By EDDIE DANIELS
The Tampa Tribune

TAMPA - The relationship between Tampa Bay Storm owner Peter “Woody” Kern and head coach Tim Marcum isn’t a typical employer-employee connection. Marcum considers Kern a friend.
That was evident last September when on a Monday, Marcum got word from Kern’s wife, Sherri, her husband was taken to a Denton, TX hospital last Labor Day. The following day, Marcum was on a flight to see his “friend.”
“When he had that spell out there, I was at his ICU bedside the next morning,” Marcum said. “His system just shut down. He had knee surgery on Friday, went to the emergency room in the hospital because he couldn’t breath. They had him on a respirator. His wife called me on Monday morning and I was there Tuesday.”
Now that the Tampa Bay Storm is 0-5, Kern is giving his support to Marcum, who has guided the team since 1995. Sunday afternoon, while Marcum was at an airport waiting to board a flight back to Tampa, Kern called Marcum and they spoke for 30 minutes.
He asked Marcum what he needed to make the team better and the coach gave him a detailed list.
“He said, ‘Go fix it.’ That’s what he’s done for, this is now the 13th season,” said Marcum, who admitted to losing 12 pounds during the worst losing streak in his career and in Storm history. “‘I’m behind you.’ This is a low point in our relationship as far as the team is concerned, but I call him a friend.”
Added Marcum: “I’m going to make this team a winner. That’s my job. I’ve got no choice. Then I got to figure out what the hell it is that I can do to make this team better and then go do it.”
What ever that “it” is, it better be found quick. Three teams (Chicago, 2003; Orlando, 2001 and San Jose, 1998) have gone 0-3 and made the playoffs, while Colorado went 0-4 in 2003 and did not make it.
The most stunning feats are the 2000 Columbus Destroyers and 2003 New York Dragons.
The Dragons lost six straight to reach the post season, but Columbus took the cake, losing eight consecutive, then bounced back to go 5-1 in the final half dozen games. The team reached the opening round only to lose 41-34 to Arizona.
Maybe all is not lost in Tampa Bay.

STONEY’S START: Stoney Case’s performance left no doubt in Marcum’s mind that he will be a starter and that he has potential to do good things in this league.
In his first AFL start in his fourth season, Case, who completed 22 of 36 passes for 271 yards, three TDs, one interceptions and also had a rushing score, showed he had a deep ball and mobility.
“Stoney played well,” Marcum said. “I was not nervous. That’s the first game he started in Arena Football, but he’s played and he’s just played so much football. On the film, he’s got no happy feet, he’s back there, standing in; a couple times got the crap knocked out of him, scrambled for a touchdown on fourth down done there. Stoney, he’s going to do a good for us.”

OH-LINE: Walking into one of the Storm offices Monday afternoon, newly acquired Lincoln Kennedy had little choice but to lean down a tad to make it into the room. Shaking hands of those in the office, his hefty right hand swallowed all of them up.
A physical specimen he is, but Marcum still wants to see him in practice to see how the 11-year NFL veteran has adapted to the game. Kennedy signed with the Dallas Desperados in January, but broke his finger in training camp and started the season on the injured reserved list.
“I haven’t seen him practice,” said Marcum, who was a defensive assistant with the Atlanta Falcons in 1994. “He may come in and just be a compete washout, but I was in Atlanta his second year in Atlanta. He was with us. He’s a [two-time] Pro Bowl player and it hadn’t been that long ago (2001-02).
“He stayed relative free of any major injuries, so we’ll see.”
The services of the former Falcons and Raiders lineman’s became desirable after Saturday’s game in which Rod Williams, Ernest Certain, A.J. Ricker and Marcus Owen made up the Storm’s offensive line. Problem is, those are linemen Marcum intended on using mostly on defense.
The players tagged as offensive guys are injured. Tom Kaleita’s left wrist had to be manipulated by a machine to set the bones in place after he was injured March 17. That landed him a spot on IR. His replacement, Geir Gudmundsen, suffered a partial meniscus tear, forcing him to the inactive list last week. Dan Morgan was placed on IR due to a left knee injury.
Marcum also brought in former Louisville offensive tackle Jeremy Darveau (6-foot-6, 320 pounds) to compete for a roster spot.

MANY YEARS IN ONE CONDO: Now that Kennedy is town, he and Storm receiver Karl Williams will be roommates at Bay Isle Key, the team’s housing for the season. In that one residence, 20 years of NFL experience (11 for Kennedy and nine for Williams) will be housed.

FIRST ONE TO 60 WINS: With the advent of free substitution in the AFL, teams seem to need a lot more points to get a win these days.
“In this day and time, it looks like to me, you’re going to have to score over 60 every time,” Marcum said. “Just look at all the numbers out there.”
This week alone, San Jose beat Tampa Bay, 69-49; Chicago beat Los Angeles, 66-31; Philadelphia beat New York, 65-60; Dallas beat Austin, 68-64; Kansas City beat Arizona, 62-61; Columbus beat Georgia, 62-61.
“We’re going where you have to play an absolute perfect football game on offense and not lose one off the net,” Marcum continued. “You gotta protect the football and if you do that, people aren’t going to stop you.”
So how often does that perfect game come along?
“Evidently we haven’t got it this year,” Marcum said.

PRESSURE & A SIDE OF COVERAGE: Although the Storm made an effort to improve the quality of its defensive line by bringing in the likes of Tom Briggs, Mark Word and Tim McGill, the jury is still out on this one. On top of that, they’re now rushing against pure offensive linemen instead of converted defensive linemen.
Furthermore, the pressure from the defensive line affects the pass coverage and you have a defense that is primed to be scored upon.
“We got to find a way to get a better pass rush and better coverage. We got to do it,” Marcum said.
The coach plans on tweaking the secondary. Against San Jose, Jeroid Johnson, in his eighth season, was the senior-most DB on the field for Tampa Bay. Khalid Naziruddin, a rookie, was starting his second game in the AFL, while Byron Jones, who was signed last week from the Dallas practice squad, also a rookie, started his first.
“That’s a tough thing to put a new kid back there and you got one guy who has played one game, so he’s played his second game now,” Marcum said. “So that group’s gotta mature and they got to do it in a hurry.”

Reporter Eddie Daniels can be reached at (813) 948-4214 or .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).