COMMERCE CITY - On the first day of practice after a nine-month layoff, Crush coach Mike Dailey told his squad the landscape had changed in the Arena Football League.

The league has adopted new substitution rules, and big men will roam in arena football.

Huge, mammoth men.

Like former NFL linemen Aaron Gibson (6-foot-7, 380 pounds) and Lincoln Kennedy (6- 7, 350).

Gibson, a former first-round draft pick of the Detroit Lions in 1999, was signed by the Austin Wranglers to beef up their offensive line after the Wranglers threw for the fewest yards of any AFL team last year. Kennedy now plays for the AFL's Dallas Desperados after an 11-year career with the Oakland Raiders, which included three Pro Bowls.

These behemoths, who no longer are required to play offense and defense, could change the pecking order in the Arena Football League, but Dailey said their impact is unknown.

"These guys never existed in arena football before," he said. "But now, those guys are going to line up and knock someone off the ball like it's the old outdoor version."

With the addition of Kennedy to an already potent offensive lineup, Dallas showed it wasn't satisfied with last year's 13-3 season that fell one game short of the ArenaBowl.

The Desperados also added receiver Marcus Nash to a unit that scored the most points in arena football last season. Nash, the 2004 Offensive Player of the Year in the AFL, gives All-Arena quarterback Clint Dolezel another target and gives the Desperados the look of a serious contender in the National Conference.

Chicago, which barely qualified for the playoffs with a 7-9 regular-season record, caught fire in the postseason and rode its momentum all the way to a championship.

The key for the Rush was the midseason addition of receiver Bobby Sippio. With Sippio in the lineup from the start this year, the Rush is favored to represent the American Conference again in ArenaBowl XXI in New Or- leans.

"I think Chicago is certainly going to be a great football team," Dailey said. "Defending champs, that always carries a lot of weight."

As he sings Chicago's praises, Dailey could be grinning like the Cheshire cat. Colorado beat Chicago twice in the regular season and won the American Conference Central Division with an 11-5 record before losing to the surging Rush in the playoffs.

The Crush appears to be Chicago's major obstacle to repeating. Colorado will try to regain its championship form of 2005 with the ultraproductive tandem of quarterback John Dutton and two-time Offensive Player of the Year Damian Harrell.