Colorado Crush coach Mike Dailey has had many milestones in his 16 years of coaching in the Arena Football League, nine as a head coach.
Before moving to the next milestone – Colorado’s first home playoff game today in the three years of the franchise – Dailey took some time out to reminisce about the league that started after a mock game of semipro players in Chicago.
The Crush plays the San Jose SaberCats at 1:30 p.m. at the Pepsi Center. The winner advances to the American Conference championship game next weekend with a chance to get to the June 12 ArenaBowl in Las Vegas.
Some think Dailey should reminisce while he can. The SaberCats, the league’s defending champions, are 4-0 against the Crush in the past three seasons. San Jose’s work against the Crush includes an 89-41 victory April 22 at the Pepsi Center, and the average margin of victory in the four games is 31 points.
“It’s anybody’s ballgame as to who will move forward in the playoffs,” Dailey said.
After completing a practice last week, Dailey had time to look back.
“When I first started, the definition of a professional league was that somebody was paying you,” Dailey said. “But you didn’t have the feeling it was a real pro league. The league didn’t have the image, the caliber of players, the ownership and the television that it has today.”
Dailey said there were some unique times in the early stages.
“We had a combined practice to start the season,” Dailey said. “A lot of times, you’d come in after practice and literally trade a player right there at dinner. Sometimes the trades didn’t work out so well, and the next day the coach would say he was sending the player back.”
The league’s founder was Jim Foster, an NFL executive who also invented the game and staged the first showing in Chicago.
“I think I made $5,000 the first year as an assistant coach,” Dailey said. “The season was only eight games, but I still remember thinking that I would hate to break my wife’s heart by telling her I couldn’t pay the mortgage.”
Dailey’s trip through the league included an AFL championship in 1999 with the Albany Firebirds.
“There was a lot of uncertainty, and I never in my wildest imagination would have thought it would reach this point,” Dailey said. “The league carved out a career for me. I didn’t think there ever would be the day that I would sit on one side of a desk and John Elway would be at the other side.”
Elway doesn’t just sit at the desk.
“John Elway wants to be a world champion in this league,” Dailey said. “There ain’t a doubt about that. He doesn’t want to be second.”
AFL playoffs
Who: Colorado Crush (10-6) vs. San Jose SaberCats (9-7)
When: Today, 1:30 p.m.
Where: Pepsi Center
TV/radio: KUSA-9/KHOW 630 AM
Irv Moss can be reached at 303-820-1296 or imoss@denverpost.com.
