Well, it had been rumoured for a week or so but now it’s official, there will be no Arena Football season in 2009. This is just another cut in the sports universe during these trying financial times but at least the league hasn’t halted operations for good and folded outright. The AFL will be back for 2010, but it will probably be a lot lighter in the franchise department.
Those who are hit worst by this decision, of course, are the players. We’ve all heard the story of how Kurt Warner was working in a grocery store while playing AFL ball before his big break with the Rams. It’s hard to imagine anyone living comfortably off the minor league salaries that the players make without taking on a second job. At least they could probably easily make any CFL squad.
Reggie Theus has now found himself on a not-so-exclusive list. It’s the NBA’s coaches-who-have-been-fired-this-season list and I’m not so sure that it’s done growing yet. So far, six coaches out of 30 have been canned, that’s one-fifth of the league’s head coaches.
Maybe the problem with the Raptors isn’t the coaching, it’s the lack of talent and depth. Jay Triano by all accounts is a decent coach but the Raptors are still losing and still shooting poorly. The sad thing is that Triano will probably be fired before Brian Colangelo is. Toronto’s management has to do something before the trade deadline to fire their players up or they’ll have to do some serious soul-searching in the offseason and look at potentially re-working the front office.
If you’re an Eagles fan and you’re not concerned about how poorly they played in the red zone against the Browns’ porous defence last night, well you weren’t watching the game. I’ve never seen that many picks by a team in their own end zone. The question will have to be asked again: Why weren’t they running it with Brian Westbrook instead of going into the shotgun spread? Andy Reid should’ve learned it wasn’t working and adjusted.
Another awful performer last night was by Joe Thomas, the Browns supposedly great, young cornerstone at Left Tackle. How do you leave a guy like Trent Cole to take a free shot at your QB and how does he not get some help on Cole when he’s being repeatedly beaten? I would’ve fired Romeo Crennel directly after last night’s loss.
Finally, now that we know that Sean Avery won’t be back with the Dallas Stars after his suspension, who will make him sloppy seconds and take him on this season? A lot of teams aren’t going to want a volatile personality like his but don’t you think Philly might be a good fit for a player of his style?