philduba.com

Apologies to the Football Gods

Posted On May 15, 2007 11:41 AM By Phil in Other Sports

Ok, consider this my sacrifice to the football gods. Six weeks ago there was an email thread between myself and my friends lamenting the Phillies horrible start (I know, they're still not great). We were kicking around what was wrong, etc., but then someone asked when was training camp started and I responded "Let's Go Soul!". Well, apparently that was enough to upset the football gods as the Soul haven't won since. They were 4-0 with a Monday night showdown with Georgia followed by one with Dallas. They lost to Georgia and then lost their starting QB against Dallas. They've lost 6 games in a row, with the latest being to a woeful New York team. So, again, football gods, please accept my apology. I did not mean to alter the football universe with enthusiasm. So, when does training camp start?

Comments (0) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs | 750 Views

Argh!

Posted On May 29, 2006 4:35 PM By Phil in Other Sports

Why does every Philly sports team take losing to a new level? The Soul went for a 4th down around mid-field with 3-and-a-half minutes left and didn't make it by a yard or two. Orlando gets a touchdown not too long later and the Soul are foced to go the length of the field to get a shot at the win. They get to 1st and goal at the 6, but Tony Grazianni fumbles on the last play of the game and the Soul lose, 31-27. Oh well, they made progress this year, finally figured out how to defend in the AFL. Next year, they have to make a drive for the division and hopefully home-field throughout the playoffs.

Comments (0) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs | 560 Views

Soul Win!

Posted On May 21, 2006 6:39 PM By Phil in Other Sports

Ok, for those of you that watched the slugfest at the Bank, there was a football playoff game over on NBC you missed. The Soul won their first franchise playoff game, pulling away for a 52-35 win over the Austin Wranglers. They had lost to the Wranglers earlier in the year. The game started off well for the Soul as they jumped out to a 14-0 lead, but this being the AFL, that quickly evaporated as the teams went into halftime 21-21. That's when the defense took over by forcing numerous stops and Sean Scott returned a 4th down interception for a touchdown.

The player of the game was Tony Graziani. On the second play he took a huge shot to the head, getting hit in the chest and a helmet-to-helmet from behind. NBC even captured his talking to the trainer in which he said he didn't remember the 1st quarter. At the end of the 2nd half he took another shot to the head making a tackle and was limping by the end of the game, all while throwing for 4 touchdowns It's a shame more people don't watch the Soul as I think they would appreciate the effort put in of these guys, as well as their talent, many of whom make no more than $40K to play the game and live in tiny apartments downtown. So the Soul now have to face the Orlando Predators coached by Jay Gruden, John Gruden's brother, Sunday at 3:30 PM.

Comments (0) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs | 528 Views

MLS Coming to South Jersey!

Posted On March 20, 2006 12:14 PM By Phil in Other Sports

Rowan and MLS announced today that an exclusive agreement for negotiations for an MLS franchise in the Philly/SJ market are to be between Rowan and MLS over the next four months. Rowan is going to build a soccer-specific stadium as part of a campus expansion and if MLS agrees, guarantee a franchise to the university for playin 2009. So what does this really mean?

• A professional soccer stadium in the heart of South Jersey
• A stadium to play south jersey finals games, maybe even state semis and coaches cup tournament semi's and finals

This is just me, but I think it would trigger Rowan making the move towards D-I sports, maybe first in soccer, than slowly get their in football. What I think it really says is that Rowan wants to become a player in higher-education on a grander scale than it is now and provide a legitimate alternative to Rutgers for public higher education in New Jersey. It may also lend itself to aiding in Philly's bid for the 2016 Olympic games. Overall, it's an exciting development and now I'll have to choose, can I keep rooting for DC United and the local team?

Comments (1) | Print | Send | del.icio.us | Digg It! | Linking Blogs | 686 Views