Page 6 - Fl Logos News Today

It would seem that professional football has returned to Tampa Bay. Make all the jokes you want, but the Tampa Bay Storms 54-41 victory over the Dallas Vigilantes was exactly what the football-starved fans of Tampa Bay needed after enduring 16-months of lunacy watching the NFLs Buccaneers.

The Washington Valor (1-6) dropped another one to the Cleveland Gladiators (2-6) Saturday night at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C. in front of 9,901 fans. Losing 59-35, Washington now carries a six game losing streak..

This week, I took some time to interview Carlton Brown,a defensive back and kick returner for the Kansas City Command. He played college ball at Jackson State in Mississippi, and is in his third year in the AFL, having played last year for the Milwaukee Iron and in 2008 for the Utah Blaze.

With the ball on the six yard line and the Arizona Rattlers threatening to score and win the game with just two seconds left, Josh Feruson ultimately knows that the ball is going to be thrown his way.

The Albany Empire will play a familiar opponent this Friday night as they face the Washington Valor for the second consecutive week, this time at the Capital One Center (7pm, Facebook AFL Watch, NBC Sports Washington, Monumental Sports Network, AFLNow). This is the game that was rescheduled from April 21 to accommodate the NHL and NBA Playoffs.

Going into the last week of play in the 2012 Arena Football League season, the common complaint is that the Spokane Shock and the Chicago Rush should both be in the playoffs. After all, they are both likely to finish with better records than all but one team in the American Conference playoffs. In the end this year though, those aren't the ones that really have the rights to complain. The ones that should be complaining are the fans of the Cleveland Gladiators and the Pittsburgh Power.

This Friday during the NFL Network broadcast of the War on I-4, ten individuals will be selected as finalists for the first AFL Hall of Fame class in nearly a decade. As the self-anointed AFL historian, I've taken the liberty of going through the list of eligible individuals and present to you my ten finalists.

After a strike in Cleveland caused the Gladiators to forfeit to the Power, neither the AFL nor the AFLPU truly lost. The fans were the biggest losers.

Chicago managed to effectively clinch the Central Division last weekend; by doing so in such an impressive fashion, the Rush also opened up the No. 1 ranking for Spokane to step in and take to the house.

They didn't quite get this last year, but they are going to have a chance to do it this season. The Philadelphia Soul are on their way to ArenaBowl XXVI after knocking off the Jacksonville Sharks 75-59 in the American Conference Championship Game on Saturday night.