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Your AFL Seer of Seers, Prognosticator of Prognosticators correctly called nine of the ten AFL Hall of Fame finalists. My gut called all ten but with the eligible players so vast, I pulled Gene Nudo off the big board to put a fellow Arizona great in Randy Gatewood as a finalist. Let's take a closer look at these ten Arena legends and my five picks of who gets inducted.
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.
Arena Football League fans who are knowledgeable of the game know that this league is a heck of a lot better off when both the Tampa Bay Storm and the Orlando Predators are both good. The truth of the matter? The last time that both of these teams were good at the same time was 2010, but even then, those teams were seeded third and fourth in the playoffs that season, and the Preds only just squeaked into the playoffs at 8-8.
The Tampa Bay Storm (4-3) took the Southern Division lead in Week 8 in the league's version of Monday Night Football over the hapless Kansas City Command (0-6) 63-46. But of course, a comedy of errors, a few utterly hilarious comments, and a shameless promotion gone bad later, all that was left from this one was a bunch of things to laugh about a league that is getting worse and worse with each passing week.
The Arena Football League has lost a legend. On Thursday, Tim Marcum, the winningest coach in Arena Football League history with 211 wins, has passed away.
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).
With just a week to go in the regular season, all eight playoff teams have been decided and Spokane locked up home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. Rod Windsor added another league single-season record to his record-breaking rookie campaign. Also, Dallas named its new head coach at halftime. This and much more awaits in the 17th weekly edition of Breaking it Down.
Week Nine featured the renewal of league's two greatest rivalries (Arizona-San Jose, Tampa Bay-Orlando). All four division leaders won against division rivals. Utah and Georgia battled in the week's highest scoring and most exciting game that was decided in the final seconds. Recaps of these games, my weekly ramblings and more Hall of Fame thoughts awaiting in Volume Three, Issue Nine of Breaking it Down.
At halftime at ArenaBowl XXIV at the US Airways Center, Barry Wagner, George LaFrance, Hunkie Cooper, Eddie Brown, Darren Arbet, Sylvester Bembery, Sam Hernandez, Gene Nudo, Stevie Thomas, and Kurt Warner were announced as the Arena Football League Hall of Fame Class of 2011. Only five were expected to be selected.