"Big" Announcement

The only thing they announced is what we already knew. The Soul, Brigade, and Sabercats are coming back for 2011. Talk about over-hype for one game. One thing, I heard the Commissioner say was that there were more teams coming back for 2011 that will be announced at the end of the year. It was kind of a throw away line. I'm wondering if they will be adding more teams or replacing failed franchises already? Also want to mention that this was my first time seeing Kurz. He looked and sounded like a Steamboat Captain.

ArenaFan

ArenaFan was gracious enough to add us to their site as a Soul Fan Site.

www.arenafan.com/links/?league=

If you notice, we are the only ones

To Get the Blood Pumping

Some posts from Soul Football on Twitter

Arena Bowl Highlights
www.youtube.com/watch?v=58aiQsfC7WM

Clips from the parade
www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOJOQz8WOcI&feature=related

And don't forget about the links from PhillySoulFan.com

phillysoulfan.com/paradevide.htm
and
http://phillysoulfan.com/abweekend.htm

        

The Commissioner of the Arena League has a special announcement tomorrow night during halftime of the Orlando-Jacksonville game. The headline I saw from Arenafan.com is that it's an expansion announcement. Which, I already thought they did. Announcing the Soul and Sabercats. Could there be another team or two coming in?

        

    The Arena Football League and the Philadelphia Soul announced on Tuesday, June 16, 2010, the re-launching of the Philadelphia Soul franchise. The ownership group will be minus Jon Bon Jovi but will bring in Pete Ciarrocchi and Cosmo DeNicola. Pete Ciarrocchi, you all know as the owner of the Chickie's and Pete's franchise. Cosmo DeNicola, some of you may know, is part owner of the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Pioneers.

So let's catch you up on what has been going on in the Arena League since my last post.

   The league came back, technically, on November 9, 2009 as Arena Football 1.  On December 7, 2009, the Federal Courts awarded AF1 all the assets and logos of the original Arena Football League, with the exception of one team, the Dallas Desperados. Next came the new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). From my understanding the players are getting paid on a per game basis. They are being paid more the AF2 players (about $200 a game) but less then the league minimum of the original AFL (about $1500 per game). I do not know, as of now, if the players get anytime of insurance or housing. I would imagine that they would but I can not say for sure. It is also my understanding that all players are on 1 year deals. SO everyone is a free agent at the end of the year.

TV contract

  The league has a one year deal (for 2010) with the NFL Network. They show one game a week, possibly two. My understanding is that they are getting around a .1 rating every week, which is better then what the NFLN was getting in that time slot. My guess is that this deal will get renewed. Like I just said, it's better ratings then what the NFLN gets on Friday nights in the summer. Plus, there is an impending lockout/strike on the horizon for the NFL. This will be just an extra revenue stream for the NFL owners. Remember, they still get money from Fox, CBS, and ESPN in the first year of work stoppage.

The League

  The league is led by Commissioner Jerry Kurz. I have no info on this guy but I am sure he's not much of an upgrade over Baker.

  The league has two conferences and 2 divisions in each conference. According to WIKIPEDIA this is how it breaks out;

South	Alabama Vipers	Huntsville, Alabama	Von Braun Center	2000	af2
	Jacksonville Sharks	Jacksonville, Florida	Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena	2010	New for 2010
	Orlando Predators	Orlando, Florida	Amway Arena	1991	AFL
	Tampa Bay Storm	Tampa, Florida	St. Pete Times Forum	1987	AFL
Southwest	Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings	Bossier City, Louisiana	CenturyTel Center	2000	af2
	Dallas Vigilantes	Dallas, Texas	American Airlines Center	2010	New for 2010
	Oklahoma City Yard Dawgz	Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	Cox Convention Center	2004	af2
	Tulsa Talons	Tulsa, Oklahoma	BOK Center	2000	af2
National Conference
Midwest	Chicago Rush	Rosemont, Illinois	Allstate Arena	2001	AFL
	Cleveland Gladiators	Cleveland, Ohio	Quicken Loans Arena	1997	AFL
	Iowa Barnstormers	Des Moines, Iowa	Wells Fargo Arena	1995	AFL & af2
	Milwaukee Iron	Milwaukee, Wisconsin	Bradley Center	2009	af2
West	Arizona Rattlers	Phoenix, Arizona	US Airways Center	1992	AFL
	Spokane Shock	Spokane, Washington	Spokane Veterans Memorial Arena	2006	af2
	Utah Blaze

  Not sure where the Soul fit into this yet but we will find out. Also, it was announced that San Jose is coming back for 2011.

Familiar Faces in Strange Places

  Here is a list of some of our boys on new AF1 teams

JJ McKelvey - Arizona Rattlers
Clifton Smith - Chicago Rush
Donovan Arp - Cleveland Gladiators
Brent Holmes - Cleveland Gladiators
Phil Bogle - Dallas Vigilantes
Larry Brackins - Dallas Vigilantes
Chris Brown - Dallas Vigilantes
Kenny Henderson - Dallas Vigilantes
Eddie Moten - Dallas Vigilantes
Dee Webb - Jacksonville Sharks

        

The Arena Football League and it's Board of Directors have decided to suspend the 2009 season. They hope to be back in 2010. In the meantime, I am going to change this fan site into a Phillies fan site. The Phils, after all, are my first love. Hopefully, the Soul will be back in 2010 but if not, thank you all for making it a wonderful experience. I had a blast.

Go Phils

        

Yes, that's right folks, we are 12-3 and headed for the playoffs. We definitely will be hosting a home playoff game and we control our destiny for home field advantage throughout the playoffs with a win over NY on Sunday (For those of you Soul fans headed up there, give 'em hell).

As far as the team is concerned, they seem great at times. They seem lackadaisical at others. I don't know what to make of this. It could be because of the schedule, or it could be all the injuries, or it could be a lack of focus. If it's the latter, the coaching staff needs to step it up. Especially Maynor, I don't know about you guys, but I am glad we have two All-Arena QBs on our roster. I really don't think Maynor can coach up a kid.

Anyway, here's hoping we kill NY, or better yet, the Desperados lose and the Soul can rest some key guys (Chris Jackson). Whatever the case, it's going to be a fun couple of weeks.


Go Soul!!!!!

        

The Soul just got a huge win over Columbus after debilititating loss to Georgia. This team still looks really banged up and I think this is going to last a little while longer. On a positive note, Rob Keefe looks like he can be a player in this league, or the Columbus Destroyers are that bad. Let's up they continue to win against Kansas City this Thursday night.

On a sad note, my sources within the organization have told be that Tony Graziani's knee injury is a career ender. Tony's knee was injured in the game against the New York Dragons when John Nix took a cheap shot at his knee. It was later re-injured in the Columbus game. Assuming that this is true, Tony will be sadly missed.

        

Let see, where do I begin? The Soul went into Columbus and kicked their asses to the curb. Then they hosted the Dallas Desperadoes and kicked their asses to the curb and rode off with their women. But that win came with a loss, or two losses. First, we lost Mike Brown for 4 weeks with a hamstring or quad injury. I forget which. Secondly, we lost Brian Mance for the year with a broken fibula. This is the one I find puzzling. It's my understanding that most bone breaks take 8 weeks to heal. Meaning, he should be back for Week 18 or the first round of the playoffs. Coach Munsey said he was out for the season but no one clarified if he could be back for the playoffs or not. Way to go there media!!!! Then we go to Cleveland on three days rest and play the Gladiators. This is where the shit hit the fan. First, D'Orozio goes down for 3-4 weeks on a similar play that Graziani went down on in week 4 against the Dragons. Then Graziani aggravates his knee injury and is questionable for next week's game against the Georgia Force in Atlanta, or where ever they play. Then Watts breaks his ankle and Bryan Save gets injured sometime during the game. I did not hear what actually happened to him. Needless to say, we lost that game by 12. Ironically, on the Center-QB exchange with less than a minute to go. In the span of 30 minutes, I went from wondering what our magic number was to clinching a playoff spot to wondering if we would win another game the rest of the season. Soul fans, it's that bad.

Now some news...Jon Bon Jovi was on Mike Missanelli's show on 950AM. Mike Miss asked JBJ about rumors of him trying to sell the team. Not only did he not deny it, but he actually said that he did not like the direction the league is headed. First, what direction is that? All the rule changes or the single entity ownership? I'm guessing the latter. Could this also mean we will have a new ownership group soon? Only time will tell.

Please let me know your thoughts by either using the comments section on this screen or by posting something on the message board.

        

The undefeated Philadelphia Soul head to Columbus to take on division foes, Columbus Destroyers (2-5), on a Monday Night ESPN telecast. The Destroyers have always been a thorn on our sides. Proven by the fact that we have only won in Columbus one time, both teams first seasons. They are led by QB Matt Nagy, who took them to the Arena Bowl last year. His primary receiver is the 6 foot 5 225lb Derek Lee and they have brought back B.J. Barre or was it Jason Shelly? I forget. Anyway, my point is that they are not without weapons.

The Soul, meanwhile, are supposed to have starting QB Tony Graziani. WR Chris Jackson will be going for another recieving record, I think it's 900 TD receptions. The defensive line should give the DBs help in that the Destroyers O'Line is supposed to be Swiss Cheese (according to Destroyer fans).

My prediction, the Soul will remain undefeated.

GO SOUL!!!!!

        

If I told you that the Soul did not have the lead at any point in the game until the last 10 seconds of the game, you would have told me I was nuts. But that is exactly what happened. The SaberCats defense was en fuego in the early goings in the game. (too fuego is you ask me. It was almost as if they knew what was coming before we did, but this is another conversation for another day.) The SaberCats defense was so good that they kept the Soul from scoring any points in the first quarter and held them to just 14 at the half. The QB Matt D'Orazio and DB/KR Mike Brown took over. These two simply will the Soul to victory. Down 33-14 to start the second half, the Soul recieved first crack on offense. Mike Brown returned the kickoff 40+ yards to bring the ball to the SaberCats 17. On the subsequent play D'Orazio threw a touchdown pass to WR Larry Brackins. The Soul go on to score 44 more points from there, while holding the SaberCats to 24.

Some thoughts about this game

- Tony Graziani was supposed to start this game but was a late scratch

- On the 2 point conversion, where the Soul finally took the lead, there was no QB. Mabry had to snap the ball to Clifton Smith, who rumbled for the conversion. They had lined up like that, then the SaberCats called time out and then the Soul just ran the play anyway. I like this mentality. Show the opposing team what you are going to to and basically say "Hey, you can't stop it." Kudos to Munsey/Maynor for the play design.

- The SaberCats cheerleaders are smoking hot

- WR Chris Jackson got away with one when he slapped the boards with his right hand before he scored on a 41yard TD with about a minute to play. SaberCats fans have every right to be pissed on that one.

- Do the refs know what holding his when they see it? Part of the reason the Soul's defense looked so bad in the first half is because Save, Strong, Nyenhuis, and Dunn were getting mugged. It was pretty obvious too.

- DE Derrick Strong could be the other end Munsey has been looking for to compliment Save and Nyenhuis

- Can we please stop having to go to San Jose every year? How about every once and a while they come here? Or maybe we can go to Arizona?

That's about all I have to say about this game. Next up, the team that everyone seems to be overlooking, the Columbus Destroyers.

Oh and Dallas won again. They head into a bye week next week, so they will remain undefeated when they come here.

        

Your undefeated Philadelphia Soul (6-0) will make a cross country trip to San Jose to take on the defending 2007 Arena Bowl Champions Sabercats (3-3) on Saturday 4/12/08. This is what you would call a classic trap game for the Soul. They are headed out west, playing the defending champions who are inferior to them, and the champs are coming off a humiliating lose at the hands of the New Orleans Voodoo where they scored just 43 points.

The Soul have made headlines by making roster moves this week. They signed DE Derrick Strong after releasing DL George Gause and QB Mitch Tanney. By releasing Tanney, this tells me that Graziani will be starting this week against the SaberCats. The only thing we know for sure is that an Italian will be under center for the Soul Saturday night.

Meanwhile, the SaberCats have been messing with everyone by moving the start time of this game. Originally it was supposed to start at 10:30 PM EST, then it was moved to 11:45  PM EST  because SJ was worried about there being an NHL Playoff game that night. Turns out the Sharks play on Friday night not Saturday so the SaberCats moved the starting time back to 10:30 PM EST. This game will be shown live on ComcastSportsNet.

It just occured to me, I have not talked about the game at all. The SaberCats are led by QB Mark Grieb, one of the best the Arena League has to offer, and his go to guy is WR James Roe, again, one of the best the Arena League has to offer. These two are a very formidable duo. The defensive line will have to be at their best to hurry passes, so the DBs will have a chance to defend against their WR corps. This game will be close, to close to call in fact. BUT!!!!! I have said since before the season started that the Soul will go undefeated on their way to winning the Arena Bowl this year. That means, they will have to win this week.


GO SOUL!!!!!!