Avengers Will Be OK When the Game Begins

This won’t be hard. In fact, this will be the easiest thing the Avengers have done in a week.

They will walk into the Gaylord Entertainment Center today, checking their grief at the door, ready to spring all the emotion rooted in last Sunday’s death of lineman Al Lucas on the Nashville Kats.

Hard to play a game? Just try to stop them.

“Before the game, it’s going to be emotional for all the guys,” Avenger receiver Greg Hopkins said. “In the locker room before the game, during warmups, everyone is going to be thinking about Al. Once the whistle blows and the kickoff, it is going to be 100% effort.”

The Avengers spent much of last week answering questions and pausing to remember their friend in the aftermath of a tragedy against the New York Dragons last week, when Lucas died of an apparent spinal cord injury while making a tackle on a kickoff. On Monday, they will attend his funeral in Macon, Ga.

Before that comes the Kats.

“We can’t let our minds drift,” quarterback John Kaleo said.

Whether the Avengers’ minds meander is to be seen, but certainly their journey through the past week has pointed them toward playing football today, and with passion.

The last seven days have brought support from all quarters. David Lucas, Al’s father, spoke to the team twice last week, with two emotional speeches, urging them to continue on.

“He told us we were winners and winners never quit,” lineman Silas Demary said.

There has been an outpouring of sympathy and tributes throughout the Arena Football League. Colorado lineman Kyle Moore-Brown said he would wear Lucas’ No. 76 for the rest of the season. Georgia receiver Chris Jackson, who played for the Avengers last season, will attend Monday’s funeral, along with several other Georgia players. And there will be a moment of silence before every AFL game this weekend.

The Avengers have appreciated all of the support. But what burns inside their locker room now is determination.

“Coach [Ed Hodgkiss] told us you can’t dedicate a championship to someone, or dedicate a victory,” lineman Fred Ray said. ‘What you can dedicate yourself to is effort. We’re going to give that effort because that’s what Al would do.”

Some will find it a difficult task. Kaleo and Lucas go back to Tampa Bay, where they helped the Storm win the ArenaBowl in 2003, and Kaleo was shaky early last week when talking about his friend. Bernard Riley is in the uneasy position of starting in Lucas’ spot. Demary and Ray, two close friends of Lucas, found it difficult to speak at times.

But as the week progressed there were fewer questions about Lucas and more about the upcoming football game.

“I think that helps,” Hodgkiss said Wednesday. “Today was a little better than yesterday and tomorrow will be better than today. Having a game to focus on helps.”

The Avengers (6-4) are half a game behind first-place San Jose (7-4) in the Western Division. Nashville is 2-7-1, which seems to indicate the Avengers have a good chance to improve their playoff chances.

“Are we ready? I don’t know,” Ray said. “I know it will be emotional. But everyone will be prepared. You can always determine how to prepare yourself, how hard you work, and that is something Al did.”