Virgil Gray News Today

On Saturday, the Arizona Rattlers became the first team since the Tampa Bay Storm in ArenaBowls IX and X to win back to back Arena Football League championships as they defeated the Philadelphia Soul 48-39 in ArenaBowl XXVI in Orlando.

In 2009, the Spokane Shock went 15-1 in the regular season and rolled through the af2 playoffs to finish the campaign with 19 wins and the ArenaCup. That year, Nick Davila was the man under center for the Shock. On Friday night, Davila can lead the Arizona Rattlers to their 19th win of the season if he can get them past the Jacksonville Sharks in ArenaBowl XXIV.

Forty times, the San Jose SaberCats and the Arizona Rattlers have met in their illustrious histories. Six times they have met in the playoffs. There are 12 ArenaBowl appearances and seven championships between the clubs, and there were 28 wins between the two this year. On Sunday, one will advance to the National Conference Finals to take on the Spokane Shock.

After back-to-back bye weeks, I'm back with more breakdowns, more history and more AFL than anywhere else. Arizona won the West, Jacksonville won a record tying 12th straight, Tommy Grady tossed ten TDs again, Derrick Ross set the single-season rushing record (without apparently anyone knowing about it), Tampa Bay evened the War on I-4 and a few more thousand words to fill the void until Week 16 kicks off. Breaking it Down is back!

The Washington Valor (1-8) lost 72-42 on Friday night inside of Royal Farms Arena against the Baltimore Brigade (7-2) in front of 5,105 fans. Baltimore set a new franchise record for points.

Prior to the hiatus in 2009, it used to be commonplace for bettors to be able to wager on anything from who is going to win a game to a total in a game to the odds to win the ArenaBowl each and every week. Largely, most of those options have been severely limited. This season though, William Hill in Las Vegas has posted ArenaBowl futures bets, where you can wager on your favorite team to hoist the Foster Trophy this year.

For the first time throughout the entire 2015 Arena Football League season, the San Jose SaberCats actually appeared vulnerable against the defending American Conference Champion Cleveland Gladiators on Saturday night, trailing 49-35 in the second quarter and 52-42 at halftime.

Today, we bid farewell to arguably the most mismanaged, underappreciated, yet tremendously fascinating franchises in the history of the Arena Football League. Though the handwriting has been on the wall for weeks, the Pittsburgh Power have officially been closed for business, becoming the third team from the 2014 season to have left the league for 2015.

ArenaBowl XXIV featured a title-game record eleven lead changes, including four in the final 52 seconds. The last was the most dramatic and capped the greatest ArenaBowl in league history when Jacksonville QB Aaron Garcia hit receiver Jeron Harvey on a ten-yard strike as time expired that gave the Sharks an ArenaBowl title in just the team's second season. As usual, Breaking it Down will provide more insight into this great game than anywhere in the indoor football universe. Enjoy!

The Arizona Rattlers are winners of ArenaBowl XXVI. Lindholm's field goal proved to be the clinching scoring, making it a two-score game. Philadelphia put up a tremendous effort, but it wasn't enough to beat the Rattlers, who have won their fourth ArenaBowl in franchise history and their second straight by the count of 48-39.