Happy in a Small Pond : Piranhas’ Adrian Jarrell Is Comfortable in Arena Football League

Adrian Jarrell was a big shot coming out of Clarke Central High in Athens, Ga. Most publications rated him one of the top 100 high school football players in the nation and he was recruited by nearly every college football power.

But when Jarrell showed up for his first day of practice at Notre Dame, he quickly discovered there were quite a few big shots in South Bend, Ind.

“Sitting behind Rocket [Ismail], I said to myself, ‘Whoa, I’ve got to study. Football may not be the only way to go.’ ”

That realization seven years ago did more for him than any ego boost could have done, and that kind of perspective has allowed Jarrell to flourish in the Arena Football League with the Piranhas. Though he missed two games because of a sprained ankle, Jarrell is the AFL’s third-leading receiver with 73 catches for 836 yards and 11 touchdowns.

While some high school All-Americans might be bitter about playing for a fraction of what many of their college teammates are being paid, Jarrell simply laughs, and says, “Most of my best friends are millionaires. They make more in a week than I make doing this in a year.”

Among Jarrell’s friends are Seattle Seahawk quarterback Rick Mirer and San Francisco 49er defensive lineman Bryant Young. “I talk to those guys all the time,” said Jarrell. “I’ve learned that life is not all about football and only so many people can make it. That just shows you that those who don’t make it have to do something else with their life. That’s all. It’s no big deal.”

The deal goes like this: Jarrell’s mind is on business, his heart stays with football.

So as he propels himself through the air in search of the football and possibly an NFL contract, he works part time for Premier Health Systems, where he is the company’s vice president during the off-season. In five years, Jarrell plans to own a company.

“I knew I’d make it,” said Jarrell, who is only eight credits short of a master’s in business administration. “If not in football, then in business.”

Jarrell has not given up on playing in the NFL, but he knows the odds are not in his favor. In fact, it seems every time the odds are with him, he gets hurt.

After watching Ismail for two seasons, Jarrell got his chance as a junior, only to break his arm in practice before the third game of the season and was redshirted. Two years later, he broke his ribs and cracked his sternum a week before the season opener of his senior year. He missed eight games and returned to handle the punting duties and played sparingly at wide receiver the last four games.

Since there’s not much interest in often-injured punter/receivers in the NFL, Jarrell was not taken in the 1993 NFL draft, even though the prestigious agency ProServ had signed him to a contract.

“I understood why I wasn’t drafted,” said Jarrell, who was out of football for a year before signing with the AFL’s Las Vegas team in April, 1995. “If you don’t run a 4.2 40 [yard dash] and you don’t have a lot of flash, the NFL won’t even look at you.”

Ian Welsh, the Piranhas’ player personnel director, said he has never timed Jarrell in the 40-yard dash but believes Jarrell runs in the neighborhood of 4.5.

However, Welsh said it is not Jarrell’s speed that has allowed him to thrive in the AFL.

“I’ve always compared him to a Jerry Rice-type of receiver, the kind of guy who just glides and can spear passes behind him at full speed,” Welsh said. “He’s so smooth and he accelerates so quickly. He’s a lot faster than he looks. He gets up on people and then can cut so quickly.”

Said Jarrell: “If you have skills in this league as a receiver, you can be hard to stop,” he said. “There’s only so many defenders . . . I feel like I want the ball every play. I’m expecting it.”

In some games, it seems as if Jarrell does get the ball on every play. He caught a team-record 13 passes for 168 yards against San Jose in the opener. Last year, Jarrell caught 39 passes in six games with the Sting, now the Piranhas.

In five years at Notre Dame, Jarrell never put up numbers like that. In fact, he caught only 21 passes in his college career.

But he did have his moments.

As a sophomore, he caught only six passes but two of them are ingrained in Notre Dame folklore. He caught an 18-yard touchdown pass from Rick Mirer with 1 minute 40 seconds left to beat Michigan in the 1990 season opener. In the next game, he caught a deflected pass that went for 24 yards, setting up a last-minute, game-winning touchdown against Michigan State.

In his senior season, Jarrell scored on a game-tying 32-yard reverse and booted a 58-yard punt in Notre Dame’s upset of top-ranked Florida State.

“It’s funny, I didn’t get the ball much but I was always in there at the end of games,” he said. “I think that says something.”

William Pollard, a teammate of Jarrell’s at Notre Dame and also with the Piranhas, said Jarrell had a knack for making big plays in college.

“I saw him beat people deep in practice every day and I saw him make a lot of great plays,” said Pollard, who is one of Jarrell’s closest friends. “But unfortunately with Adrian’s injuries, he was one of those guys that was here today, gone tomorrow. He’d make a big play, then you wouldn’t see him again for a while.”

Jarrell isn’t sure how long he’ll be seen in the Arena Football League.

“I don’t see myself as one of these eight-, 10-year Arena vets,” he said. “My wife [Jennifer] and I want to have a family, so I have to get on with my life.”

But for now, that life includes Arena football.

“This year has definitely been a boost,” he said. “I’ve had a chance to put up some numbers. Ability can only get you so far. You eventually need something to solidify yourself.”