The 2004 Arena Football League season was the 18th season of the

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 ...

. It was succeeded by

2005 File:2005 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: Hurricane Katrina in the Gulf of Mexico; the Funeral of Pope John Paul II is held in Vatican City; "Me at the zoo", the first video ever to be uploaded to YouTube; Eris was discovered in ...

. The league champions were the

San Jose SaberCats The San Jose SaberCats were a professional arena football team based in San Jose, California. The SaberCats had been members of the Arena Football League (AFL) since 1995 (the year in which the team was founded); and until 2015, they belonged to ...

, who defeated the

Arizona Rattlers The Arizona Rattlers are a professional indoor American football team based in Phoenix, Arizona. They are currently members of the Indoor Football League (IFL). The Rattlers were founded in 1992 as an expansion team in the Arena Football League ...

in ArenaBowl XVIII. The AFL reduced its playoff teams from the top 12 teams in the league making the playoffs to the top eight teams in the league making the playoffs.

Standings

* ''Green indicates clinched playoff berth'' * ''Purple indicates division champion'' * ''Grey indicates best regular season record'' * New York Dragons won the Eastern Division, but did not make the playoffs as only the top 8 teams qualified. The AFL reverted to the old rule in the following season in that Division Champions get an automatic bid to the playoffs for the following season.

Playoffs

All games televised by

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an Television in the United States, American English-language Commercial broadcasting, commercial television network, broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Enterta ...

All-Arena team

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