QB aims to help Gladiators avoid dubious marks

When Brian Jones was demoted from the Gladiators' starting quarterback job about five weeks ago, he didn't sulk.

Instead, he worked hard every day, doing anything the team asked -- returning kicks, blocking on special teams and playing linebacker.

Now he's been rewarded with the starting quarterback role again for today's season finale at 1:30 p.m. against the San Jose SaberCats (12-3) at the Orleans Arena.

Jones' job is to keep the Gladiators from making the Arena Football League record book for the wrong reason: losses. But while his desire has gone unquestioned, that hasn't been the case with some of his teammates.

"It's kind of 50-50 right now, I think, for a lot of guys," Jones said. "One day, they'll go hard. The next day, they won't. It depends on how they're feeling day to day.

"I try to have an even keel and come to work every day and be a professional."

A loss would tie the Gladiators (2-13) with three other teams for the third-most defeats in a season. Carolina's 16 losses in 2003 and Grand Rapids' 15 in 2004 rank higher -- or, in a more accurate sense, lower.

Las Vegas also is in danger of losing its 10th consecutive home game, which would tie New York in 1997-98 for the third-longest such streak. Carolina lost 16 in a row in 2002-04 and Grand Rapids dropped 13 straight in 2003-05.

Mike Hold, the Gladiators' offensive coordinator last year, was Carolina's coach during that infamous record-setting 2003 season. He said comparing one struggling team's circumstances to another club's is difficult, and pointed out that Carolina essentially was doomed before the year's first kickoff.

"No one was making over the minimum (salary)," said Hold, now the coach of the af2's Mahoning Valley Thunder in Youngstown, Ohio. "The young guys were fine. The veterans had a what-am-I-playing-for type of attitude. There were no bonuses. It was tough."

Hold was fired with three games left in that season, so at least he didn't have to hang around to the bitter end. Gladiators coach Danton Barto was fired with five games left this year, but he is finishing out the season.

"Danton being let go has got to be tough because the players don't know what their future or fate is," Hold said. "I'm sure it's a battle every day."

It's a battle that's almost over for Barto, who acknowledged some players are "kind of riding the season out."

"I think this has been embarrassing," Barto said. "As a player, if you don't go out there and play your hardest and care, it says a lot about you as a player.

"I think (the incoming) coaching staff's going to look at the last four games of the year. That's what they're going to judge you on.

"When everything was tough, how did you handle adversity with everything that could be probably going wrong was going wrong? How did you perform? Were you professional enough to every day play your best and play your hardest and play good football?"