May 2, 2024 • 20 mins
Facing an uncertain season grouped with unanswered questions, Philadelphia Soul kicker Conor Mangan spoke up about the situation surrounding the team in an exclusive phone interview with Arena Insider. Mangan discusses the sudden termination of its head coach, why the team was kicked out of its motel, not making it to the game and next steps for him and the team. Visit: arenainsider.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
I love to tell you there's abackup plan. I'm not really sure right
now, so I guess we'll justwe'll we'll just see what's happening. Why
(00:24):
did you agree to do this interviewwith us? There's a good reason for
the story from the player's perspective toget out. Too many times there's information
that does not get out. Ithink that confuses fans, that maybe kind
of confuses media, that might evenconfuse the league. So I think it's
a good idea to hear it froma player's perspective, especially one that's not
(00:51):
doesn't contain any rumor or opinions,just literally what the players have experienced.
And I think that's important that thatpeople know that. Would you you to
the field offisode and Arena Football League? Where did you play and kind of
give us a little background about that? Well, previously, my journey is
(01:11):
quite a bit different than probably mostof the other players, if not all
the other players. I was actuallya rugby player. I was led professionally
in Canada for the Atlantic Rock andthen I kind of slowly kind of trying
to transition to American football and kickingfootball, and it was you know,
as a kicker in rugby and somethingthat I always loved, so that's what
(01:33):
I ded to do. I've beenon several NFL workouts and CFL workouts,
being in and out of a lotof different facilities, and the kind of
natural progression was, you know,to eventually get a professional job. The
last year, I got a jobat the Northern Arizona Wranglers, or I
was named All Rookie. I kindof brought the drop kick back into the
(01:55):
league that having kind of assent fora long time, kind of a hidden
rule in the league that kind ofgives any team quite a bit of advantage.
And then I heard the NFL wascoming back. I heard the Philadelphia
Soul was coming back, that thisis a you know, fantastic organization with
a massive fan base obviously to Philadelphia, which just sports math fans in general,
(02:17):
which really kind of appealed to meas a player, and I thought
it could kind of bring, youknow, the best that I had to
offer to you know, one ofthe best cities in the league. So
that really kind of pulled me.And then then Court Pimble kind of gave
me that call. It just reallydrew me to the team from what he
was saying, so I was reallyexcited to play. So when did you
(02:38):
sign with the team. I signeda team in January twenty twenty four.
January got you. So you've beeninitially okay, so you've been working out
with the team getting ready. Sowhat was that training like leading up to
training camp and then eventually towards gameweek. That's right. So I was
(03:00):
training privately with a coach at inSan Diego, was going to get myself
ready. I was using different typesof arena balls and NFL doke balls,
which we were originally told stay withthe ball for the league, but the
ball changed the composite balls, whichyou know, not a massive difference for
everyone, especially the fans, butfor quarterbacks and kickers it obviously matters quite
a bit. And then yeah,went down to training camp for that last
(03:23):
week and got set there and wastraining with the soul and the whole time,
you know, I was practice ofthe team and involved in the group
chats and involved in conversations, talkingconsistently with coach Pimble, who was my
head contact there, and sending infilm you know every week about how I
was picking, how I was doing, and yeah, it's excited to attack
(03:43):
the season to the ounce. Sotake me back to you know, you're
working out in training camp getting readyfor the season, and then coach Pimol
resigned. What happened there to yourknowledge? So what happened was we had
a meeting with the general manager,Kelly Logan. It wasn't an announced meeting,
(04:09):
but training was at ten am thatmorning, which is announcement before by
coach Pimmel. Training is usually earliernaturally at eight Turkey, but it was
at ten am, so I arrivedat nineteenty five. It was a meeting
already going on with the GM,Kelly Logan, all the players and several
of the coaching staff, and wewere discussing some of the things going on
(04:30):
for the next weekend, so thatgame against Louisiana and what was going on.
Some players voice their concerns over someof the issues during that meeting,
but not all our concerns. Idon't really need to get into it maybe
right now, but some of themwere to do that to do with housing
someone are doing with the fact thatthere was no trainers at practice that week
(04:53):
present, and one of the bigconcerns that there was only one way flights
booked to Louisiana. We didn't havereturn flights, but so he kind of
concerns about that. Kelly Logan addressedthose issues with he's working on us and
that we will let us know Thursdayby four pm and maybe at the latest
(05:14):
six pm on Thursday, that hewould get back to us with some solid
answers. And then we went outof that room, we entered the field,
we put on our cleats. Istarted kicking on his immediately because I
franked him had kicks in before therest of the team started warming up.
Coach Pible brought us in for togetherkind of within about five minutes after that
(05:35):
meeting, we all got together withhim and he announced that he was he
was going to step down from theteam for a multitude of reasons. It
wasn't just about the situation that theteam found themselves, but it had to
do with personal reasons and family reasonson his end. So he explained that
(05:58):
to us. It was kind ofa shock to everyone. To be honest,
I'm not even sure if the coachesknew anything about it. It just
hit us very hard and obviously verydisappointing because Coach Finmlts and the majority of
the recruiting. I think everyone everyone'skind of excited to play for him,
and their royalty was with him,and then they're also been got hit with
(06:21):
he's gone. And then he nominatedcoach Fena as the interim head coach or
the next head coach, and soI kind of went from there. They
had a quick coaches meeting and theyannounced who the new coach is going to
be, and we kind of wentfrom there. But yeah, kind of
a little bit in shock from fromthat meeting. And that was that was
(06:44):
our last practice to date. Actually, so what day was that? He
said in your last practice? Thatwas Thursday, so it would be April
twenty fifth, I believe, Anddidn't really practice that day. We kind
of did too some run throughs becausethere was kind of question marks over insurance
(07:06):
and workers' comp That was it wassaid to us by coaches there that there
was question marks and they said theyweren't sure and the practice Filly obviously has
walls on the two, which therewere some issues going on. So I
think we kind of collectively as coachesand players and staff just made the decision
not to do a full contact practiceand just many they walk through. So
(07:29):
I just went through my kicks asnormal. It didn't make a big difference
to me either way. But that'skind of how the practice went down.
Did you stay at the team hotelat the at the motel? Yes,
it did. And what happened withthat situation when the you could essentially the
players got kicked out and had toretrieve your belongings later on, what happened
(07:54):
with that, well, they askedus to move all their belongings to the
fourth floor into one room. Itseemed to be because the hotel and I
heard this film a player and acoach at the hotel wasn't booked for that
weekend because we were supposed to bein Louidiana, which makes you know,
a lot of sense. And thenwe're supposed to go into apartments after that,
(08:18):
but they weren't booked apparently the apartmentsfor us or the accommodation, so
they have to move our belongings intothat, and then I think kind of
broke down on the friday, wekind of weren't getting confirmation about flights.
We weren't get in confirmation but thebus. We just didn't know a lot
(08:39):
of a lot of answers. Andthen when some players tried to retrieve their
belongings, you know, for forwhatever reason, whether they wanted to bring
them to the Lidiana with them orother reasons. That's when the hotel kind
of said, you know, we'renot opening the door. There's a bill
that hasn't be paid, and youknow, we kind of require payment for
them. And then twin several playersa few minutes later decided to get the
(09:03):
police involved, and the police turnedup and basically said, you know,
you can't hold people's personal belongings ascollateral, and so they kind of have
to open the door. So thatluckily they're able to resolve the situation fairly
quickly then and kind of get allthat all that sorted, especially for the
for the guys who had all theirbelongings inside that one room. So that
(09:26):
kind of the briefly how that wentdown. I'm on my way home from
the airport because I didn't well,I got to the airport, I got
to the gates. There was maybeone or two players there. There was
there was no coaches, there wasno staff. We didn't get on the
(09:46):
airplane, and we didn't hear anythingfrom the coach, didn't hear anything from
the ownership. We didn't hear anythingfrom the GMS. I texted the GM
a bunch of times kind of seewhat's happening. I didn't have anyone else's
number. Our head coach is notthere. He unfortunately had to retire slash
quick the other day. Didn't reallyknow the new head coach, who was
disappointed that day because we didn't reallyhave a practice. We'd have bit of
(10:11):
a run through again for a bunchof some reasons. So, yeah,
I'm still in Philadelphia, and youposted a video that, of course was
widely shared on social media kind ofbreaking down. He said he got to
the airport and you know the flightshe's seen. There was a couple of
players. He explained a little bitmore of about that video when he got
to the airport and he essentially didn'tget on a plane. Yeah, so
(10:35):
I was on my weight. Iwas I was waiting actually for the bus
because we were told the day beforethat there was going to be a bus
that was going to show about fourpm at the two Great Motel. They
were gonna be kicked off on inMad Laurel and I checked out back to
the motels eleven am. So alittle concerned about waiting around for five hours,
(10:56):
but we were mostly fine with itconsidering everything else going on. So
the bus didn't show up. Atfour pm, there was no bus,
so I made the decision to gothere myself. I said, you know,
I'm going to make every effort.I can't to go play this game
because I want to play. SoI got my car and I drove there,
(11:18):
and I parked there and I paidfor parking and I went in and
I actually also didn't know how topick up my ticket. I didn't have
a ticket, so I kind ofrushed around the airport kind of asking a
couple of staff, Hey, like, this is a situation. I'm a
player and I don't have a ticket, but I think there's a ticket.
Again, I texted coach Kelly Logan, but hadn't heard anything about it about
(11:39):
how to get my ticket. SoI went up to the checking dead for
the American Airlines. They said,yeah, you guys are flying out at
two forty five pm. I said, actually, there's twenty two of you
books for flights. It's the restof your teammates here And I said,
I really don't know, but I'mbut I'm not sure from bait on what
I saw, but again I didn'twant to. I didn't want to see
(12:00):
any rumors to this guy or like, you know, assume anything. But
I really didn't know. I sawa bunch of people leave the motel,
but I don't know where they went. So he said, you know,
there's the twenty two bookings, soI can book you a flight. But
if there's the rest of them,I mean, what do you want me
to do with his flight? Andhe said, I you're the leader of
the group, and I said I'mnot. And he mentioned a few other
(12:20):
players' names and he was like,are any of these guys the leader of
the group? And I said,I really don't know. I was like,
I know that guy is my quarterback. I know that guy is a
is a DV. You know thatguy is offensive lineman the people he was
naming out. And he said,look, here's what I can do.
I can I can book all youguys tomorrow on an earth flight that if
that works better, and you canget everything in And I said, well,
(12:41):
I haven't really heard anything, mycoach. I really don't know.
And he's like, well, Ican issue your ticket and you know you
can do what you want to do, and he did, and I went
up to the checking desk and therewas art with us to the gate,
and there was no players present.There was no there was no coaching president,
there was no staff there, andI just got the feeling that like
no one was getting on on theslice. So then I texted the holder
(13:05):
and snapper that I knew, justto see what their plan was. They're
thinking, if I don't have aholder and snapper and probably not gonna be
able to kick or a drop kickat all during the game. And they
at that point they had both basicallysaid that they weren't going to be there
and they weren't on the plane,and I just kind of made the decision
that this wasn't this wasn't going tohappen, and clearly the game wasn't going
(13:28):
to go ahead because there's no playersgoing to the gamer than me. And
so at that point I kind ofleft the airports and decided to kind of
again tell my friend of story.Was there any communication after all of that
that went down, you know,like not getting on like like you just
(13:48):
mentioned, not getting on a planeand having to go back home. Was
there any communication with whether it wasthe GM the on there or even the
commissioner. No, so I didnot have the commission's numbers and not the
owner's number, which is the sameperson I had the GM's number. I
texted them at that point. Itexted him three times and I didn't hear
(14:11):
back from them. And we alsohave an app that we used to communicate
with just the team, and there'sno communication in that app either. What
were you thinking about? Were yousure that is this game going on?
Does that mean that I'm released fromthe team? Kind of those thoughts like
that could could come up. Iwas I was sort of full sure I
was gonna play. I was fullsure we were playing. I was like,
(14:35):
this is this Philadelphia Soul. We'rewe're playing a football game and we're
gonna win. Like that was thatwas drilled into my head. I saw
the talent that was on the fieldduring practice, and I thought, how
good we were. I felt veryconfident, felt very prepared, kind of
in my own performance play, verytied to play, and I was kind
of it was a bit surreal,like it wasn't. It wasn't. None
(14:56):
of it was really kind of thinkingin at the time, But I was
like, you know, I Ithink people kind of got to know because
people that were coming to watch meplay and I people that are asking for
live streams. You know a lotof people from Ireland in particular, we're
all asking for life streams. Alot of people from Canada, where I
played and lived for a long time, We're all asked me, how do
(15:18):
I watch this game? So Ifigured like I owed the people that kind
of tell them the story, butwasn't really thinking it, wasn't really thinking
in that we weren't actually playing.And then I was kind of I was
kind of sitting in my car afterwards, and I was just kind of started
to get angry, to be honest, and just kind of like, this
is this is kind of really frustrating. Like I really really wanted to play,
(15:39):
and I just talked to myself,you know what, this might happen,
this might not happen. Maybe I'llfly out tomorrow, maybe I'll still
be at the game, maybe everyonewill be at the game. This is
gonna be fine. So how canI be most productive right now? I
think'm gonna go to the gym.I'm gonna keep fit and keep back to
them. I'm gonna stretch it out. I'm going to find a place to
stay. So my thought kind ofwent straight in to kind of takeing care
(16:00):
of myself because we didn't have anywhereto stay, there was no accommodation.
Super eight obviously weren't going to takeit back in. So I was very
lucky to have a friend that livedin a nearby city that wasn't too far
away that they could drive to andstay there, and that I could still
be available for Philadelphia. So Ididn't really I was trying not to think
(16:26):
about it too much. Just kepton thinking like, no, we're gonna
play. No, we're gonna play. No, we're gonna play. That
was kind of in my head.So I want to kind of expand on
what you just mentioned about not havinga place to stay. So was the
staying at the team hotel? Wasthat your main place to stay? Did
you have you didn't have anything locallyto live? No, that's right.
(16:48):
We were all we were all sayingat the Super eight motel. That's where
the team was centered. There wasseveral local euys in the team that weren't
staying there are obviously the local Philadelphiabut the rest of us we're all tender
a superation. What's going to bethe status for this week's game. Are
you planning to play in this game? I don't. I don't know because
(17:15):
I don't know if there's going tobe a game, not because of my
own personal references. I'm contracted toPhiladelphia. I plan on honoring my contract.
That's how that's why I was raised, That's how you do things where
I'm from in Ireland, and Iknow a lot of places as well where
everyone's from the US. You kindof on what you said, you on
(17:37):
what you signed. I like,you know, being a man of my
word. I'm ready to play.I'm excited to play. I don't know
if we're going to play if I'vebeen told by one source that there is
a game that is going ahead onSunday and we're going to try and play.
But in that same source, they'vesaid, you know, we'll know
(17:59):
more about theirs. So that's kindof where we're sitting right now. That's
kind of how I feel. I'dlike people to know that the players themselves
have been putting up with this forthree weeks and they've been terrific. They've
been market level, they've been verybuilding in their training, ultra professional,
(18:22):
very high level athletes, and they'vebeen dealing with like very what's seems to
be you know, like lots ofaspects of training that was missing, including
like trainers, proper nutrition, properhydration, lots of things like that.
And we've been still training really reallywell and very great to play and very
passionate about playing for Phildelphy goal.And it's just really unfortunate that this has
(18:45):
happened. And it's that a lotof the stick has kind of come down
to the players, and the peoplewho lose out the most seem to be
the players. I'm very lucky becauseI summer this day nearby, you know,
But there's players there who haven't atit, had or to staying nearby,
and they've been stuck in a muchmorese situation, or they've have to
by flights to go home or bybus tickets are or whatever. Maybe and
(19:07):
I'm not going to speak in theirbehalf, but I'm just saying that that's
that's what happened. I don't knowthe exact story, and I'll let them
tell them if they want to tellthem. But I think it's important to
think about the players at this momentand not just about the league. I'd
like people to think about, youknow, the actual people who are involved
here in the sacrifices that are beingmade by the players, especially you know,
(19:32):
being excited about a lot of themsigning, you know, in January
or February, and then to kindof come to this sort of situation where
we haven't even got to play agame yet. Do you have a backup
plan for you just in case nothingelse works out? There's never really a
backup planking because I have a backupplan. You're never really fully committed to,
(19:53):
you know, Plan A, Sothere's always Plan A. I love
to tell you that the backup.And I'm not really sure right now,
so I guess we'll just we'll,we'll just see what's happening. I know,
I've received a lot of phone callsfrom a lot of different teams in
the last couple of days. Again, I'm contracted to Philadelphia Soul, so
(20:15):
I'm not sure where that sits wouldbe. I asked coach Kelly Logan today
what that means, and he didtell me he'd let me know later this
evening, but I haven't heard fromhim yet. So that's currently where it
stands. And yeah, I'm notreally sure what the backup plan is,
Just that you know. I wantto play football, I want to do
well, I want to perform welland I want to win
I love to tell you there's abackup plan. I'm not really sure right
now, so I guess we'll justwe'll we'll just see what's happening. Why
(00:24):
did you agree to do this interviewwith us? There's a good reason for
the story from the player's perspective toget out. Too many times there's information
that does not get out. Ithink that confuses fans, that maybe kind
of confuses media, that might evenconfuse the league. So I think it's
a good idea to hear it froma player's perspective, especially one that's not
(00:51):
doesn't contain any rumor or opinions,just literally what the players have experienced.
And I think that's important that thatpeople know that. Would you you to
the field offisode and Arena Football League? Where did you play and kind of
give us a little background about that? Well, previously, my journey is
(01:11):
quite a bit different than probably mostof the other players, if not all
the other players. I was actuallya rugby player. I was led professionally
in Canada for the Atlantic Rock andthen I kind of slowly kind of trying
to transition to American football and kickingfootball, and it was you know,
as a kicker in rugby and somethingthat I always loved, so that's what
(01:33):
I ded to do. I've beenon several NFL workouts and CFL workouts,
being in and out of a lotof different facilities, and the kind of
natural progression was, you know,to eventually get a professional job. The
last year, I got a jobat the Northern Arizona Wranglers, or I
was named All Rookie. I kindof brought the drop kick back into the
(01:55):
league that having kind of assent fora long time, kind of a hidden
rule in the league that kind ofgives any team quite a bit of advantage.
And then I heard the NFL wascoming back. I heard the Philadelphia
Soul was coming back, that thisis a you know, fantastic organization with
a massive fan base obviously to Philadelphia, which just sports math fans in general,
(02:17):
which really kind of appealed to meas a player, and I thought
it could kind of bring, youknow, the best that I had to
offer to you know, one ofthe best cities in the league. So
that really kind of pulled me.And then then Court Pimble kind of gave
me that call. It just reallydrew me to the team from what he
was saying, so I was reallyexcited to play. So when did you
(02:38):
sign with the team. I signeda team in January twenty twenty four.
January got you. So you've beeninitially okay, so you've been working out
with the team getting ready. Sowhat was that training like leading up to
training camp and then eventually towards gameweek. That's right. So I was
(03:00):
training privately with a coach at inSan Diego, was going to get myself
ready. I was using different typesof arena balls and NFL doke balls,
which we were originally told stay withthe ball for the league, but the
ball changed the composite balls, whichyou know, not a massive difference for
everyone, especially the fans, butfor quarterbacks and kickers it obviously matters quite
a bit. And then yeah,went down to training camp for that last
(03:23):
week and got set there and wastraining with the soul and the whole time,
you know, I was practice ofthe team and involved in the group
chats and involved in conversations, talkingconsistently with coach Pimble, who was my
head contact there, and sending infilm you know every week about how I
was picking, how I was doing, and yeah, it's excited to attack
(03:43):
the season to the ounce. Sotake me back to you know, you're
working out in training camp getting readyfor the season, and then coach Pimol
resigned. What happened there to yourknowledge? So what happened was we had
a meeting with the general manager,Kelly Logan. It wasn't an announced meeting,
(04:09):
but training was at ten am thatmorning, which is announcement before by
coach Pimmel. Training is usually earliernaturally at eight Turkey, but it was
at ten am, so I arrivedat nineteenty five. It was a meeting
already going on with the GM,Kelly Logan, all the players and several
of the coaching staff, and wewere discussing some of the things going on
(04:30):
for the next weekend, so thatgame against Louisiana and what was going on.
Some players voice their concerns over someof the issues during that meeting,
but not all our concerns. Idon't really need to get into it maybe
right now, but some of themwere to do that to do with housing
someone are doing with the fact thatthere was no trainers at practice that week
(04:53):
present, and one of the bigconcerns that there was only one way flights
booked to Louisiana. We didn't havereturn flights, but so he kind of
concerns about that. Kelly Logan addressedthose issues with he's working on us and
that we will let us know Thursdayby four pm and maybe at the latest
(05:14):
six pm on Thursday, that hewould get back to us with some solid
answers. And then we went outof that room, we entered the field,
we put on our cleats. Istarted kicking on his immediately because I
franked him had kicks in before therest of the team started warming up.
Coach Pible brought us in for togetherkind of within about five minutes after that
(05:35):
meeting, we all got together withhim and he announced that he was he
was going to step down from theteam for a multitude of reasons. It
wasn't just about the situation that theteam found themselves, but it had to
do with personal reasons and family reasonson his end. So he explained that
(05:58):
to us. It was kind ofa shock to everyone. To be honest,
I'm not even sure if the coachesknew anything about it. It just
hit us very hard and obviously verydisappointing because Coach Finmlts and the majority of
the recruiting. I think everyone everyone'skind of excited to play for him,
and their royalty was with him,and then they're also been got hit with
(06:21):
he's gone. And then he nominatedcoach Fena as the interim head coach or
the next head coach, and soI kind of went from there. They
had a quick coaches meeting and theyannounced who the new coach is going to
be, and we kind of wentfrom there. But yeah, kind of
a little bit in shock from fromthat meeting. And that was that was
(06:44):
our last practice to date. Actually, so what day was that? He
said in your last practice? Thatwas Thursday, so it would be April
twenty fifth, I believe, Anddidn't really practice that day. We kind
of did too some run throughs becausethere was kind of question marks over insurance
(07:06):
and workers' comp That was it wassaid to us by coaches there that there
was question marks and they said theyweren't sure and the practice Filly obviously has
walls on the two, which therewere some issues going on. So I
think we kind of collectively as coachesand players and staff just made the decision
not to do a full contact practiceand just many they walk through. So
(07:29):
I just went through my kicks asnormal. It didn't make a big difference
to me either way. But that'skind of how the practice went down.
Did you stay at the team hotelat the at the motel? Yes,
it did. And what happened withthat situation when the you could essentially the
players got kicked out and had toretrieve your belongings later on, what happened
(07:54):
with that, well, they askedus to move all their belongings to the
fourth floor into one room. Itseemed to be because the hotel and I
heard this film a player and acoach at the hotel wasn't booked for that
weekend because we were supposed to bein Louidiana, which makes you know,
a lot of sense. And thenwe're supposed to go into apartments after that,
(08:18):
but they weren't booked apparently the apartmentsfor us or the accommodation, so
they have to move our belongings intothat, and then I think kind of
broke down on the friday, wekind of weren't getting confirmation about flights.
We weren't get in confirmation but thebus. We just didn't know a lot
(08:39):
of a lot of answers. Andthen when some players tried to retrieve their
belongings, you know, for forwhatever reason, whether they wanted to bring
them to the Lidiana with them orother reasons. That's when the hotel kind
of said, you know, we'renot opening the door. There's a bill
that hasn't be paid, and youknow, we kind of require payment for
them. And then twin several playersa few minutes later decided to get the
(09:03):
police involved, and the police turnedup and basically said, you know,
you can't hold people's personal belongings ascollateral, and so they kind of have
to open the door. So thatluckily they're able to resolve the situation fairly
quickly then and kind of get allthat all that sorted, especially for the
for the guys who had all theirbelongings inside that one room. So that
(09:26):
kind of the briefly how that wentdown. I'm on my way home from
the airport because I didn't well,I got to the airport, I got
to the gates. There was maybeone or two players there. There was
there was no coaches, there wasno staff. We didn't get on the
(09:46):
airplane, and we didn't hear anythingfrom the coach, didn't hear anything from
the ownership. We didn't hear anythingfrom the GMS. I texted the GM
a bunch of times kind of seewhat's happening. I didn't have anyone else's
number. Our head coach is notthere. He unfortunately had to retire slash
quick the other day. Didn't reallyknow the new head coach, who was
disappointed that day because we didn't reallyhave a practice. We'd have bit of
(10:11):
a run through again for a bunchof some reasons. So, yeah,
I'm still in Philadelphia, and youposted a video that, of course was
widely shared on social media kind ofbreaking down. He said he got to
the airport and you know the flightshe's seen. There was a couple of
players. He explained a little bitmore of about that video when he got
to the airport and he essentially didn'tget on a plane. Yeah, so
(10:35):
I was on my weight. Iwas I was waiting actually for the bus
because we were told the day beforethat there was going to be a bus
that was going to show about fourpm at the two Great Motel. They
were gonna be kicked off on inMad Laurel and I checked out back to
the motels eleven am. So alittle concerned about waiting around for five hours,
(10:56):
but we were mostly fine with itconsidering everything else going on. So
the bus didn't show up. Atfour pm, there was no bus,
so I made the decision to gothere myself. I said, you know,
I'm going to make every effort.I can't to go play this game
because I want to play. SoI got my car and I drove there,
(11:18):
and I parked there and I paidfor parking and I went in and
I actually also didn't know how topick up my ticket. I didn't have
a ticket, so I kind ofrushed around the airport kind of asking a
couple of staff, Hey, like, this is a situation. I'm a
player and I don't have a ticket, but I think there's a ticket.
Again, I texted coach Kelly Logan, but hadn't heard anything about it about
(11:39):
how to get my ticket. SoI went up to the checking dead for
the American Airlines. They said,yeah, you guys are flying out at
two forty five pm. I said, actually, there's twenty two of you
books for flights. It's the restof your teammates here And I said,
I really don't know, but I'mbut I'm not sure from bait on what
I saw, but again I didn'twant to. I didn't want to see
(12:00):
any rumors to this guy or like, you know, assume anything. But
I really didn't know. I sawa bunch of people leave the motel,
but I don't know where they went. So he said, you know,
there's the twenty two bookings, soI can book you a flight. But
if there's the rest of them,I mean, what do you want me
to do with his flight? Andhe said, I you're the leader of
the group, and I said I'mnot. And he mentioned a few other
(12:20):
players' names and he was like,are any of these guys the leader of
the group? And I said,I really don't know. I was like,
I know that guy is my quarterback. I know that guy is a
is a DV. You know thatguy is offensive lineman the people he was
naming out. And he said,look, here's what I can do.
I can I can book all youguys tomorrow on an earth flight that if
that works better, and you canget everything in And I said, well,
(12:41):
I haven't really heard anything, mycoach. I really don't know.
And he's like, well, Ican issue your ticket and you know you
can do what you want to do, and he did, and I went
up to the checking desk and therewas art with us to the gate,
and there was no players present.There was no there was no coaching president,
there was no staff there, andI just got the feeling that like
no one was getting on on theslice. So then I texted the holder
(13:05):
and snapper that I knew, justto see what their plan was. They're
thinking, if I don't have aholder and snapper and probably not gonna be
able to kick or a drop kickat all during the game. And they
at that point they had both basicallysaid that they weren't going to be there
and they weren't on the plane,and I just kind of made the decision
that this wasn't this wasn't going tohappen, and clearly the game wasn't going
(13:28):
to go ahead because there's no playersgoing to the gamer than me. And
so at that point I kind ofleft the airports and decided to kind of
again tell my friend of story.Was there any communication after all of that
that went down, you know,like not getting on like like you just
(13:48):
mentioned, not getting on a planeand having to go back home. Was
there any communication with whether it wasthe GM the on there or even the
commissioner. No, so I didnot have the commission's numbers and not the
owner's number, which is the sameperson I had the GM's number. I
texted them at that point. Itexted him three times and I didn't hear
(14:11):
back from them. And we alsohave an app that we used to communicate
with just the team, and there'sno communication in that app either. What
were you thinking about? Were yousure that is this game going on?
Does that mean that I'm released fromthe team? Kind of those thoughts like
that could could come up. Iwas I was sort of full sure I
was gonna play. I was fullsure we were playing. I was like,
(14:35):
this is this Philadelphia Soul. We'rewe're playing a football game and we're
gonna win. Like that was thatwas drilled into my head. I saw
the talent that was on the fieldduring practice, and I thought, how
good we were. I felt veryconfident, felt very prepared, kind of
in my own performance play, verytied to play, and I was kind
of it was a bit surreal,like it wasn't. It wasn't. None
(14:56):
of it was really kind of thinkingin at the time, But I was
like, you know, I Ithink people kind of got to know because
people that were coming to watch meplay and I people that are asking for
live streams. You know a lotof people from Ireland in particular, we're
all asking for life streams. Alot of people from Canada, where I
played and lived for a long time, We're all asked me, how do
(15:18):
I watch this game? So Ifigured like I owed the people that kind
of tell them the story, butwasn't really thinking it, wasn't really thinking
in that we weren't actually playing.And then I was kind of I was
kind of sitting in my car afterwards, and I was just kind of started
to get angry, to be honest, and just kind of like, this
is this is kind of really frustrating. Like I really really wanted to play,
(15:39):
and I just talked to myself,you know what, this might happen,
this might not happen. Maybe I'llfly out tomorrow, maybe I'll still
be at the game, maybe everyonewill be at the game. This is
gonna be fine. So how canI be most productive right now? I
think'm gonna go to the gym.I'm gonna keep fit and keep back to
them. I'm gonna stretch it out. I'm going to find a place to
stay. So my thought kind ofwent straight in to kind of takeing care
(16:00):
of myself because we didn't have anywhereto stay, there was no accommodation.
Super eight obviously weren't going to takeit back in. So I was very
lucky to have a friend that livedin a nearby city that wasn't too far
away that they could drive to andstay there, and that I could still
be available for Philadelphia. So Ididn't really I was trying not to think
(16:26):
about it too much. Just kepton thinking like, no, we're gonna
play. No, we're gonna play. No, we're gonna play. That
was kind of in my head.So I want to kind of expand on
what you just mentioned about not havinga place to stay. So was the
staying at the team hotel? Wasthat your main place to stay? Did
you have you didn't have anything locallyto live? No, that's right.
(16:48):
We were all we were all sayingat the Super eight motel. That's where
the team was centered. There wasseveral local euys in the team that weren't
staying there are obviously the local Philadelphiabut the rest of us we're all tender
a superation. What's going to bethe status for this week's game. Are
you planning to play in this game? I don't. I don't know because
(17:15):
I don't know if there's going tobe a game, not because of my
own personal references. I'm contracted toPhiladelphia. I plan on honoring my contract.
That's how that's why I was raised, That's how you do things where
I'm from in Ireland, and Iknow a lot of places as well where
everyone's from the US. You kindof on what you said, you on
(17:37):
what you signed. I like,you know, being a man of my
word. I'm ready to play.I'm excited to play. I don't know
if we're going to play if I'vebeen told by one source that there is
a game that is going ahead onSunday and we're going to try and play.
But in that same source, they'vesaid, you know, we'll know
(17:59):
more about theirs. So that's kindof where we're sitting right now. That's
kind of how I feel. I'dlike people to know that the players themselves
have been putting up with this forthree weeks and they've been terrific. They've
been market level, they've been verybuilding in their training, ultra professional,
(18:22):
very high level athletes, and they'vebeen dealing with like very what's seems to
be you know, like lots ofaspects of training that was missing, including
like trainers, proper nutrition, properhydration, lots of things like that.
And we've been still training really reallywell and very great to play and very
passionate about playing for Phildelphy goal.And it's just really unfortunate that this has
(18:45):
happened. And it's that a lotof the stick has kind of come down
to the players, and the peoplewho lose out the most seem to be
the players. I'm very lucky becauseI summer this day nearby, you know,
But there's players there who haven't atit, had or to staying nearby,
and they've been stuck in a muchmorese situation, or they've have to
by flights to go home or bybus tickets are or whatever. Maybe and
(19:07):
I'm not going to speak in theirbehalf, but I'm just saying that that's
that's what happened. I don't knowthe exact story, and I'll let them
tell them if they want to tellthem. But I think it's important to
think about the players at this momentand not just about the league. I'd
like people to think about, youknow, the actual people who are involved
here in the sacrifices that are beingmade by the players, especially you know,
(19:32):
being excited about a lot of themsigning, you know, in January
or February, and then to kindof come to this sort of situation where
we haven't even got to play agame yet. Do you have a backup
plan for you just in case nothingelse works out? There's never really a
backup planking because I have a backupplan. You're never really fully committed to,
(19:53):
you know, Plan A, Sothere's always Plan A. I love
to tell you that the backup.And I'm not really sure right now,
so I guess we'll just we'll,we'll just see what's happening. I know,
I've received a lot of phone callsfrom a lot of different teams in
the last couple of days. Again, I'm contracted to Philadelphia Soul, so
(20:15):
I'm not sure where that sits wouldbe. I asked coach Kelly Logan today
what that means, and he didtell me he'd let me know later this
evening, but I haven't heard fromhim yet. So that's currently where it
stands. And yeah, I'm notreally sure what the backup plan is,
Just that you know. I wantto play football, I want to do
well, I want to perform welland I want to win
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