It’s a Fresh Start for the Avengers

Last year, the Los Angeles Avengers were a new franchise in the Arena Football League.

This year, the Avengers are a new team.

Only three players--linemen Brett Clark and Victor Hall, and receiver-defensive back Anthony Rice--remain from the team that began the 2000 season. Before it was over, 56 players had spent at least one week on the Los Angeles roster as the team went 3-11.

“We didn’t have the luxury of saying, ‘We need to fill one spot,’ ” Coach Stan Brock said. “We needed help everywhere.”

Offensively, the Avengers were a respectable first-year team. They averaged 47.1 points a game, 11th best in the then-17-team league, and their 279.3-yards average was sixth best.

Defensively, however, the Avengers were woeful. They gave up a league-worst average of 57.4 points a game and their average of 301 yards allowed ranked 14th.

There was an available excuse. Because of a labor dispute that initially kept players locked out of training camps, the Avengers had only six days to start molding a team before playing their first exhibition game.

Then the Avengers lost their first seven regular-season games, and the rest of the season was a work in progress as Brock and his staff struggled to find player combinations that worked.

Brock knew his team was in trouble early.

“The hard thing is when you practice against yourself, you think you can be pretty good,” Brock said. “Then we went out and got false hope by winning our first two preseason games against Arizona and Oklahoma.

“When we scrimmaged Arizona after the [exhibition] game, they weren’t playing around anymore and whacked us around pretty good. That’s when I started realizing we were not quite as good as we’d hoped.”

This year, the Avengers would welcome the kind of stability the league has developed.

As it begins its 15th season, the league has a six-year working agreement with the Arena Football League Players Assn. An antitrust suit against the league by the players’ union was settled in January. And the league has new franchises in Chicago and Detroit.

To compete, owner Casey Wasserman told Brock and the Avengers’ administrative staff to “max out” the $1.4-million salary cap in pursuit of the best players. Among the Arena veteran free agents signed by the Avengers, defensive back Mark Ricks and linemen Chris Butterfield and Carlos Fowler are expected to make an immediate impact.

A Los Angeles native beginning his sixth Arena season, Ricks is--for now--the most critical new part. The Avengers’ secondary was routinely torched last season. Ricks is expected to be an instant upgrade.

“I think they had a pretty good secondary last year. They just didn’t have a guy who was going to lead,” said Ricks, who had five interceptions last season with the Oklahoma Wranglers. “I think I can bring that to the table with my experience.”

Among the core group retained by the Avengers is quarterback Todd Marinovich, who had a tremendous season on the field and a tumultuous one off it.

Marinovich threw for 2,252 yards and 45 touchdowns--he threw a single-game league-record 10 touchdown passes against Houston--even though he didn’t become a starter until the team’s fifth game.

But last Dec. 13, Marinovich was stopped by police while driving in Los Angeles and eventually arrested on suspicion of possession of heroin. He eventually pleaded no contest and agreed to attend a court-approved drug-treatment program.

While working through his legal problems, Marinovich missed the Avengers’ mini-camps, the first five days of practice, and the team’s first exhibition game. But he is expected to start in tonight’s season opener at San Jose.

“I can say now I’m sure glad to be straight,” said Marinovich, 31. “How bad it was, I don’t want to say. I’m just very happy to be where I am today. And clean and sober. I’m getting old; it’s time to grow up and do the right thing.”

Brock will give Marinovich every chance to make it, although he signed former Oregon State and NFL quarterback Erik Wilhelm in the off-season.

“I’m hoping Todd will be ready to go,” Brock said. “If he’s not, I feel good about Erik. Right now, the biggest concern with Todd is, he hasn’t been beat up very much, and it takes a little extra time to get in football shape. I’m hoping it will be Todd, but we’re preparing for it to be Erik as well. I’m very confident in what Erik can do. I’m happy we have him.”

The opener is a tough one.

San Jose ended the regular season on an 11-game winning streak, and won the West Division title with the league’s best record, 12-2. The SaberCats reached the league semifinals before losing to eventual Arena Bowl runner-up Nashville.

Los Angeles lost both of last season’s games to San Jose. In San Jose, the Avengers were embarrassed, 78-25, their worst loss of the season and the sixth-highest margin of defeat in Arena history. In Los Angeles, the SaberCats outlasted the Avengers, 75-72.

In the second game, San Jose receiver-kickoff returner Steve Papin had a team-record 380 all-purpose yards and scored four touchdowns. He caught 13 passes for 232 yards.

Papin is back with San Jose after signing a two-year contract. But the SaberCats will open the season with a new quarterback for the sixth time. John Dutton completed 32 of 44 passes for 413 yards and six touchdowns in San Jose’s two exhibition victories.