Columnist Ron Kantowski: With loss, Gladiators officially on job hunt

Monday, May 23, 2005 | 10:51 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

Wanted: Part-time work in Las Vegas. Experienced handyman comfortable both inside and outside. Has tools and good hands. Contact Joe Douglass, care of Las Vegas Gladiators. Available immediately through January 2006.

At 2:30 p.m. Sunday, Joe Douglass officially became unemployed.

None of the three things that needed to happen this weekend for he and the Gladiators to make the playoffs and extend their season did. San Jose won its game. Chicago won its game. The Gladiators lost theirs, dropping a 49-42 decision to the Arizona Rattlers with yet another uneven performance at the Thomas & Mack Center.

So ArenaBowl XIX will not feature the home team. Indoor football's Super Bowl will be played here June 12 and the inclusion of the Gladiators would have assured the game would be a success, at least from an aesthetic standpoint. But that was a long shot, anyway. Underachieving teams with 8-8 records generally don't get to play for jewel-encrusted rings that would make Wayne Newton blush.

Douglass is probably wondering if The Wayner needs some help around the stables where he keeps those Arabian horses.

Trying to make ends meet during the off-season is something the guys who play outdoor football for a living never have to worry about. The average salary in the NFL is $1.18 million. The average salary in the AFL is anywhere from $40,000 to $70,000, depending on who you ask and whether you count the free sandwiches from Mike's Jersey Subs, one of the Gladiators' sponsors, as income.

Maybe if you're a franchise player, like Gladiators quarterback Clint Dolezel, who gets a break on suits and neckties from a local clothier, you might not miss those bonus playoff checks from the league office. (Although based on the passes Dolezel underthrew and overthrew on Sunday, Gladiators fans can probably suggest a new use for some of that courtesy neckwear.) But for the league's rank-and-file players such as Douglass, missing the playoffs means any early trip to the employment agency.

"We talk about that (playoff money) in the locker room and that's definitely a little bit of an incentive," said Douglass, who caught five of Dolezel's passes and scored four touchdowns Sunday, one on a fumble return.

"We're competitive guys and the reason we play is the competition. But yeah, now I've got to find something. I plan to stay around because there are a lot of opportunities here. At least this is a good place to find (work)."

This year it's going to be even more important for Douglass to find an off-season job, as he and wife Liz recently became parents of a baby boy.

He wasn't the only one counting on a little playoff money, or at least thinking about the ways he could spend it.

"Those checks would have come in handy, especially during the off-season," said Marcus Nash, the former Tennessee star and one of Arena football's most feared pass catchers. "But it's not about checks, it's about championships. And with the talent we had, I would have expected more."

That's wins and checks.

Dolezel, who this season passed for 70-plus touchdowns for the seventh time in his AFL career, indicated he would have bet one of those Mastroianni Fashions suits on the Gladiators' playoff chances.

"I definitely thought we had a great team that would make the playoffs," he said in what is becoming a familiar refrain.

Great team? Then why did the Gladiators begin the last game needing tea leaves and rabbit's feet to qualify for the postseason?

"It was just a situation where we didn't get it done," said Dolezel, who was one of those who didn't get it done Sunday, throwing two first-half interceptions that put Las Vegas behind the 8-8 ball.

"Two years in a row we haven't been to the playoffs. I don't think I've ever done that."

Although to the untrained eye most Arena teams may look identical, with the victory often going to the team that has the ball last, Dolezel's remarks would seem to suggest the Gladiators were underachievers.

First-year coach Ron James wouldn't go that far.

"I wouldn't say we were underachievers," James said after the Gladiators failed to hold offensive service in the first half and spent most of the afternoon playing a futile game of catch-up. "I'd say it was a disappointing season because we didn't play to our potential."

Perhaps the reason James wouldn't cop to underachieving is because such an admission could wind up costing him his job. Jim Ferraro, the Gladiators' outspoken owner, was talking out loud last week that if the team didn't make the playoffs some more heads might roll. If Ferraro is serious, James' noggin could wind up in the same basket as Frank Haege's, last year's coach who was let go after a season almost identical to this one.

As for Gladiators fans, if you asked the 9,823 who were said to be on hand Sunday (divide it by two for a closer estimate), most would probably be indifferent that the team is hanging up the end zone nets before the playoffs start for a second consecutive year.

At the minor league level, or whatever level you put Arena football on, playoffs have never been a big deal to Las Vegas fans, probably because that's just one more ticket they have to buy. I used to laugh when the principals of our Triple-A teams used to say how crucial winning was to Las Vegas fans, then laughed louder when the Thunder and 51s played postseason games before thousands of empty seats.

Based on the number of fans who left early Sunday with the game still in doubt, I think most Gladiators fans have had their fill of the 50-yard indoor war for 2005.

But based on their long faces during the postgame autograph session, Gladiators players were taking this loss a little harder than most. Whether it was the disappointment of not making the playoffs or the prospect of not cashing another pay check with the rent coming due, there wasn't a whole lot to smile about.