Arena Football RIP 2007

Some of the best times my buddies and I ever had together were at Arena Football games at the Hartford Civic Center. We always sat in the end zones in the 300 sections (the cheap seats) and we would root for big hits and crazy plays that you'd never see in the outdoor game. Even up there in the cheap seats, we still felt closer to the game than we'd ever be in Foxboro or at Giants Stadium--and for one heck of a good price!

Even after the Hartford teams folded, I continued to follow the league as it "grew up" and got major TV deals with NBC and now, ESPN. With growth, any business risks losing their core fans--the ones who stood by them as the league evolved from something on the outskirts or respectability to trying desperately to be accepted. With the NBC deal, the AFL bent over backwards to accommodate the network. The changed the ball; some rules; and even when the season started. Instead of a summer-league to fill empty rinks, the AFL began right after the Super Bowl, when the sports landscape is pretty busy. Right there I thought the move was kinda shifty--like the league just bowed to pressure from the network or something. Of course, every league bows to every network--or "broadcasting partner" in the words of the day.

Arena football was more fun for me when it was something I pretty much had to myself. When NBC began showing the games, the promotional machine geared up and pretty soon there were AFL commercials during "Friends" and stuff. That was a bit jarring. Somehow I never associated the people who care about whether Ross and Rachel would get back together or not as being potential fans of "The 50 Yard Indoor War."

Network exposure meant new investors for the AFL. New investors of the AFL + NBC = Jon Bon Jovi. Yes, the Philadelphia Soul games were played over and over and over and Bon Jovi's hair was on my TV more than the actual players on the Soul roster. NBC tried to sell Soul QB Tony Graziani as some kind of AFL freaking genius even though he was hurt all the time and by the way, most people knew he flamed out with the Falcons in the NFL. And yet, NBC on the east coast treated the Soul like they were the home team all the time. Jon would be up in the owner's box watching the game and the NBC peeps would cut to him to see his reaction after every play.

Yes, the Arena Football League got sucked into the whole celebrity culture when they were striving for acceptance--and the two should never, ever meet! JBJ would be at the game with...Tim Robbins or Bruce Springsteen or somebody else! Let's cut to another reaction shot! Oooh, Jon looks like he didn't like that last play call. Either that or he had some bad chili fries!

I can't tell you how many of my friends have been so turned off by the Jon Bon Jovi AFL. (Alright, it's me and one other dude.) The spandex chicks with the big hair who worship Bon Jovi are not watching the games and would never watch the games anyway. Besides, most of those spandex chicks are in their late-30s now and they all married into the NASCAR family. They're gone now; groupies for some dude who turns left all the time and doesn't even change his own oil. (Not that I can change my own oil either, but you know what I mean.)

The AFL tried to expand and with it's own scorched earth policy, they have turned their old school fans against them. The latest ploy for acceptance is to get in bed with ESPN. By the way, now that ESPN is a half-owner of the AFL, have you noticed more AFL highlights on Sportscenter? How about more promotion? ESPN Radio talking more about the AFL? I thought so. If the league had called ESPN before this deal trying to lobby for more highlights on Sportcenter, they'd probably be laughed off the phone. Cut into NBA highlights for Arena Football? Are you serious? We have to run a story about people being preoccupied with a horse like Barbaro who died like a year ago! We need to have Kobe in the Budweiser Hotseat! We need to---wait. We just signed on with the AFL? OK, then! We'll run Colorado Crush highlights right after the first break! Then we will cut to Mike and Mike for their live wrap-up from the game! We love the AFL here at ESPN!

It's just so disingenuous. ESPN caters to whatever ESPN can show. I am
a MLS fan (it's the only sport I break my ESPN Embargo for) and even I have noticed more MLS scores on the ticker at the bottom of the screen. ESPN covers hockey now like it is a stepchild that no one wants to claim. It used to ignore the AFL and MLS until the powers that be signed contracts that paid money to the leagues to put their games on ESPN. Am I saying ESPN is evil? Well, I don't want to sound like some crackaloon conspiracy theorist so I won't come right out and say it. Read between the lines. And don't call me some crackaloon! It's a word I think I just made up.

So, now the Arena Football League is dead. It wasn't killed by NBC or ESPN but by their own expansion plans and a desire to become big league. The days of having a little side game to be interested in during the long summers without hockey are gone. Long live the Connecticut Coyotes. Long live the New England Sea Wolves. But rest in peace AFL.