Swagger: to conduct oneself in an arrogant or superciliously pompous manner; especially : to walk with an air of overbearing self-confidence
It is no secret, the Los Angeles Temptation has swagger. Not the swagger, well confidence, that one has when they think they are going to win; no, they have the swagger a team carries around after it just delivered an epic beat down on its opponent, and loved every minute of it. They know they are better than any other team and they feed off the confidence, immersing themselves in justified pride and crushing their opponents like Ivan Drago in Rocky IV. And Rocky does not exist in the LFL, this is the real world, where true power does dominate.
Swagger is like a virus that spreads to anyone it touches. Coach Eddie Chan, one half of the coaching duo last year in LA, left this year for the poor performing San Diego Seduction. He walked onto the practice field of the worst team in the LFL, and challenged them to think like winners. He took a lineman/receiver, Kindra Myers, and put her at quarterback without even blinking an eye. Because coach Chan knows that at the end of the day it is about nothing more than winning a game, and whatever the means you have to use to do that is not important if you win. And he is a winner, a born one, and if the Seduction listen to him, expect a winning team to spawn from a winning culture.
A winning mentality wants to be the best at any cost, and often leaves a trail behind it. I have interviewed a ton of players, and I get this answer all the time when asked about the game: “I am just honored to be here with all these talented players and have nothing but respect for everyone associated with the other teams, “ they say. And that kind of respect is great to say, but if you really mean it deep down in your soul, then perhaps cutthroat football is not the game for you. Especially if you reside in the Western Conference, because I can personally guarantee you that the reigning champion’s do not think that at all.
One player on the Temptation, we will just call her champ, has even gone out of her way to issue a fair warning to potential players this year, “for those new LFL players, step (your) game up…if not (you’re) going to get killed in this league. Everyone wants to say how great their rookie class is this year, but they can’t even hold the ball with proper form, some of these girls have the worst technique.” That, my friends, is a swagger statement from a player who doesn’t think she is good: she knows it. And the scariest part, the champ thinks the reigning world champs still have something to prove, “A lot of people do not like to give us credit, and they say they were the better team. But that really does not make sense, we are the champs.”
The “others,” the champ was referring to, that were not giving Los Angeles the credit they deserve: the Seattle Mist. It is no surprise the new LFL season opens with the Mist vs. the Temptation, it is the Marquee attraction. Because these two teams, for lack of a better term, hate each other. Los Angeles is going to metaphorically punch Seattle in the mouth right out of the gate, which is no surprise. The real question will be how Seattle responds to the punch. The answer will dictate how the West will react to the Temptation’s bullying the rest of the year.
Make no mistakes, Katie Ryckman is out, but the beef is still alive and cooking.
Even the new Mist players are getting their say on the issue. Newcomer, and new captain of Seattle, Amanda Brace, brings a killer instinct the Mist was missing last year. “Training camp was intense,” Brace said in an interview, “but a great way for our coaches to weed out the weak players from the strong players!” That is a statement, ladies and gentleman. That is a confident statement from a newcomer who know she has what it takes to take on anyone.
And as for the game against Los Angeles, Brace is ready: “Looking forward to crushing LA August 27th.”
Whether that will actually happen, probably not. But Seattle fans can take pride in knowing the Mist are not going to let reputation precede the Temptation, and just roll over and die. They want blood just as bad as LA does, and they are going to fight. But a fight is exactly what LA wants, a grind-out, beat down game, where they can stare up at the scoreboard at the end of the game and see their team on top, then stare into the eye’s of their opponents and see they have beaten them mentally too. Swagger requires a fight, the Temptation want a fight, and the rest of the West say they are willing to spar with the camps. So I guess all that remains is to sit back, relax, and get ready for the rumble.
