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Show of hands: Ex-Crush receiver Harrell tops

Former Colorado player even gets the vote of Elway

By Jim Benton, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Published April 25, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Receiver Damian Harrell played five productive seasons for Colorado before signing a three-year deal with Central Division-leading Chicago.

Photo by The Rocky File Photo / 2006

Receiver Damian Harrell played five productive seasons for Colorado before signing a three-year deal with Central Division-leading Chicago.

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John Elway has seen many wide receivers in his career as a quarterback with the Broncos and the Chief Executive Officer of the Colorado Crush.

He believes Damian Harrell "has the best hands I've ever seen in a receiver."

Harrell played five seasons for the Crush and holds almost every franchise receiving record. He twice was named the Arena Football League Offensive Player of the Year while with the Crush, but he signed a three-year contract as a free agent with Chicago of the Central Division in November.

The Rush will play the Crush tonight at the Pepsi Center, as Harrell returns to play in Denver for the first time.

"The fans are used to watching the best receiver of all time at least eight or nine times a year and cheering for him," Crush defensive back Rashad Floyd said. "I think, for what Damian has done for this city and the organization, he'll probably hear more cheers than boos."

Harrell feels like Chicago has been a perfect fit, and he has been especially productive for the Central Division leaders, with 54 catches for 738 yards and 14 touchdowns.

"We used to compete and battle in practice to make each other better, and now it's kind of like we know each other well, but when you have two competitors that want to be the very best at their position but they play opposite positions, then only one can come out victorious," Floyd said.

The Rush (6-2) beat Colorado 70-35 earlier this season in Chicago, and Harrell caught six passes for 78 yards and two touchdowns.

Floyd didn't match up with Harrell until the fourth quarter, but he'll have more to worry about tonight than just Harrell.

"I really won't have time to think about Damian at all, because I've got two new DBs back there with me," Floyd said. "I'm only going to be about 80 percent because my knee is still badly sprained.

"So it's going to be more of a focus of getting my defensive backs lined up. We got one brand-new guy (Dion Byrum) that's only practiced with us for one day, and one rookie (Antonio Malone) who only has two games under his belt.

"(Delvin) Hughley won't play much, and Antonio has a bad hamstring. So we've got three hurt guys and one brand new."

And the game tonight is important for the Crush (3-4), which had a two-game winning streak snapped last week with a 55-53 loss to lowly Kansas City.

"We thought we had something going and then we lose to the worst team in the league, which is unacceptable," Floyd said.

"We're kind of behind the eight ball again. There's a ton of football left, so there's no worries, but at the same time, if we want to make any kind of move in our division and make any kind of name for ourselves, we've got to win."

bentonj@RockyMountainNews.com

Chicago Rush at Colorado Crush

* When: 7 tonight.

* Where: Pepsi Center.

* Records: Chicago, 6-2; Colorado, 3-4.

* TV/radio: No TV; KCKK-AM (1510).

* Leaders: Rush - WR Damian Harrell, 54-738, 14 TDs; DB Dennison Robinson, 56 tackles, six interceptions. Crush - QB John Dutton, 185-for-285, 1,808 yards, 42 TDs, 10 INTs; WR Ben Nelson, 72-760, 18 TDs.

* Etc.: The Rush has won four consecutive games against the Crush, including 70-35 earlier this season in Chicago. . . . The Rush is second in the AFL in scoring offense (59 points per game), scoring defense (45.5) and turnover margin (plus-10). . . . Russ Michna will make his third start at quarterback for the Rush. Sherdrick Bonner, who ranks among the league's career passing leaders, has missed two games because of a knee injury and another when he flew home to Denver for the birth of his son. Bonner lives in Lakewood. . . . Colorado signed defensive back Dion Byrum earlier this week off the Orlando practice squad. . . . Harrell needs four receptions to pass Eddie Brown for second place on the all-time receptions list and 112 yards to pass Brown for second place in career receiving yards. He currently has 947 catches for 12,619 yards.