Jason Lucas
Wednesday July 6, 2011
Everything about the Orlando Predators game-plan against the Pittsburgh Power on Friday night was camouflaged by head coach Pat O’Hara. The Preds had been in a downward spiral losing their last three contests to division foes Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, and Georgia; so O’Hara decided to make some bold changes to spark his football team.
Quarterback Nick Hill was benched in favor of Collin Drafts after Hill led the Preds offense to a season-low 34 points in the loss to Georgia. The news sent shockwaves through the press box when NFL Network broke the change just prior to kickoff.
Wednesday July 18, 2012
When San Antonio Talons QB Aaron Garcia took the field last Friday night against the Arizona Rattlers, he added another record to his illustrious AFL career - most regular season games played.
Garcia, the league s all-time leader in all passing categories, appeared in his 208th regular season game breaking a tie with former Tampa Bay Storm WR/LB Lawrence Samuels for the most in AFL history. The reigning AFL Offensive Player of the Year and ArenaBowl MVP was under center for his 206th start (extending his AFL record).
The win improved Garcia s record as a starter to 128-78 in the regular season. His 128 wins are the most in AFL history by a starting QB (San Jose s Mark Grieb is second with 115). Here s a look at Garcia s season-by-season games started and record as confirmed by The StatGuys, the AFL s official statistical provider.
Adam Markowitz
Saturday November 9, 2013
BEIJING - Hundreds of years ago, the Emperor of China would sit on his throne in his office high atop all of his minions in the Imperial Palace in the heart of Beijing. His office would be the highest building in the city, and to this day, no building can be built higher than the Emperor s office. That s just one of the many historic tidbits that AFL China s representatives learned about at Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City on Thursday afternoon in Beijing. I was lucky enough to have chance to experience all of these sights with the players on Thursday, and I caught up with the two members of the Tampa Bay Storm on the roster of East All-Stars, Randy Hippeard and Rodney Beamon.
On the defensive side of the ball, San Jose has struggled all season long. However, the SaberCats were tied for the league lead in sacks after the first seven games of the season and in the last seven have barely gotten to the opposing quarterback. Through the first seven games, San Jose had 15 sacks and seven interceptions with returned for touchdowns. In the last seven contests, the SaberCats have just eight sacks and five picks (no INT TDs).
2010 AFL Defensive Player/Lineman of the Year Gabe Nyenhuis recorded sacks in the first two games of the season, but was placed on injured reserve by Week Four. Last year, he set league marks in sacks and forced fumbles. Nyenhuis has been back on the field the last two games, but has failed to reach the QB. Two other linemen (Francis Maka and George Hypolite) were tied for the team lead in sacks (5.0), but have missed time during the skid and are both now on injured reserve.
Adam Markowitz
Wednesday August 8, 2012
NEW ORLEANS This year in the Arena Football League, we saw four quarterbacks throw for over 5,000 yards and six throw for at least 107 TDs. We watched as Tommy Grady rewrote the record books, throwing for 5,870 yards and 142 TDs on a whopping 743 pass attempts. The Philadelphia Soul went out and signed Clint Dolezel, one of the four men to throw for over 40,000 yards in a career and one of the three to throw for at least 900 TDs, to be their offensive coordinator. Yet after all of this mention of the passing game, it is the rushing game that really gave Philadelphia the edge in 2012.