In addition to having team nicknames distinguishable by one mere letter, the Chicago Rush and Colorado Crush share several common denominators heading into the Arena Football League’s American Conference championship today at the Pepsi Center.
Foremost, neither team has advanced to the ArenaBowl.
And that’s enough incentive for any team.
There are other connections as well.
Coaches Mike Hohensee of Chicago and Mike Dailey of Colorado have been close friends for 20 years. Co-owners John Elway of the Crush and Mike Ditka of the Rush are inductees in the NFL Hall of Fame and both have ties to the NFL’s Super Bowl.
But the connection that will be most prominent on the field involves Rush quarterback Raymond Philyaw and a trio of Crush players, all former teammates on the defunct Indiana Firebirds AFL franchise.
“It’s tough to play against former teammates when both need to win to go to the championship game,” Philyaw said. “Somebody has to win. You hope it ends up on a happy note for yourself, but if it doesn’t, you can be happy for your friends. We’ll all shake hands before the game.”
Philyaw quarterbacked the Firebirds before moving to Chicago last year. He’ll see former teammates fullback-linebacker Rich Young and linemen Kyle Moore-Brown and Hugh Hunter on the Crush sideline. He also played for Dailey before the coach moved to Colorado to lead the Crush for the 2004 season.
Philyaw has had the upper hand so far. The Rush defeated Colorado twice in the regular season, 51-48 at the Pepsi Center in the third game of the season and 75-51 in Chicago seven weeks ago. Chicago was 1-1 against the Crush in 2004.
“A playoff game is a totally different situation,” Philyaw said. “When I played for Indiana, Grand Rapids once beat us three times in a season, so I know it can be done. The biggest thing this time is the home-field advantage for them.”
Crush quarterback John Dutton realizes Chicago has had the Crush’s number. But the Crush stopped another nemesis, the San Jose SaberCats, in last Sunday’s 56-48 first-round win. The SaberCats were 4-0 against the Crush going into the game.
“The best thing that happened for us was that Chicago also won last week,” Dutton said. “We have a lot of motivation against Chicago. When we got to the playoffs, we wanted to play San Jose and Chicago and it has turned out that way.”
Dutton talked about the difficulty of maintaining high emotion against a nemesis two weeks in a row.
“You have to forget about last week because the intensity level increases each week in the playoffs,” Dutton said. “We know what it’s all about and they know what it’s all about. They beat us twice this year and they’re feeling pretty confident.
“You don’t save yourself this week. If you don’t win, you go home and watch two other teams play where you think you should be.”
Today’s game
What: Arena Football League American Conference championship
Who: Chicago Rush (10-7) vs. Colorado Crush (11-6)
When: 1 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.
