Columnist Dean Juipe: Abbreviated playoffs a big plus for AFL

Dean Juipe

Monday, May 3, 2004 | 9:46 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4084.

It's a league that relies on tricks and quirky rules, with teams that utilize hokey marketing ploys in the name of wholesome fun.

Credibility has never been the Arena Football League's leading characteristic or trait, yet the 50-yard freak show did something this year that goes a long way toward legitimizing its product. In spite of adding three teams since last season, to reach a total of 19, the AFL reduced its playoff field from a sprawling 12 to a more modest eight.

The end result: The individual games in a team's 16-game schedule not only mean much more than ever, the teams that advance won't do it by making an end run. Finish at .500 or worse and you're toast.

Facing those increased demands Sunday, the Las Vegas Gladiators stayed alive -- if only on the periphery -- in the playoff hunt with a 60-38 victory against the Indiana Firebirds at the Thomas & Mack Center. The Gladiators are now 5-7 with four games to play and very much in need of extending their winning streak beyond its current mark of two.

"It was a very good idea," team and AFL consultant Richard Rose said of the league's decision to reduce the number of its playoff teams. "It places more of a premium on in-season performance. When you've got 19 teams but only eight make it (to the playoffs), every game is real important.

"I think it's made the league more exciting."

The trade-off, if there is one, may become apparent over the season's final month as teams drop out of contention while attempting to retain their perpetually tenuous fan base. The Gladiators, for instance, have already seen their actual per-game attendance decline and it's apt to decline further if the team gets eliminated from playoff contention in the next couple of weeks.

"I know what you're saying but this is an always-fun league with a lot going on, and some people will come out to see a great team such as San Jose (which plays here May 16) or see if we can play the old spoiler's role," Rose said of the notion that the fans will skate if the Gladiators become mathematically eliminated.

Fans are already getting somewhat hard to find and the Gladiators' announced in-house attendance for the game with Indiana was nowhere near the 6,000 or so that was advertised. Almost three-quarters of the upstairs was curtained off and hardly anyone was bumping elbows or arms with a neighbor in the downstairs seating area.

Those who were there acted as if they were having fun and were mildly obedient as the public-address announcer routinely pleaded for more noise, leading to a somewhat dubious, if contrived, enthusiasm. The constant (and redundant) chatter over the audio system is just part of the ambient bombardment that spectators at AFL games are forced to endure, although even mainstream sports and leagues are increasingly prone to such over-the-top spectacles as songs between plays and ridiculous down-time stunts and promotions.

It makes the occasional viewer or somewhat disinterested spectator reach a common conclusion: The AFL is OK in small doses, but one game every now and then seems to be more than enough.

After all, how many times can you watch kids at midfield during a time-out "chicken dance" or chuckle during the birthday announcements when some guy is belittled as "old as dirt" rather than be heralded for his specific age?

There are also billboards on trucks that get to roam the field on occasion and cheerleaders who are fitted with oversized boxing gloves for a time-killing sparring session that appeared painful for the loser.

The AFL approach is obvious: Provide a little bit of everything and never allow for a peaceful moment.

It isn't necessarily an acquired taste and the Gladiators' failure to have a live radio broadcast of some of their games, such as Sunday's, foretells of greater problems.

Yet credit the team (and receiver Marcus Nash in particular for his 11 catches) for playing an inspired game with its back to the wall in getting past an Indiana squad that earlier in the season won six consecutive games.

Can the Gladiators win four more in a row? That's what it may take to reach the playoffs.

And for all the fault that can be found with the AFL, reaching the playoffs in this league is actually a nice achievement. It's legit.