Ismail and I went to the Force vs. Columbus game this afternoon. The game was for the Conference Championship and a spot in the Arena Bowl in two weeks. The Force were 9-0 at home this season and were coming off a impressive victory over Philadelphia the previous weekend. The one factor not working in the Force’s favor was that their best receiver, Troy Bergeron, got hurt in the previous game and would not suit up. However, the Force had enough depth in their receiving corps to compensate somewhat for Bergeron’s absence.

As Ismail and I were waiting in line to buy tickets, a woman came up and gave us two tickets for free. She worked for Russell Athletic (Official Sponsor of the AFL) and she’d gotten them from her company as Comps. When we got to our seats, we found ourselves on the 7th row behind the Force bench on the 20 yd. line (25 is the midfield line) right by the players’ entrance. The view from this position was incredible and we could really see and hear all of the action.

The Force played horribly in the first half. They turned the ball over on their first two possessions and Columbus capitalized on them. At the Half, Columbus led 35-21 and was by far the more dominant team. The Force’s defense, supposedly one of the better in the league, did not show up to play and their Secondary was getting used.

The beginning of the 2nd Half looked much like the 1st when Columbus scored twice in its first two possessions to put the score at 48-28. This was the moment where the Force’s defense finally stepped up, creating a few turnovers and losses of downs to keep the score within reach. The offense shined, with receivers Chris “Don’t call me Mahmoud” Jackson and Derek “Not a Cubbie” Lee making several sensational catches. The Force came back in a hurry and led 49-48 with ten minutes left in the 4th Quarter.

As i’ve learned over the years from being a sports fan, teams that make furious comebacks in the 3rd Quarter almost always fall short in the latter stages of the 4th Quarter. Unfortunately, this game was no different. A couple of interceptions thrown by the Force’s QB Greisen pretty much killed the comeback, along with some bad Special Teams coverage. The Force fell 66-56 to Columbus and missed out on the chance to go to their 2nd Arena Bowl in three years. People will always look back on this game and wonder if the result would’ve been different had Bergeron played. Although the Receivers did a good job, they really missed Troy on kickoffs and he might’ve been the difference-maker.

A fine season for the Force, but it’s gotta be a disappointment for them considering they were 14-2 and the clear favorite to win the Arena Bowl.

After the game, Ismail got an elbow brace from WR Hillery. He almost got a glove as well, but some bastard kind of pushed him out of the way and grabbed it. We had a great time overall, especially with the premium seats being gifted to us, but the end result sort of put a damper on things.

There’s always next year.

I’ll try this again (my original write-up didn’t save because of technical difficulties with the website):

The Experience: On Thursday, my dad called me and offered us four tickets to Friday’s Georgia Force vs. Orlando Predators Arena Football game. I accepted them as it had been two years since my last Arena game. I follow the games, but the last time we went in 2005 was not a good experience for Ismail. At that time, he was only three and the noise level at the games really bothered him. To “add” to the experience, they play really loud music throughout the game and have lots of other noises to “enhance” the experience. However, over the past few years, Ismail has gotten used to louder noise levels at Thrashers and Hawks games (not as loud as Force games, but still somewhat loud), so I figured he would now be OK with it.

Janet, Ismail, Olivia and I went down to Philips and when we found our way to the seats, we were surprised to see that we were on the third row in the corner of the endzone. We were so close to the field that a guy seated right in front of us caught an errant pass. If you know Arena policy, you get to keep footballs that make their way into the stands. Unfortunately, no more balls reached our section, but I would say at least ten fans walked away with game balls by the end of the night.

The noise level at the games is still absurdly loud and somewhat of a distraction, but for the most part, it was a great experience. Being that close to the field made a huge difference. Ismail had a great time and asked when the next game would be because he wanted to go again. I’m sure that if we return for another game, he’ll want to sit in the same section, but unless we get free tickets, I can’t see shelling out 40 bucks for tickets in that area. The tickets in the upper deck are only $10 and there are so many empty seats in the lowel tier that anyone could sneak down and sit where they wanted to without any problems. I’m sure Headlines would probably be the easiest route to take. 

The Game: Unfortunately, former Tech QB Joe Hamilton no longer plays for Orlando. He is currently back at Tech finishing his degree, but he has been linked to signing with a few teams now that the Spring Semester is over. Even though the Force appear to have made the right decisions in crafting this year’s team, it seems logical that they would’ve picked up Joe at the beginning of the season since he was already in Atlanta anyway. It might’ve been a salary cap issue since the bulk of their money is tied up in their Wide Receiver Corps.

The Force pretty much dominated from start to finish. The Force’s two best players- WRs Chris “Don’t Call Me Mahmoud” Jackson and Troy Bergeron made several phenomenal catches and scored a slew of  touchdowns. Bergeron tried out for the Falcons last year, but didn’t make the team. With the poor quality of the Falcons’ WRs, I can’t see how there was no place for him on the roster. He has great speed and tremendous hands- you have to great hands in Arena football with the coverage being so tight and the dimensions of the field being so small.

The Force ended up winning 55-34 and improved their record to 9-1 on the season, by far the best record in their division. It looks like they’ll return to the Arena Bowl again as long as they can continue their current form.

The one thing that I really don’t like about Arena games, besides the noise, is how long the last minute of the halves take. The Quarters are 15 minutes long and for the first 14 minutes of the 2nd and 4th Quarters, the time runs, even on incomplete passes and when the WRs are knocked out of bounds. However, in the last minute of each half, the play stops on every incomplete pass and out of bounds play. Plus, the teams generally save all of their timeouts for this time period and the teams seem to burn every TO on plays where the time doesn’t stop (catches made inbounds and running plays). The end result is that the last minute takes 12-15 minutes to complete-almost as long as the first 14 minutes of the Quarter.

The Spin: Yes, they have the wheel for Force games. However, the prizes sucked-no free ticket vouchers, no free drink tickets. I won a Hawks hat (yes, a Hawks hat-must’ve been leftovers from last season) and Janet won a Force Coozie

Last Thoughts: I’d go again since Ismail is now interested in attending the games. The tickets in the cheaper sections are reasonable and the action is pretty exciting.

The one really odd thing that Janet and I both noticed is there was an unusally high number of rednecks in attendance. I haven’t seen that many Tammys and Billy Bobs since they last had the Tractor Pull at the Georgia Dome at the same time as a Hawks game. I have no idea how so many of Georgia’s finest found their way to Philips, but there were more than just a few wife-beaters and perms (including males) in the house.

The biggest all-star of the night was a Sugar Ray lookalike that had a bandana tied around his forehead and his spikey hair stuck out of the top of it. He had a gray wife-beater on and at one point, he had ripped up a Force poster and had pieces of it protruding from the bandana. His shining moment of the evening was when he caught a ball thrown out of bounds and he did a celebratory dance that could best be described as a rap-rock white boy angry dance, complete with arms flailing and a lot of foot stomping. The best part is that it was caught on the big screen for all to see. What a tool.