Hlas: We play as long as we can play

CEDAR RAPIDS — Whether you're a 10-year-old who is a fast swimmer or a 40-year-old power forward trying to win your sixth NBA title, you always want to find out how far you can go in your sport.

Few pass up a chance to compete in college athletics. Few with even a remote chance of playing professionally don't pursue that to the end.

'You get one chance in life and there's no dress rehearsal,' said Dr. Joseph McCain, an oral surgeon in Miami who lettered in football at the University of Pittsburgh in 1967-68.

'You want to look back and say 'I gave it my all,' and then you can move on.'

McCain said that Saturday night in the U.S. Cellular Center where he watched his son, Pat McCain, play quarterback for the Tri-Cities Fever in an Indoor Football League game against the Cedar Rapids Titans.

This is about as close as the Fever get to Miami. They're based in Kennewick, Wash. Pat McCain grew up in Miami and played at Jacksonville University. To play pro football, McCain has moved to southeastern Washington, 3,100 miles from home.

To keep playing, he has gone to a low-level indoor football league, where glory and fame simply do not exist and hope for advancing to the National Football League is almost entirely a dream.

Former Iowa defensive back B.J. Lowery played for Cedar Rapids last year and now is on the Denver Broncos' preseason roster as a 24-year-old rookie. That alone makes him an unqualified success story by IFL standards.

But if you're with the Titans or the Fever or the Nebraska Danger or the Wichita Falls Nighthawks, at least you're still playing. Until no one has a place left for you to play.

'My kid's 6-5, 230 pounds,' Joe McCain said. 'He can play.'

But on this night, in front of a crowd generously announced at 3,864 that included just one spectator wearing a Fever T-shirt (the quarterback's dad), Tri-Cities was nothing more than a pinata for the Cedar Rapids team.

The Fever took a 6-0 lead just nine seconds into the game when Ron Brown returned the opening kickoff 48 yards for a touchdown. But the Titans scored on their first play from scrimmage and made their extra-point kick for a 7-6 lead that ballooned to 39-9 by halftime.

Pat McCain threw three interceptions and lost two fumbles on sacks. Open receivers were few and the Titans defense bore down on him on pass play after pass play.

'This is tough,' Joe McCain said at halftime. 'I just shot (Pat) a text. I gave him some fatherly advice going into the second half. I said a little adversity in one half doesn't make a career. Stay with it, deal with it.

'This is no reflection on his abilities. You have a good team here. They put a lot of pressure on him. Last week he threw five touchdown passes and ran for one against Spokane.'

But Pat had his helmet off as the Fever warmed up before the second half. Tri-Cities' coach felt the team might as well try something different, and went with backup Hunter Wanket of Central Connecticut State at quarterback.

Wanket had only marginally more success, and Cedar Rapids cruised to a 58-17 victory. The fans had fun. The Titans had fun. The Fever, meanwhile, came a long way only to be embarrassed. It was a longer trip home.

But there is something worse. That's running out of games to play and places in which to play them.