Page 39 - Fl Stats News Today

After an early bye, the boys in red, white and blue are ready to get back to business. The Soul (1-0) are coming to town and will square off against the Valor (1-0) 7 p.m. Saturday, April 22nd at Verizon Center. The game will broadcast live on Monumental Sports Network. Only one will remain undefeated.

When Randall Boe became the Arena Football Leagues commissioner prior to the 2018 season there were only four teams in the league and the very future of the AFL was in doubt. However just over a year into the job Boe has made significant progress to restoring the league with two new franchises and a significantly altered business model that focuses on the league owning teams itself.

The bye week. Its what often separates the best teams from the worst teams, as coaches continue to prepare for the upcoming battles even though the players all have the week off from practice. Nearly half of the league is on that proverbial bye this week, a few teams of which are already on their second bye of the season.

Remember back when there was a clear cut between the Haves and the Have Nots in the AFL? It was only a few weeks ago that most of us would have scoffed at the idea of any of the Storm, Gladiators and Sharks beating the Rattlers, Soul and Predators, let alone all three doing it in the same week.

It's Hall of Fame selection time again in the Arena Football League. This Friday, the AFL will announce ten finalists selected by the Hall of Fame Advisory Board. Last year, I correctly predicted nine of the ten finalists (I took a player over an administrator but did mention him as a worthy finalist) and correctly predicted that all ten should be inducted that year (which happened).

Maybe the 13th week of the Arena Football season will be a lucky one for me for a change. I mentioned that I was playing a road game having written last week's column waiting for my flight out of town in Orlando's glorious airport... Unfortunately, I play on the road about as well as a Sparky McEwen coached team, going just 3-4 against the spread.

The Washington Valor (1-7) dropped their seventh straight, their third loss to the Tampa Bay Storm (7-1) in less than a month in front of 9,856 fans inside of Amalie Arena on Saturday night. Valor wide receiver Charles McClain set a new franchise record finishing with 215 all-purpose yards. With their 58-57 win, Tampa Bay became the second team to secure a playoff berth.

Ten weeks down, ten more to go in the longest regular season in AFL history. Nine teams have winning records, last year's ArenaBowl participants are a combined 7-10, Jacksonville is riding an eight-game winning streak and Arizona has lost two games by two combined points. Game recaps, midyear awards, historical nuggets and other notes of interest are featured in this week's edition of Breaking it Down.

TAMPA -- Adam Kennedy probably should make sure that he has his life insurance policy paid up. The young pivot for the New Orleans VooDoo had a particularly long day at the office on Friday night, as he was battered and beaten time and time again with each passing drop back in a 42-13 loss to the Tampa Bay Storm.

For the Spokane Shock, 2014 will be remembered as an injury-riddled season. Key contributors from every phase of the game missed time nursing a variety of injuries in an 11-7 campaign.