Ex-Matador Scott Chases His Dream on Arena 2 Stage

He’s a quarterback in something called Arena Football 2, a minor league to a minor league.

He’s turning 31 on Monday and making hardly any money playing, his income supplemented by a side job.

He’s not thrilled with riding a bus 12 hours to a game in some southeastern outpost and back home with bones aching.

But Damone Scott is not about to stop chasing a rainbow.

“It’s just a vehicle to use to get to the next level,” Scott said. “You don’t have too many people who play football who don’t aspire to play in the NFL.”

Scott, who played at Cal State Northridge and several other places before catching on this season with the Norfolk (Va.) Nighthawks in the first-year league, has his sight firmly set on that dangling carrot.

Optimistic and highly confident, Scott believes the NFL is not an unrealistic goal, not an impossibility. After all, there’s a quarterback with the St. Louis Rams who’s proof anything can happen.

“When I first started [in arena football], Kurt Warner was on the same field,” Scott said. “It prepared him for all the success he’s having now.”

Scott, 6 feet 2 and 215 pounds, is getting some serious schooling with the Nighthawks.

The team, owned by former UCLA and Seattle Seahawks safety Kenny Easley and Washington Redskins defensive end Bruce Smith, plays in the American Conference of the 15-team league.

After becoming the first player signed by the franchise in September, Scott went to training camp expecting to start. But Sal Cardella beat him out and Scott waited.

“I was ready from day one,” Scott said. “Only thing you can do is take the opportunity when you get it.”

Scott grabbed it in the fourth quarter of the Nighthawks’ sixth game, on May 20, when Cardella left with a finger injury. Scott threw two touchdowns and Norfolk pulled away for a 59-39 victory over the Roanoke (Va.) Steam.

The following week, Scott passed for 259 yards and five touchdowns, but the Nighthawks fell to the Augusta (Ga.) Stallions, 61-47. He threw for 358 yards, a season high, and eight touchdowns in a 65-58 loss to the Carolina Rhinos one week later.

As the Nighthawks (8-5) head for a game at Greensboro, N.C., (1-12) on Saturday night, Scott has passed for 1,878 yards and 43 touchdowns in 10 games.

“He’s as capable a quarterback as I’ve been around,” offensive coordinator Steven Jerry said. “He has the ability and the skills to play arena football. He just hasn’t had a real shot, for whatever reason.”

Scott has fought that battle since leaving Compton College, where he was an All-Western State Conference selection, for Western Michigan in 1989. He never played for the Broncos and transferred to Northridge in 1991.

He was the backup to Marty Fisher with the Matadors, passing for 513 yards and no touchdowns, and did not return to the team in 1992 because he wasn’t happy with his role.

“If you’re better than me, so be it,” Scott said. “But if someone’s not better, then it’s not right. I should have been the starter.”

Bob Burt, Northridge’s coach from 1986-94, said Scott was more physically gifted than Fisher but lagged behind in an important aspect.

“Damone didn’t know our system coming in and Marty did,” said Burt, now the football coach at Temescal Canyon High in Lake Elsinore. “That hurt Damone a little bit. . . . Every kid who plays, if he’s competitive, thinks he should be a starter.”

Scott graduated from Northridge with a degree in kinesiology and moved to Houston, shuffling between arena football teams and a job as a personal trainer. He played with the St. Louis Stampede in 1995, the Texas Terror in ’96 and the Portland (Ore.) Forrest Dragons in ’97 and ’99. A groin injury sidelined Scott in 1998.

The idea of continuing to play backup at Portland didn’t appeal to Scott, so he went to Norfolk to fling passes on weekends and work as a sheriff’s deputy on weekdays. The job was arranged by the Nighthawks.

But Scott hopes he can soon step up from the league he calls “The Deuce.”

“Anything goes in ‘The Deuce,’ ” Scott said. “It’s a humbling experience.”