Rock Bottom

Things just aren't the same around the Memphis Shock this season. The mystique is gone, the fear they put into other teams has dissipated, and the players and coaches have the look of a group of people just playing out the string. It's an impressive group, talent-wise, but there's a missing ingredient this year, and the formerly indestructable Shock have done just that.

Zoltan Zephyr sees it too. "There's none of the camaraderie, none of the flair that we had the first time I was here."

Worse, it seems like the team got old overnight. Zoltan Zephyr himself is 36, as is Earthwind Moreland, a perennial All-TUFF selection who is a shell of his former self this year. Nathan Hale is 35, and has been talking retirement in one form or another since season X. Guard Glen Bolling is also retiring this year at the age of 40. Even Flash Quentin, who's "only" 31, has seemed to have lost a step.

If it's not age, it's off the field pressures. Embattled linebacker David Yoon is losing his grip on the TUFF Players Syndicate after negotiating what was seen as a raw deal by the majority of the players, and Howard Camarillo lost his radio show this season due to a combination of low ratings and personality conflicts.

Even so, there's a good foundation of younger talent, in the form of players like Dixon Burnham, the all-everything player, Danny Dementia and Camarillo split out wide, 21 year old Michael Nattiel, who can take over at QB if Burnham is used in another role, and a starting secondary that has the oldest player at 28.

The big news this week? Giving up a big lead to Cleveland, and having nothing left to make a comeback. Until this year, the most games the Shock had lost in a regular season was 5, and now they're shooting for their first losing record ever.
Other games this week have Pittsburgh winning their first Anderson Bowl, holding off a late rally to beat Baltimore 37-30, Chicago staking a further claim to the Central division by keeping Seattle out of the endzone late in a 26-19 win, and Wisconsin clobbering Boston to virtually guarantee the Wreckers a playoff spot.

More news and top performances at http://www.tuffonline.net/S013/Week12/WEEK12.TXT