editorial comment That would have been more fun if it involved Phil Jackson or Bob Knight :) Yet another example that drug users can keep a job (that is, until they are caught and labeled criminal)

Arizona Rattlers coach Todd Shell was found by police early Tuesday with a powdery substance Shell said was cocaine, Mesa authorities said.


Shell, 43, was arrested around 1 a.m. on a Gilbert warrant for violating probation on an extreme DUI charge, detective Tim Gaffney said. Drug charges are pending an examination of the substance.

Shell was released from custody after his wife posted a $1,000 cash bond, Gilbert police Lt. Joe Ruet said.

Shell compiled a 7-9 record in his first year coaching the Arena Football League team.

Rattlers owner Bob Hernreich, who just bought the team in June, declined to comment.

“It’s unfair to everyone until we have all the information,” Hernreich said by phone from his business office in Denver.

“We are aware of the arrest and we are surprised,” general manager Gene Nudo said before declining to comment further.

Shell was found, shirtless and sweating profusely, outside his parked SUV behind a business near the intersection of Greenfield Road and Ivy Street. An officer who searched Shell discovered a white powder in a clear plastic bag and a red straw.

At first, Shell said he found the powder but then confessed that it was his. Shell said this was only his third time trying cocaine, Gaffney said.

The Gilbert warrant came from a December 2003 arrest after he was pulled over for driving 55 mph in a 45-mph zone, then failed a field sobriety test, Ruet said.

Shell’s most recent run-in with the law is a stunning development in the career of a man who had waited so long to get the Rattlers’ job. In his previous position coaching the Arena Football League’s New York franchise, Shell had one “out” in his contract, and that was if Arizona needed a coach.

The Rattlers created that vacancy last summer when longtime coach Danny White was not invited back, and Shell was the team’s first choice.

Shell was a star linebacker at Mountain View High School, playing for the Toros’ first state championship team in 1978. He won three conference titles at Brigham Young University and won two Super Bowl rings as a linebacker for the San Francisco 49ers.

As White’s defensive coordinator, he was part of the Rattlers’ first ArenaBowl championship in 1994.

But his initial season as the Rattlers’ coach was difficult. The team started 1-7 and had a seven-game losing streak. Some longtime veterans privately said they were not happy with some of the changes Shell instituted.

The team rebounded to win six of its last eight games, however, and with Hernreich taking over, there was optimism heading into 2006.

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