AFL Off-Season Update IV

News & Notes from the Off-Season


By Nathan Boudreaux -- The New Orleans VooDoo made a pair of trades last week that sent their highest paid player, DL Henry Taylor, to the New York Dragons for WR Mike Horacek and future considerations. In addition, the VooDoo sent FB Dan Curran to the Georgia Force for DL Mike Sutton.

“Henry (Taylor) obviously had a very good year for our football team, but we were 5-11, and we knew we had to change some things coming out of the year-end meetings," New Orleans head coach Mike Neu told the Times-Picayune. "We have some needs in free agency; we have to be able to be aggressive and allocate some money towards those spots so we can go after them.”

Taylor was killing the VooDoo’s cap number with a salary over $100,000 last season and Neu needed to free up some money to lure a handful of free agents. Veteran QB Andy Kelly, who also had a high cap number, will not be back next season giving the reigns to second-year QB Steve Bellasari. Horacek adds a veteran presence to a young offense, which should help the club make huge strides in ’08.

**The Georgia Force announced that they will play their games next season at the Gwinnett Center in suburban Atlanta. Actually, Georgia will be in Gwinnett for a while -the club signed a 10-year lease agreement. The Force played at the Gwinnett Center in 2003 but moved back to Phillips Arena in downtown Atlanta for the last three seasons. The Gwinnett Centers offers a more intimate setting for Arena Football with a capacity crowd of 11,200 (Phillips Arena holds 18,000).

**New Grand Rapids head coach Steve Thonn recently named his coaching staff for the 2008 season. AFL coaching veteran Ron Selesky was named defensive coordinator and director of player personnel, former AFL player Darrin Kenney will take over as the offensive and defensive line coach, and Paul Reinke will assume the role of special teams coach and fullbacks/linebackers coach.

** This really isn’t related to this off-season but after checking out www.coloradocrush.com I thought it was interesting enough to share. Crush WR Damian Harrell allowed cameras from Crush Weekly, the club’s TV show on Fox Sports-Rocky Mountain, to accompany him for Lasik eye surgery before last season. When it was all said and done, Harrell walked out of the doctor’s office with 20-15 vision and no need for glasses. The procedure must have worked as he hauled in 132 catches for 1,547 yards and 47 TDs last year.

** Street & Smith SportsBusiness Journal recently did a study on the best minor league markets for sports (listed a total of 242 cities) – and interestingly Grand Rapids (#58) and Las Vegas (#78) both made the list. Although nearly all of the AFL’s 19 teams are located in large markets, there is still a handful of clubs that are located in small to mid-size cities. Grand Rapids, who won an ArenaBowl title in 2001, is the smallest market in the AFL. In case you were wondering, Fort Wayne, Ind. was ranked as the best minor league market for sports. The af2 Fort Wayne Fusion averaged 4,306 fans during a 5-11 season last year.

**Colorado Crush co-owner and Pro Football Hall of Fame QB John Elway is taking some time away from running the Crush this off-season to coach his 17-year old son, Jack. The elder Elway will serve as quarterbacks coach at Cherry Creek (Greenwood Village, Colo.) High School this season, where Jack is the starting quarterback.

“As a rule of coaching you really don’t want to have a parent has a coach,” Cherry Creek head coach Greg Critchett told USA Today.

But, Elway might be the exception to the rule. He led the Denver Broncos to a pair of Super Bowl titles and owns an ArenaBowl championship as president of the Crush.

** Los Angeles Avengers defensive coordinator Mike Wilpolt was officially named head coach of the Las Vegas Gladiators last week. Wilpolt first order of business will be to find a quarterback. QB Jason Fife is currently on the club’s roster and was released by the New Orleans Saints during training camp. Fife showed promise as an AFL rookie in 2006 passing for 2,221 yards with 41 TDs.

**With Wilpolt’s departure to Las Vegas, the Avengers inked former Arizona defensive coordinator Mike Church to call the defensive signals. Church is no stranger to the Western Division having coached for both the Rattlers (2006-07) and San Jose SaberCats (2002-05). As of today, most of the teams have their coaching staff’s in place for ’08 with the exception of the Columbus Destroyers, who are searching for an offensive coordinator to replace Skip Foster (left for Arizona).

**Los Angeles Avengers head coach Ed Hodgkiss recently hinted to me that the club will likely be in the market for a top notch receiver when the free agency period kicks off in late October or November.

“What we’re looking for (in free agency) is a dynamic type player who can make a difference – like a quarterback or a receiver,” Hodgkiss said.

The Avengers already signed QB Sonny Cumbie to a three-year contract extension in August so that just leaves a go-to receiver on his shopping list.

“We’re looking for a top-tier receiver like the Bobby Sippio’s of the world who can come in and be a difference maker,” he continued.

The biggest name receiver on the market is reigning Offensive Player of the Year Siaha Burley, who hauled in 166 passes for 2,129 yards and 49 TDs with the Utah Blaze last year. Burley is also familiar with Hodgkiss and the Avengers. He spent the 2003 season in L.A. and helped the Avengers to an 11-5 record.

**The Arena Football League’s reigning Linemen of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year Greg White is taking his talents to the NFL Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

In just his second game in a Bucs uniform, White was one of the defensive heroes in Tampa Bay’s 31-14 win over the New Orleans Saints in week 2 after he totaled two tackles, a sack (for minus nine yards) and two quarterback hurries.

"In the Arena League, it's see ball, get ball. That's it," White said after the game on Sunday. "When I was trying to learn these plays and go full-speed at the same time, practices were tough."

White and Chicago Rush WR Bobby Sippio (Kansas City Chiefs) are the latest AFL stars to take their game from the 50-yard indoor field to the stadium played game. Sippio and White join a handful of other former AFL’ers who are also playing on Sundays, including Chicago Bears WR Rashied Davis (San Jose SaberCats), Detroit Lions WR Mike Furrey (New York Dragons) and San Francisco 49ers DL Troy Wragge (Los Angeles Avengers) just to name a few.