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 25th AFL season saw numerous records broken thanks largely to the second year of the 18-game schedule. However, there were not as many records broken in 2012 as there were last season. Nonetheless, there were some major records shattered this season with Tommy Grady leading the way with at least eleven new single-season records.
I'm literally just minutes away from walking out of my house to drive over to Tampa Bay for our flight to Phoenix for ArenaBowl XXIV, and this stunning thought hit me: This really could be a damn good ArenaBowl! In a season with all sorts of duds for games and teams that were wildly inconsistent, we, the Arena Football fans, got exactly what we wanted in this game.
The AFL sent out media ballots for the end of the season awards and All-Arena teams Sunday afternoon. After filling mine out, I wanted to share it with you and give you reasons why I feel each recipient should be named that specific award. In addition, I've included by All-Arena First and Second Teams. This is my ballot that I'm sending to the league after I post it here first.
Streaks ended in Week 17. San Jose, Iowa and New Orleans ended multi-game losing skids. Jacksonville's 13-game winning streak ended and Chicago reached the playoffs for the tenth straight year. Three quarterbacks passed for nine touchdowns (Davila, Garcia and Grieb). This and much more awaits in the most comprehensive breakdown of AFL action anywhere in the universe.