Years ago, Marrone found success as player in London
LONDON — The Jaguars have gone back to London and their head coach has gone back in time.
In 1991, Doug Marrone was the hard-nosed center for the London Monarchs of the brand-new World League of American Football. Today, he speaks nostalgically, glowingly even, about that championship season, though for a Monarch, life in London was rarely regal.
The base pay of about $40,000 per season — a fraction of an undrafted rookie’s salary in today’s NFL — was already fairly meager. And the taxes on it were so steep that some players considered boycotting early that first year.
The living conditions weren’t much better. Marrone and his teammates roomed in an old college dormitory in the town of Bushey that held one common shower area. The heat was turned off each night by 11.
Even their equipment was limited. As Larry Kennan, the team’s first coach, remembers it, the Monarchs’ footballs never made it through customs, leaving the whole team with about a dozen balls. By the end of the first week of practice, they were so lopsided from England’s cold and damp weather that attempting a pass play was basically impossible.
Despite all of that, what would seem to be a mostly forgettable stint in a lowerlevel league, everything about the experience still resonates with Marrone, who is back in London as the Jaguars (3-4) face the Philadelphia Eagles (3-4) on Sunday at Wembley Stadium.
From forging a championship team through adverse circumstances — something the Jaguars’ 54-year-old coach hopes to also accomplish this season — to experiencing history and culture like he never had before, Marrone has lasting memories from his time with the Monarchs.
“For me, it was a 11-3 (7-7 vs. spread) 66-39-2 (47-54-6 vs. spread)
Both teams were supposed to be good, yet both look pretty wobbly. But the Eagles are better off than the Jaguars, who are breaking down on both sides of the ball. sense of, ‘Hey, listen, I kind of like this place,’” Marrone said.
The Nasty Boyz
Kennan was the quarterbacks coach for the Los Angeles Raiders when the team selected Marrone out of Syracuse in the sixth round of the 1986 draft.
About five years later, Kennan was putting together his initial roster with the Monarchs and drafted Marrone, who by then had bounced around with several NFL teams, to be a mainstay in the middle of the team’s offensive line.
“He was a really good player,” Kennan said. “He was very smart, very bright. He understood the game. He understood that sometimes you had to get on guys’ butts to get them going.”
Shortly after being chosen, Marrone told Kennan he had suggestions on other offensive linemen for the team to consider. Kennan listened, and he is glad he did.
“The offensive line set the pace and the tone for all of us because they worked so hard and so diligently to make sure practice was going good,” Kennan said. “And Doug was the ringleader of that whole group.”
The Monarchs’ offensive line came to be known as “The Nasty Boyz” and the team was immediately successful.
Facing opponents from Germany (Frankfurt Galaxy), Canada (Montreal Machine), Spain (Barcelona Dragons) and several from the United States, they began the season 9-0 and finished 11-1 in June of 1991 when they won the World Bowl.
The league’s inaugural championship game was played in front of a crowd of more than 60,000 at the original Wembley Stadium, and the Monarchs romped 21-0 over Barcelona.
“The crowds were unbelievable,” Marrone said. “They really took to our team and supported us.”
Said Kennan: “Every day I would say, ‘We’re going to figure out what we’re happy about today and not talk about all the bad things that seem to be going on.’ And I said it to them every single day of the season. So, for me, it was without question the most rewarding and satisfying coaching job I’ve ever been in because it was so difficult.”
That was basically it with the Monarchs for Marrone, who suffered an injury early the next year. But his contributions to the 1991 team were important to a group learning to find its way.