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1997 All-Arena Team
The 1997 Arena Football League season was the 11th season of the Arena Football League. It was succeeded by 1998. The league champions were the Arizona Rattlers, who defeated the Iowa Barnstormers in ArenaBowl XI ArenaBowl XI was the Arena Football League's eleventh ArenaBowl. The game featured two American Conference teams, the #2 Iowa Barnstormers (11–3) against the #1 Arizona Rattlers (12–2). Iowa was coming from losing ArenaBowl X to the Tampa Bay .... Standings * ''Green indicates clinched playoff berth'' * ''Purple indicates division champion'' * ''Grey indicates best regular season record'' Playoffs All-Arena team {{DEFAULTSORT:1997 Arena Football League Season ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Arena Football League
The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in North America after the Canadian Football League (CFL) and the National Football League (NFL) until the AFL closed in 2019. The AFL played a formerly proprietary code known as arena football, a form of indoor American football played on a 66-by-28 yard field (about a quarter of the surface area of an NFL field), with rules encouraging offensive performance, resulting in a typically faster-paced and higher-scoring game compared to NFL games. The sport was invented in the early 1980s and patented by Jim Foster, a former executive of the United States Football League (USFL) and the NFL. Each of the league's 32 seasons culminated in the ArenaBowl, with the winner being crowned the league's champion for that season. From 2000 to 2009, the AF ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oklahoma Wranglers
The Oklahoma Wranglers were a professional arena football team based in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. They were members of the Central (1996–1997) and Western (1998–2001) Division of the American Conference of the Arena Football League (AFL). They previously played as the Memphis Pharaohs and Portland Forest Dragons. The team played at the Myriad, now known as the Cox Convention Center, in downtown Oklahoma City. History Memphis Pharaohs (1995–1996) The Memphis Pharaohs played at the Pyramid Arena in Memphis, Tennessee in 1995 and 1996. The team was named the Pharaohs because the capital of ancient Egypt was Memphis, Egypt, and because they literally played their home games in a pyramid. Memphis saw a return of the sport with the Memphis Xplorers of af2. Portland Forest Dragons (1997–1999) After a winless 1996 season, the team relocated to Portland, Oregon where they played for three seasons as the Portland Forest Dragons. In years of 1997, 1998, and 1999, the Forest Dr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Barry Wagner
Barry Wagner (born November 24, 1967) is a retired American football player in the Arena Football League for the Orlando Predators, with whom he won his first ArenaBowl Championship, and the San Jose SaberCats, with whom he won two championships. He also played in the World Indoor Football League (2007), World Indoor Football League as a wide receiver/defensive back with the Daytona Beach Thunder. Wagner is the all-time AFL all-purpose yardage leader. He is considered the best Arena Football player of all time. During the 2012 Arena Football League season, Wagner was named the league's greatest player of all time. Early life Wagner attended Greensboro Public School in Greensboro, Alabama where he was a member of the football team. Wagner served as a wide receiver and the backup quarterback. College career While attending Alabama A&M University, Wagner starred in College football, football and broke many school records held by former Pittsburgh Steeler John Stallworth. As a senior ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Defensive Back
In gridiron football, defensive backs (DBs), also called the secondary, are the players on the defensive side of the ball who play farthest back from the line of scrimmage. They are distinguished from the other two sets of defensive players, the defensive linemen who play directly on the line of scrimmage, and the linebackers, who play in the middle of the defense, between the defensive line and the defensive backs. Among the defensive backs, there are two main types, cornerbacks, which play nearer the line of scrimmage and the sideline, whose main role is to cover the opposing team's wide receivers, and the Safety (gridiron football position), safeties, who play further back near the center of the field, and who act as the last line of defense. American defensive formations usually includes two of each, a left and right cornerback, as well as a strong safety and a free safety, with the free safety tending to play further back than the strong safety. In Canadian football, which ha ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Paul McGowan (American Football)
Paul J. McGowan (born January 13, 1966) is a former American football linebacker. He was drafted by the Minnesota Vikings 237th overall in the 1988 NFL Draft. He played college football at Florida State. College career McGowan played college football at Florida State University. As a senior in 1987 he was an All-American and won the Butkus Award given to the nation's best linebacker. Professional career Minnesota Vikings McGowan was selected with the 237th pick during the 1988 NFL Draft. The Vikings cut McGowan during training camp. Cleveland Browns In 1989, the Cleveland Browns signed McGowan, but he was released during the Browns preseason cuts. Birmingham Fire McGowan played for the Birmingham Fire of the World Football League during the 1991 and 1992 seasons. Orlando Predators In 1993, McGowan played for the Orlando Predators of the Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Albany Firebirds
The Indiana Firebirds were a team in the Arena Football League. The team was based in Indianapolis, Indiana. Home games were played at the Conseco Fieldhouse, also the home of the Indiana Pacers of the National Basketball Association and Indiana Fever of the Women's National Basketball Association. History Albany Firebirds (1990–2000) The team was founded in Albany, New York as the Albany Firebirds, and played in Albany from 1990 to 2000. At that time, home games were played at the Knickerbocker Arena (now known as the MVP Arena). The team's original ownership group was headed by Joe O'Hara, owner of the Continental Basketball Association's Albany Patroons, who would later become the AFL's second commissioner. In 2020, he revealed that he originally wanted to call the team the Nighthawks, but league founder Jim Foster wanted that nickname for a future team he planned to own after his tenure as commissioner. After getting off the phone with Foster while in Boston, he happened t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chad Dukes (American Football)
Chad Everett Dukes (born December 29, 1971) is a former American football running back in the National Football League for the Washington Redskins (1998–2000), San Diego Chargers (1998), St. Louis Rams (2000) and the Jacksonville Jaguars (2000) and played four games total in his NFL career (two for Jaguars, two for Skins). He played college football at the University of Pittsburgh. Dukes played on the Albany Firebirds (1998–1999) before his NFL career, the Colorado Crush (2004), the Manchester Wolves (2002–2003) and the Philadelphia Soul after his NFL career in the Arena Football League. Dukes won AFL Ironman of the year in 1998 when he was with the Firebirds. In 2004, he was a part of the 2004 Crush ArenaBowl XIX Championship team. In 2002, Dukes was named the defensive af2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Linebacker
Linebacker (LB) is a playing position in gridiron football. Linebackers are members of the defensive team, and line up three to five yards behind the line of scrimmage and the defensive linemen. They are the "middle ground" of defenders, playing closer to the line of scrimmage than the defensive backs (secondary), but farther back than the defensive linemen. As such, linebackers play a hybrid role and are often the most versatile players on the defensive side of the ball; they can be asked to play roles similar to either a defensive lineman (such as stopping the runner on a running play) or a defensive back (such as dropping back into pass coverage). How a linebacker plays their position depends on the defensive alignment, the philosophy of the coaching staff, and the particular play the offense may call. Linebackers are divided into middle linebackers, sometimes called inside linebackers, and outside linebackers. The middle linebacker, often called "Mike", is frequently ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fullback (American Football)
A fullback (FB) is a position in the offensive backfield in gridiron football, and is one of the two running back positions along with the halfback. Fullbacks are typically larger than halfbacks and in most offensive schemes the fullback's duties are split among power running, pass catching, and blocking for both the quarterback and the other running back. Many great runners in the history of American football have been fullbacks, including Jim Brown, Marion Motley, Bronko Nagurski, Jim Taylor, Franco Harris, Larry Csonka, John Riggins, Christian Okoye, and Levi Jackson. However, many of these runners would retroactively be labeled as halfbacks, due to their position as the primary ball carrier; they were primarily listed as fullbacks due to their size and did not often perform the run-blocking duties expected of modern fullbacks. Examples of players who have excelled at the hybrid running–blocking–pass-catching role include Vonta Leach, Mike Alstott, William Henderson, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sherdrick Bonner
Sherdrick Deon "Sed" Bonner (born October 19, 1968) is a former American football quarterback who played fifteen seasons in the Arena Football League (AFL). High school years Bonner attended Azusa High School in Azusa, California and was a student and a letterman in football, basketball, baseball and track & field. College career Bonner graduated from Cal State Northridge in 1991 with a Bachelor of Science degree in kinesiology and was a member of Sigma Pi fraternity. While there, he started at quarterback and led the Matadors to the 1990 Western Football Conference co-championship and the program's only playoff appearance. He completed 319 of 637 passes for 3,533 yards and 18 touchdowns in 37 career games. He earned honorable mention All-Western Football Conference honors his senior year in 1991. Bonner also lettered in basketball, volleyball, and track and field. He played 23 games for the basketball team in the 1987-88 season, outside hitter for the men's volleyball team in t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kurt Warner
Kurtis Eugene Warner (born June 22, 1971) is an American former football quarterback who played in the National Football League (NFL) for 12 seasons, primarily with the St. Louis Rams and Arizona Cardinals. His career, which saw him ascend from an undrafted free agent to a two-time Most Valuable Player and Super Bowl MVP, is regarded as one of the greatest Cinderella stories in NFL history. After playing college football at Northern Iowa from 1990 to 1993, Warner spent four years without being named to an NFL roster. He was signed by the Green Bay Packers in 1994, but released before the regular season and instead played three seasons for the Iowa Barnstormers of the Arena Football League (AFL). Warner landed his first NFL roster spot in 1998 with the Rams, holding a backup position until he was thrust into becoming St. Louis's starter the following season. During his first season as an NFL starting quarterback, Warner led The Greatest Show on Turf offense to the Rams' firs ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
