While playing golf near his temporary Arizona home a couple of weeks ago, B.J. Coleman was warned over a loudspeaker about a potential threat on the course's sixth green.
"They said a rattlesnake was crawling across it," the former University of Tennessee at Chattanooga and McCallie School star quarterback recalled Sunday afternoon. "They said to be careful. You don't experience something like that back in Tennessee."
Until Saturday night's 56-34 Arena Football League loss to visiting San Jose, Coleman hadn't experienced something else for more than three years that he used to experience all the time back in Tennessee: the football field in the first quarter of a real game.
But after signing with the Arizona Rattlers in January, that's just where Coleman found himself after starting QB Nick Davila was injured a week earlier in an easy victory over the LA Kiss.
And if his three touchdown passes and three interceptions seemed an uneven performance, the irrepressible Coleman rightly clung to the positives.
"I hadn't thought about it," Coleman recalled, "but that's the first time I've played in the first half of a real game -- I played in an exhibition game against Kansas City in August of 2013 when I was still with Green Bay -- since my last game at UTC in November of 2011."
That fact did not escape Rattlers coach Kevin Guy, who called Coleman early Sunday morning to make sure his spirits were fine.
"Coach was very complimentary," he said. "'We can get better,' he said. He told me this was normal. I didn't get the call to come out here until six weeks before our first game, and I'd never been an Arena quarterback before. You're playing in a very confined space. Outdoor football and arena ball are very different games."
Indeed, there are eight players per side on the field during play as opposed to 11 in traditional football. The field is 50 yards long and 28 yards wide -- half the size of an outdoor field. There are no punts, though you still have four downs to make a first down.
"Offense in outdoor football is run through the eyes of the quarterback," Coleman said. "In arena ball, it's run through the eyes of the receiver. The quarterback is merely the distributor. Everything happens so much faster. It's still pitch and catch, but you take three steps and you've got to get rid of the football."
Coleman rarely got three steps against San Jose. Befitting a defense that's remained intact for several seasons, the SaberCats bull-rushed Coleman to distraction, forcing a pivotal safety for a 43-34 margin midway through the final half, then intercepting him not long after that by jumping a route.
"You can't win the game by yourself," Guy told the media afterward. "We had busted coverages, busted protections in the second half. That speeds the clock up for a young quarterback."
As every UTC or McCallie fan can recall, Coleman cruelly sped things up for the opposition when his chief passing target was Joel Bradford.
"I miss ol' Joel," Coleman said. "We actually talked before the game. We just understand each other. He was always my comfort piece. He wouldn't take a play off even if he wasn't supposed to get the football. We just played so well off each other."
But that doesn't mean the 26-year-old Coleman is the least bit unhappy these days.
"It's been a very good experience," he said. "I'm playing with a great group of guys. That's really why I came back. Being a part of a locker room -- the laughs, the jokes, the fun. You can't find that anywhere else, that brotherhood, but by being on a team. There's nothing else like it."
And thanks to his recent day job at Chattanooga's Lipsey Logistics -- which has allowed him to work from a laptop to supplement his income -- he'll have something to fall back on as soon as his final fling with football ends.
"They really helped make this possible," he said. "I don't know that I could have done this without their blessing."
How long this lasts is quite uncertain. Davila's foot injury appears to be week to week. Nor does Coleman wish to paint a picture that arena ball in any way resembles the football he played with the Packers, Mocs or Tennessee Volunteers.
"San Jose-Arizona is the biggest rivalry in the Arena League," he said. "But it's not like the Packers and the (Chicago) Bears. You could feel something special in the locker room, especially with the older guys, but not out in the community. We do draw 8- to 10,000 a game, though. We do have really good fans."
He's also grown quite fond of the Phoenix area.
"It's a different culture," he said. "I've eaten rattlesnake (though not the one on the sixth green) and cactus. On our off week I'm going to spend a couple of days in Sedona, where John Wayne filmed a bunch of his movies. I play golf almost every afternoon after practice. I'm down to an 8-handicap."
But he also said, "I miss home. I talk to Mom and Dad a lot. I talked to (McCallie) Coach (Ralph) Potter a couple of weeks ago. No matter how far we go in the playoffs, I should be home for almost all of the college football season."
Yet whether it's the Arena League or the NFL, Coleman again was reminded Saturday night of the small world he plays in.
"A guy on San Jose's team named Brandon Collins came up to me before the game and asked if I remembered him," Coleman said. "I'd thrown a touchdown pass to him in the Under Armour High School All-Star game. Eight years later, we've kind of come full circle. We're all starting to joke about how we're getting too old for this."
Yet unlike a rattlesnake, shedding one's competitive football skin is a much tougher task.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.