For Graziani, playoff past does not matter
By Marc Narducci
Inquirer Staff Writer
Soul quarterback Tony Graziani will make his fourth Arena Football League playoff appearance Sunday, and he hopes the wild-card game against the Wranglers in Austin, Texas, is more memorable than his first three trips.
Graziani, who is scheduled to throw out the first ball in tonight's Phillies game against the Boston Red Sox, led the Los Angeles Avengers to three consecutive playoff berths from 2002 to 2004. It was the first time Los Angeles had reached the postseason, just as the Soul are heading to the playoffs for the first time in their three-year history.
"I'm sure people are mentioning it to him about getting the monkey off his back in the playoffs," said Soul president Ron Jaworski, the former Eagles quarterback, who won his first postseason start in 1975 with the Los Angeles Rams. "I'm not concerned about Tony's psyche."
Neither is Graziani, who refuses to dwell on his playoff past.
"I don't care if I was part of three losses or three wins in prior playoffs," Graziani said after yesterday's practice at Widener University. "All I care about is that for us to win the championship this year, it takes four wins, and what happened in the past doesn't matter."
When he played for Los Angeles, there was little margin for error. The Avengers weren't known for their ability to stop the other team.
In 2002, Los Angeles lost, 66-41, in the first round to Tampa Bay. The next season, the Avengers earned a first-round bye and then lost, 70-63, to Arizona in the quarterfinals. In 2004, Los Angeles was a 59-42 loser to Arizona.
"Those teams in Los Angeles, we had trouble getting stops," Graziani said. "We have a good defensive team here that we know will get stops and create turnovers."
The Soul allowed 46.7 points per game, which was fourth in the 18-team AFL, so Graziani doesn't have to carry the entire load.
"I think what helps Tony is that this is the first time he's going into the playoffs where he doesn't have to feel like he has to throw eight TD passes to win," Jaworski said.
A reserve for the Atlanta Falcons' Super Bowl team of 1998, Graziani became the first player in AFL history to throw 90 or more touchdowns in three straight seasons from 2003 to 2005. Last year, he had 90 TD passes in his first year with the 6-10 Soul, but he also threw 15 interceptions.
Graziani, who has thrown for 2,989 yards, 41 touchdowns and 11 interceptions, says he feels fine in what has been a difficult season in terms of staying on the field.
In the second game of the year, against his former Los Angeles team, Graziani injured his left index finger on the first series and didn't play the rest of the game or the next week.
On April 9, he suffered a hamstring injury in the fourth quarter of a 56-55 win over Chicago and missed the next three games. In the four full games he missed, the Soul went 1-3.
He returned to a team that was 7-7 and ended up in must-win situations for the final two games.
With Graziani back in the lineup, the Soul (9-7) beat Dallas and Georgia to earn their playoff berth. He threw six TD passes in a 51-48 win over Dallas and completed 19 of 33 passes for 205 yards and a touchdown with one interception in Saturday's 57-41 win over Georgia.
One touchdown pass in a win? The Soul also got four rushing TDs from Wes Ours.
"If you would have told me we could win any game with me throwing just one TD pass, I would say that you were crazy," Graziani said, laughing. "But it's not about statistics, but winning."
Especially in the postseason.
Ironman Brown. Soul wide receiver/defensive back Mike Brown was named to the league's all-Ironman team yesterday.
Brown led the Soul in all-purpose yards (1,957), kick returns (36 for 746 yards and 2 TDs), and field-goal returns (7 for 135 yards). In 15 games, he caught 79 passes for 939 yards and 12 touchdowns. He rushed the ball 35 times for 101 yards and 4 TDs.
Defensively, Brown recorded 451/2 total tackles, four tackles for losses, four interceptions, a sack, and three pass breakups in the regular season.