Arena Football League: 1987-2019

The Arena Football League filed for chapter 7 bankruptcy meaning it's dead. 33 seasons. Shame. In it's final year there were only 6 teams(4 of which owned by the same ownership group). The final champions were the Albany Empire. For 4 seasons I had the pleasure to cover the Philadelphia Soul for a blogsite of a friend. I really enjoyed it. Felt like a real reporter with a press pass, sitting in the press box, doing interviews, and having access to all the players, coaches, and officials. Had conversations with Ron Jaworski, Jon Bon Jovi, John Elway, Bernie Kosar, and a host of AFL stars. I even got to cover Arena Bowl XXII in New Orleans. My final season was in 2008 which was the last year before the league went on hiatus for a season due to growing financial woes. The league used to have as many as 19 teams. They were on ABC and ESPN and had 2 video games. In the end, it was sad to watch. The death knell for me was when the 2019 champion Albany Empire announced it wasn't coming back for the 2020 season. 

The league started out as a 4 team experiment: Pittsburgh, Washington, Denver, Chicago. As the years went buy, teams came and went. Teams like the New Orleans Night, Nashville Kats, Minnesota Fighting Pike, Memphis Pharoes, NJ Red Dogs, Carolina Cobras, Portland Forest Dragons, and even the Toronto Phantoms. Memorable players like Shedderick Bonner, Jay Gruden, Chris Jackson(Bon Jovi called him "Money" because he would say "There goes my money" when he ran by), Kurt Warner, Tony Graziani, Aaron Garcia, Matt D'Orazio, Sean Scott, and a host of others. It was a fun league. Sad to see it go. 


profootballtalk.nbcsports.com/2019/11/27/arena-football-league-finally-folds/