AFL Playoffs Conference Final Schedule

I know I said I would be live blogging the Conference Finals of the AFL Playoffs as well, but NFL free agency and MLB's trade deadline happened. I got distracted and forgot about it. Here is hoping I do not do the same thing again this week.

National Conference Final

August 6: Chicago Rush vs. Arizona Rattlers 10:00 (niftytv.com)

American Conference Final

August 8: Georgia Force vs. Jacksonville Sharks 8:00 (NFL Network)

A Very Soul-ful Return

Try the veal, everyone!

In the dire straits of the mid to late 2000s before the 2008 World Series when Philadelphia was starved for a championship, I turned to a team I thought that had a chance of winning one. A team with a young, enthusiastic head coach, a star QB, and a lot of promise as a future champion. That team, the Philadelphia Soul, finally won a championship in the summer of 2008 just before the league shut down for a year and went bankrupt. Well for the unaware, Arena Football returned earlier this year and next year, also returning will be the Philadelphia Soul! From Philly.com

The baptism of the reborn Philadelphia Soul will begin near the nexus of three rivers - in Pittsburgh.

On March 11, the local Arena Football League franchise will take to the indoor carpet for the first time since winning the league title in July 2008, according to the team's newly released schedule.

George W. Bush was still president back then.

Jersey rocker Jon Bon Jovi was still one of the Soul's co-owners.

Then the league tanked worse than the American economy, taking a year off, and then going bankrupt, before re-emerging with a mix of old and new teams for this year's season.

But without a Soul.

In June, the franchise announced that ex-Eagles quarterback / ESPN analyst Ron Jaworski would be back as one of four co-owners of a resurrected franchise - but that Bon Jovi and bandmate Richie Sambora were giving up the gig.

The team has a new head coach and a new quarterback. Former player Mike Hohensee is one of the league's winningest coaches, and just a couple of weeks ago, the Soul signed 6-foot-2, 240-pound Justin Allgood, who threw a league-high 109 touchdown passes with Tulsa Talons in 2010. Also signed is Donovan Morgan, who caught 52 of Allgood's TDs with Tulsa.

Mike Hohensee was the head coach of the Chicago Rush in the pre-bankrupt days while Justin Allgood was one of the best QBs last season in the AFL, playing for the Tulsa Talons. For those wondering where he comes from, Allgood played for Division II University of Central Oklahoma (UCO) Bronchos (yes, "Bronchos" is the right spelling here).

And now for a flashback to the last time the Soul were on an Arena Football field. The Phillies may be the ones who officially ended the championship drought in 2008, but the Soul were the ones who started the year of greatness.



"The New Orleans Arena in New Orleans." - Bob Wischusen

Never would have figured that one out, Bob. Anyways, a little post-script on this team. Bret Munsey, then the head coach of the Philadelphia Soul, is now the director of player personnel for the Florida Tuskers. The original starting QB for the Soul that season (and then highest paid player in the league), Tony Graziani, is now out of football. The back-up QB (who coincidentally was once a starter for Mike Hohensee's Chicago Rush only to be released before being picked-up by the Soul as the back-up), Matt D'Orazio signed a contract with the Calgary Stampeders of the CFL in February 2009. He was released a few months later. The star wide receiver of that Soul team, Chris Jackson with the Winnipeg Blue Bombers of the CFL in 2009, but was released a month and a half later and is out of football as far as I can tell. The defensive player of the game for the Philadelphia Soul, Gabe Nyenhuis, spent some time in the CFL before returning to the AFL where he still has a job playing football with the Tulsa Talons.

Welcome Back Arena Football League! Sort Of....

There have been many victims of this latest recession, with one of the more talked about and noted ones in the sports world being that of the collapse of the Arena Football League. They went from cancelling the season to folding completely over the past year, but now, rising from the ashes is a brand new Arena Football League, to be named Arena Football League 1, and it will feature some of the same teams as the old AFL! Via ESPN.com

Officials from what will be known as Arena Football 1 said Monday that they will have at least 16 teams ready to play in 2010, including four in former Arena Football League markets: Salt Lake City, Chicago, Phoenix and Orlando, Fla. The Arizona Rattlers and Orlando Predators played in the old AFL, but the new league's Chicago and Salt Lake City teams did not.

The league will also have teams from the AFL offshoot arenafootball2, as well as at least one team from another indoor league. It will be based in Tulsa. Commissioner Jerry Kurz said it would be a "brand-new league" not connected with the AFL or af2.

"There has been arena football before," said Kurz, a former af2 commissioner. "It's been done well but not as good as it's going to be done this time."

Kurz said more details of the league's business structure -- including what the players might be paid -- will be announced during the coming weeks. He said the league would use a schedule similar to that used by the AFL and af2, with games starting in late March or early April and running through the summer.

Dan Newman, the owner of the Bossier-Shreveport (La.) BattleWings -- who are moving from the af2 to the new league- said Arena Football 1 will use a rule book identical to those used by the AFL and af2.

"This is arena football," Newman said.

Arena Football 1 said its markets also will include Little Rock, Ark.; Fresno, Calif.; Des Moines, Iowa; Jacksonville, Fla.; Lexington, Ky.; Milwaukee; Oklahoma City; Spokane, Wash.; Huntsville, Ala.; Kennewick, Wash.; and Tulsa.

The new league said eight more teams have submitted membership applications. Newman said the league is negotiating with seven other former AFL franchises, including those in Tampa and San Jose.

Hank Stern, vice president of the San Jose SaberCats, said Monday that while that team was "looking to bring arena football back to San Jose," he wouldn't comment about the new league "until things become clearer."

Kurz said other franchises will be considered for inclusion in the league through Oct. 9.

"We'll grow as it fits us in a smooth economic model," he said. "Other leagues in many different sports have just grown to grow and we don't want to do that. We want to make sure we go into markets that want us."

Now this sounds like a much better idea than the UFL! And while arena football may not be up there with the NFL and other major professional sports, it nonetheless did develop a strong following in it's over 20 years of existence. And while we are learning more and more about how failed the old system was behind the scenes, to make this new league succeed, they don't need to re-invent the wheel, just a new way of getting it to go and that appears to be scenario.

I must say, though, I am quite depressed that my Bon Jovi-Ron Jaworski ran Philadelphia Soul won't be back. Oh well, welcome to the world, Arena Football League 1!