Ivy League QB smart enough to know you only live once

Another installment of the 50-yard indoor war was raging toward its irrelevant conclusion Sunday afternoon before a paltry crowd at the Thomas & Mack Center when it was noticed the Las Vegas quarterback, No. 12, Sean Brackett, was from Columbia.

And then the $64,000 question became not whether that amount would be sufficient for our arena football franchise to pay off its creditors, and not whether the innovative drone camera would get caught in one of the end zone nets and come crashing to the turf.

The big question became what was a kid with an Ivy League education doing throwing touchdown passes and interceptions and getting sacked for a safety in the indoor football league?

After the Cleveland Gladiators — who used to be the Las Vegas Gladiators before that paltry crowd thing came into play — defeated our current indoor football guys 63-44, Sean Brackett smiled at the line of questioning.

Ivy League. He said that’s one of his nicknames among the Outlaws.

An Ivy League education costs around $160,000, and who knows what it’s ultimately worth? But as long as Vince Neil is willing to pay Brackett to throw TD passes — even if it’s not a lot, and even if it’s a couple of weeks late — he wants to keep on throwing them.

Remember, Kurt Warner came out of this league. And what about Jason Garrett? He once was quarterback at Princeton. Now he’s coach of the Dallas Cowboys.

“That’s the idea,” Brackett said as he popped the top off a Sharpie to sign autographs for loyal Outlaws fans. “You can always go back and work a desk job. I might as well keep on playing until I can no longer play.”

Sunday’s loss dropped the Outlaws to 3-7, and the rookie Brackett’s record as a starter to 0-2. Though you never get used to losing, you almost do at Columbia — the Lions, who have had only one winning season among the last 20, do not exactly strike fear into the likes of Harvard and Yale and Princeton, even now that Jason Garrett is gone.

Columbia’s all-time football winning percentage is .279; next-worst among the Ivies is Brown at .465. Columbia was winless in each of the past two seasons, but Brackett’s teams went 4-6 twice and 3-7 once. He was named all-Ivy at quarterback.

Boola Boola? No, that’s what they say at Yale.

But 4-6 at Columbia gives the kids with the well-to-do parents something to do on Saturday afternoons when autumn leaves are falling. It may even discourage the radical occupation of Ivy-covered halls and the school president’s office, though it has been quite awhile since that last occurred.

Playing indoor football at the sparsely occupied Thomas & Mack Center is a lot different that playing traditional football at the Yale Bowl, Brackett said. The rabble-rousing Mark Rudd wouldn’t have needed a bullhorn to be heard in the T&M on Sunday.

“Big difference — obviously not as many people in here,” Brackett said.

“But I love the game, it’s a great situation here in the Arena Football League, so I’m just going to run with it. I love athletics, I love the game of football, I love giving back, so maybe coaching in the future. I’m not sure.”

“I’m not sure” might also be the best way to describe the Outlaws’ viability over the long term, or even over the short term.

This is the third indoor football team that has foundered in Las Vegas. But from my vantage point above the drone camera, the Outlaws looked more or less as the Sting looked before they became the Anaheim Piranhas, and more or less as the Gladiators looked before they moved to Cleveland.

The public address system was turned up to 11, the crowd was about a 3, the fun factor was a solid 7 or 8, if you’re into indoor football played between nets.

I learned the Outlaws cheerleaders have an official anesthesiologist, which was different.

The announced crowd of 3,255 would have fit into the tiniest end zone corner at the Yale Bowl. But it was an enthusiastic crowd, and kids got to keep the walnut-colored footballs thrown into the crowd by Brackett and the other quarterback, the aptly named “Stone Cold” Shane Austin. Afterward, the kids got free autographs from the players.

Sean Brackett was popular with the kids, and with some of the grown-ups, too. He completed 18 of 34 passes for 256 yards and five touchdowns; he got sacked for the aforementioned safety; he threw two interceptions that were returned for TDs.

The last one came with 21 seconds to play. It seemed academic. Cleveland’s Joe Phinisee returned it 47 yards, which is almost the length of the field. Right away you could tell that nobody from the Outlaws was going to catch him.

That didn’t stop Brackett from trying.

He ran after Phinisee and dove at his heels at the goal line but only succeeded in throwing himself into the dasher boards, where his game ended with an audible thud.

It was then I knew what Sean Brackett with the Ivy League education was doing playing indoor football in the Arena League.

The kid’s quite a competitor.

Las Vegas Review-Journal sports columnist Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowski@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him on Twitter: @ronkantowski.