‘Uncomfortable’ position: How, why Marshals held out versus Billings

RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) – Roughly half of the Rapid City Marshals roster left the team on Friday, Co-Owner Wes Johnson tells KOTA News.

Team ownership notified players this week that moving forward they will only get paid $250 per game – that’s the 25% agreed upon in the contract between the team and the Arena Football League. As a result, nearly a dozen players quit.

Wages have been the primary concern from players all season, not only in Rapid City but across the country. It’s what ultimately led to last Saturday’s game, May 11, against the Billings Outlaws to be forfeited.

CONTEXT: Marshals players ‘refuse’ to come out of locker room

On Monday of this week, KOTA News heard from former players Tim Lukas and Brian Villanueva on what made them hold out against Billings, and do it the way they did.

”We’ll do anything to play this game, and we’ll believe anyone that tells us really good things,” Lukas said. “The more that we started seeing cracks in the walls and some of the things that seemed like they were getting ignored by a lot of people, the more it became apparent that we had to act on it.”

Marshals players started brainstorming how they wanted to send a message several days before last Saturday’s game. While it remains unclear what exactly those conversations looked like between players in private, it’s known that the timing of their actions were deliberate.

“Things were getting dragged out in previous weeks and we wanted to make sure that you know decisions were made you know quicker, and that was part of the strategy,” Villanueva said. “If it was truly about making sure that we were taking care of the players than I felt like there would have been a game played, honestly.”

READ: Hear from Marshals ownership as AFL receives backlash

Players whole-heartedly believed that the team ownership would meet their requests and pay them in full before kickoff against the Outlaws. That did not happen.

The Marshals wanted to make a statement, loud and clear, and the end result was felt by their peers across the league.

“A lot of the guys were proud that we stepped up and that we stuck together as a team to write a message to the entire league,” Lukas said.

“Had we not done it in that way, I don’t think it would have been felt as strong,” Villanueva continued.

Although players thought that not playing was the right move, ownership believed otherwise. Forfeiting the game against Billings put the franchise in a “really uncomfortable” financial position, according to Marshals Co-Owner Wes Johnson.

“Wes usually tells us how much time he spends with this organization, and knowing that there’s not a lot of personnel or resources in the building, I know that they both (Wes and Rebecca) are working extremely hard on it,” Lukas said.

Looking back on all of this, Lukas is happy he came to South Dakota, but thinks that if he would have done more research, some of these issues wouldn’t have come as a surprise.

“I wish I would have dug a little bit further into some of the people who are at the very top, running the AFL, just for my own peace of mind,” Lukas said. “But as far as having regrets, I don’t have any regrets.”

On Tuesday of this week, league owners unanimously voted to appoint Jeff Fisher to AFL interim commissioner. Fisher is a former NFL head coach and serves as the president of operations for the Nashville Kats. This move pushes out former league commissioner Lee Hutton.

MORE: Jeff Fisher named interim commissioner of AFL

In addition to league front office changes, many teams have undergone schedule reconstruction to help with scheduling logistics among the teams left in the league. This will take several weeks to finalize, according to Chris Chetty of G6 Sports Group.

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