Gladiators to take on familiar Columbus foes

Adam Candee

Friday, May 28, 2004 | 8:51 a.m.

Columbus Destroyers (6-9) at Gladiators (7-8) Sunday, 3 p.m., Thomas & Mack Center Radio: ESPN 920-AM. TV: None

If Sunday's game with Columbus is for nothing but pride, Gladiators lineman Joe Burch feels his team will fare just fine.

"Well, we've been playing on pride since we went on that losing streak," Burch said. "We just played to the best of our abilities and we fell short. That's pride there. We had enough pride in ourselves to carry on and give ourselves a shot."

Las Vegas lost its best playoff hope when it lost last week at Los Angeles. A win against a very familiar Columbus team, though, could still theoretically land the Gladiators with the eighth and final playoff berth.

With a win, the Gladiators could slide into the playoffs with immense and unlikely help from other teams. The main dominoes would have to fall like this: Los Angeles (9-6) must win against Orlando (9-6), while Austin (8-7), New York (8-7) and Tampa Bay (8-7) all must lose.

That would create a five-way tie at 8-8 (including Indiana, which has a bye this week) and the Gladiators could get in on a tiebreaker involving best win percentage in common games among the teams.

"Odds are against us, but we'll try," Burch said.

Beyond pride and a slim chance at the postseason, Las Vegas is playing for bragging rights against the Destroyers (6-9). There are more players from last year's Gladiators team on the active roster for Columbus (six) than there are for Las Vegas (five).

Headlining the group are kick returner Sedrick Robinson -- a player of particular concern to the Gladiators -- and kicker Steve Videtich. Gladiators coach Frank Haege is looking forward to seeing some old friends across the field.

"It's going to be spirited," Haege said. "It's going to be fun. It's going to be a lot of talking, a lot of posturing. It'll be good."

Gladiators fullback/linebacker Frank Carter is already deep into the "posturing" with former teammates like Jamarr Ward.

"Guys are already talking trash," Carter said.

It's a good thing that the players will have uniforms to tell them apart.

"It's going to be like an intrasquad scrimmage," Carter said.

The Destroyers have won three of their last four games, but it was too little and way too late for the franchise that moved from Buffalo to Ohio in the offseason.

"They've looked pretty good the past four games," Burch said. "They look better than what the record shows."

Marcus Nash will be looking to break a trio of league records. With three receiving touchdowns, five overall touchdowns and 23 points, Nash will become the single-season record holder in all three categories. He already broke the league's season receptions mark and continues to build on it at 148.

Las Vegas will not make any drastic lineup changes for the game. Haege does not feel he needs any further evaluation on players to determine who the team will attempt to keep or release in the offseason.

"I don't really buy into that anyway," Haege said of changes.