Avengers Get Superstar Visitor

The Avengers got their first media full-court press Tuesday when print and broadcast reporters descended on their training facility at West Los Angeles College.

But things really got interesting when a visitor arrived.

New York Jet wide receiver Keyshawn Johnson, who played football at West Los Angeles and USC before going to the NFL, dropped by at the invitation of owner Casey Wasserman.

“He’s a friend of mine,” said Johnson, doing off-season workouts in Los Angeles instead of the Jets’ camp at Hofstra University. “I wanted to come and see what he did to the facilities because they looked nothing like this when I went to school here. I came up four weeks ago and nothing was done, so it looks like they put some things together in the last month.”

Johnson then talked with reporters for 15 minutes on a variety of subjects:

* Arena League football--”I don’t really know the game . . . but I’ve been to one game and I have seats at Staples Center.”

* Pro football in Los Angeles--”It’s a good thing, whether it’s the NFL, Arena League or whatever.”

* The level of respect former Arena player Kurt Warner has brought to the NFL--”Not only has Kurt Warner accomplished things, but you have guys like Derek Stingley, who was on my team for a short time.

“You’ll always have guys who don’t get a fair look to perform at a high level. I’ve looked at the Arena League as a minor league, but as long as the players continue to do the things they are capable of doing on the football field, then they will get an opportunity to play on Sundays, and that’s everybody’s dream.”

Asked kiddingly whether Wasserman had asked him to invest in the Avengers, Johnson smiled and said, “We haven’t gotten there yet.”

*

Todd Marinovich got almost as much media attention as Johnson, in part because the former Trojan and Raider has the best-known name among the Avengers.

He will not be the starting quarterback; Scott Semptimphelter, a four-year Arena veteran has the job. But that’s fine with Marinovich, who is learning the Arena game from scratch and doesn’t have much time before the first exhibition game Monday at Phoenix.

“That takes some pressure off me,” Marinovich said. [Scott] does get rid of the ball quickly. He’s got that internal clock of when to throw. Mine is about a second behind his. That’s a big difference right there.”