made kickoff OK thanks to some free tickets given to us while standing in line to buy tickets - great idea! Fact: If Kurt Warner's NFL career doesn't work out he can always come back to the Dragons as they hold his rights. The Dragons were originally the Iowa Barnstormers. |
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The Dragons (1-3) were playing the unbeaten San Jose Sabercats (3-0). SJ are of course led by ex Claymore QB Mark Grieb. Grieb was everybody's favourite back-up in 1998 when starter Jim Ballard struggled through a injury plagued season. Grieb started a couple of games in 98, but is best remembered for his final act in Week 7 vs the Monarchs (in the final matchup between the 2 teams) when he relieved Ballard and led a final drive setting up a winning Gary Parker FG. |
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| Mark wasn't the only 1998 alumni on the field. WR Jerry Reese was also on hand. We reminded Jerry about his "play" - the 80 yard TD in Barcelona where he scooped up a Chris Miller fumble after a catch and ran the final 55 yards for a TD. (Interestingly it was the 1st ever TD at a Cheddarheads game). Jerry got injured in that game and played sparingly the rest of the year. And guess what? he got injured too in this contest and didn't play the 2nd half! |
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And how could we not mention another sort of Claymore alumni? The gruff exterior in the polo shirt belongs to none other than the Claymores 1st ever head coach Larry Kuharich. That is if you count being a head coach without actually coaching a game, or even being in Scotland. Larry as you may remember was not the most popular of chaps back in camp in 1995 and was removed from his duties with the team on verge of revolt. Thanks for the memories big guy! |
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After San Jose scored a TD on their 1st possession, the Dragons marched downfield and look to tie it up. But for some reason they forgot that in Arena football you are meant to throw the ball, and RB Rodney Filer (#34) spills the ball into the stands as he tries to fly into the end zone. Touchback Sabercats! The Dragons would not try this again ... |
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Instead they turned to QB Aaron Garcia (#8) who had himself quite a day. Check out these stats Attempts:
21 Believe or not his 1st pass fell incomplete. So his next and final 20 passes never hit the turf! |
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In between Grieb tried to keep up ... but a bit of 'Claymore magic' didn't help. Late in the 1st Q he dropped back and spotted Jerry Reese open in the back of the end zone ... But Reese lets the ball slip through his hands and the chance for a Claymore TD vanishes! On the next play Reese gets the ball to the 1 (and gets injured) - but the Sabercats are turned back on 4th down and the Dragons get the ball and score and don't look back! |
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| A great innovation the Dragons were running was the hiring of headsets during the game where you could listen in to some of the players who were wired. Our favourite was DL Jerry Sharp (#69) who gave good value for money and never stopped yaking. The disclaimer for hiring the headsets came with a warning about bad language - just as well! |
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Another ex NFLE alum - Richmond Flowers (#4). Richmond must be a Dragon for life. He has gone directly from being a Barcelona Dragon to a New York Dragon. That is dedication to the cause! He's also a heck of a player. In Arena guys like him have to play both ways. He had a good game too. Two TD catches and two tackles on D. He also was good to talk to after the game and was raving about Jack Bicknell. |
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The Dragons ran out 64-50 winners in the end. Shuggie tries to console Grieb afterwards. We did a lot of that in 1998! FINAL DRAGONS
64 |
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Rainy Monday in New York. A good chance to familarise oneself with a yellow taxi. These would prove to be a more relaxing ride than than unmarked ones found out in Long Island. |
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New York to Tampa is only about 3 hours away - by air ... But of course that would be too easy! Instead take the train! Leaving New York in the evening, you pass thorough Philly and Washington before snoozing off. You wake up somewhere in the Carolinas. But not quite far enough south as you thought. You continue through the swamp of Georgia, getting to Savannah where the engineer takes sick. You wait for a new engineer and continue on down to Jackonsville. But the ride is slow and darkness falls again ... In all it took 25 hours! |
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