D.C. Armor: Players get outlet to showcase talent

At almost 5 a.m., it was 15 degrees and dark except for a few headlights from the vehicles idling in the parking lot, heaters running. Daniel James, the coach and keeper of the keys, was nowhere to be found, meaning practice would start a little late for the new D.C. Armor indoor football team.

Some of the players dozed. Quarterback Mike Scipione, sitting with assistant coach Willie Wood and owner Corey Barnette, studied video on a laptop.

“You get the work in when you can,” Scipione said later.

Finally, James wheeled in, delayed by the icy conditions from last week’s storm, and opened the place up.

A 5-foot-9, 300-pound spark plug with a booming voice and outsize personality, James offered greetings and held the door as the players straggled into the sprawling, warehouse-like Soccerdome, located in Jessup, Md. They brought their helmets and shoulder pads and suited up in the picnic area next to the concession stand. It was nearly as cold inside.

This is how the world looks from the lowest rung of the professional football ladder.

“It’s the life we chose,” said Roland Minor, a cornerback who played at H.D. Woodson High School and Virginia Tech.

A member of the 3-year-old American Indoor Football Association, the D.C. Armor are an expansion team comprising mostly refugees from the two Arena leagues, other indoor leagues and semipro teams. A select few have sampled the NFL. The club will play its seven home games at the D.C. Armory (get it?) against the likes of the Reading Express, Erie RiverRats and Carolina Speed. The first game is Friday in Reading, Pa. The home opener is April 4.

Local talent like Scipione, who grew up in Chantilly, and Minor stocks most of the roster, set at 30 players. Wood, the offensive coordinator and son of the Green Bay Packers Hall of Famer, attended Wilson High School and also coached there. Nearly all the players have jobs outside of football because the pay is $200 a week, an extra $50 if they win. Some have commitments that will keep them from making the opener. Minor works in a sports apparel store, Scipione for a government contractor. The out of town players live in a house provided by Barnette.

“If you love the game, you don’t think about the money,” said Sean Chisley, a 40-year-old defensive lineman who went to Coolidge High, toured a variety of indoor and semipro leagues and said he once impressed Ravens general manager Ozzie Newsome during a tryout. He hasn’t played in three years.

To get up at 3:30 or earlier on a freezing morning and run around on unyielding artificial turf with soccer nets instead of goal posts, players can’t think about the money. Chisley, part of a family of notable D.C. athletes, is happy just to be here.

The main incentive for most, however, is to get noticed and get out. The Arena Football League (which suspended operations for the 2009 season) and the Arena Football 2 league are considered promotions. The ultimate goal, of course, is the NFL. It’s also the ultimate long shot. But, hey, if Kurt Warner did it…

“You try and fail, try and fail,” Minor said. “It’s all about fighting for your chance.”

Some had their chance and are seeking another. Receiver Randy Hymes started 12 games for the Ravens from 2002 through 2005. Darnell McDonald, another receiver, was a seventh-round draft pick of the Buccaneers. The Fairfax native caught seven passes and scored a touchdown in 1999. Others tasted NFL life before getting cut, which only made them want it even more.

“I think that would be an understatement,” said defensive lineman Bobby Payne, who made it through the San Francisco 49ers’ training camp in 2006 before his release.

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