The Alabama Vipers were a professional arena football team, that played in 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 ...

. For most of their history, the Vipers played as the Tennessee Valley Vipers in the now-defunct

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 AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

, the

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

for the original

, where they won

ArenaCup IX The 2008 AF2 season was the ninth season of the AF2. It was preceded by 2007 and succeeded by 2009. The regular season began on Friday, March 28 and ended on Saturday, July 26. The league champions were the Tennessee Valley Vipers, who beat the S ...

in 2008. They played their home games at the Von Braun Center. They were coached by Dean Cokinos. The team moved to Gwinnett County, Georgia for the 2011 AFL season and became a new incarnation of the Georgia Force.

Team history

af2

The team played in af2 for five seasons, from 2000–2004, and during that period was one of the league's most competitive teams. The then owner and operator of the team was Art Clarkson. Then following the 2004 season the team left the af2 and joined the United Indoor Football (UIF) league.

United Indoor Football (UIF)

The team joined the United Indoor Football league as the Tennessee Valley Pythons. But after legal threats from the AF2 for using the "snake" motif, the team changed its name again, this time to the Tennessee Valley Raptors. The Raptors, after an attendance decline in Huntsville, moved operations to

Rockford, Illinois Rockford is a city in Winnebago County, Illinois, located in the far northern part of the state. Situated on the banks of the Rock River, Rockford is the county seat of Winnebago County (a small portion of the city is located in Ogle County). ...

in 2005 and became the

Rock River Raptors The Rock River Raptors were a professional indoor football team based in Rockford, Illinois. The team was most recently a member of the Continental Indoor Football League. The franchise was established in 2000 as the Tennessee Valley Vipers, a c ...

Return to af2

Meanwhile, the af2 returned to Huntsville in 2006. The new team, owned by HSV Sports (who also owns the local hockey team), was granted the rights to the Vipers name, trademarks, and history that had been vacated by the previous ownership. Prior to the 2007 season, controlling interest in the team was sold to Texas AF2 Holdings, LLC. The team still operated in conjunction with HSV Sports, LLC, now a minority partner with the team.

Alabama Vipers of the Arena Football League

For the 2010 season, the Vipers played in the new

and changed their name to the Alabama Vipers. After the season, the team's owners announced it was leaving Huntsville and moving to Duluth, Georgia, becoming the new Georgia Force.

Highlights

;First Game :On March 31, 2000, the Tennessee Valley Vipers traveled to Birmingham to play the Birmingham Steeldogs in the inaugural game in af2 league history. The Vipers won the game 59–18 before a crowd of 14,781 at the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center. ;Largest Home Crowd :On July 15, 2000, the Tennessee Valley Vipers beat the Birmingham Steeldogs 61–50 in front of 7,042 fans at the Von Braun Civic Center in Huntsville. ;Arena Cup IX :The Vipers won

by defeating the Spokane Shock 56–55 in overtime at Spokane Arena on August 25, 2008. On the road to the championship, the Vipers beat both conference #1 seeds, a league first. In addition, Arena Cup IX was the first championship game to go into overtime and it was also the first time that the road team had won the championship game. The attendance of Arena Cup IX was 10,662, which is the largest attended championship game in af2 history. In 2009, this game was voted by the league as the greatest game in af2 league history. ;Win 100 :The Vipers became the third franchise in af2 history to reach the 100 win mark after defeating the Florida Firecats 54–29 on June 20, 2009 at the Von Braun Center.

Season-by-season

, - , colspan="6" align="center" , Tennessee Valley Vipers (af2) , - , 2000 , , 10 , , 6 , , 0 , , 2nd NC , , Won Round 1 (

Tulsa Tulsa () is the second-largest city in the U.S. state, state of Oklahoma and List of United States cities by population, 47th-most populous city in the United States. The population was 413,066 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. ...

)
Won Semifinal ( Augusta)
Lost ArenaCup I ( Quad City) , - , 2001 , , 14 , , 2 , , 0 , , 1st NC South Central , , Won Round 1 ( Tallahassee)
Lost NC Championship (

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

) , - , 2002 , , 13 , , 3 , , 0 , , 1st NC South , , Lost NC Round 1 (

Birmingham Birmingham ( ) is a city and metropolitan borough in the metropolitan county of West Midlands in England. It is the second-largest city in the United Kingdom with a population of 1.145 million in the city proper, 2.92 million in the West ...

) , - , 2003 , , 14 , , 2 , , 0 , , 1st AC South , , Won AC Semifinal ( Mohegan)
Lost AC Championship ( Macon) , - , 2004 , , 12 , , 4 , , 0 , , 1st AC Mid-South , , Lost AC Semifinal (

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

) , - , 2005 , , colspan="6" align="center" , ''played as

Tennessee Valley Raptors The Rock River Raptors were a professional indoor football team based in Rockford, Illinois. The team was most recently a member of the Continental Indoor Football League. The franchise was established in 2000 as the Tennessee Valley Vipers, a c ...

(UIF)'' , - , 2006 , , 3 , , 13 , , 0 , , 6th AC South , , – , - , 2007 , , 7 , , 9 , , 0 , , 4th NC South , , – , - , 2008 , , 10 , , 6 , , 0 , , 3rd AC South , , Won AC Round 1 (

)
Won AC Semifinals ( Wilkes-Barre/Scranton)
Won AC Championship (

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

)
Won

( Spokane) , - , 2009 , , 11 , , 5 , , 0 , , 1st AC South , , Lost AC Round 1 ( Green Bay) , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Alabama Vipers (Arena Football League) , - , 2010 , , 7 , , 9 , , 0 , , 4th AC SouthAFL Final Standings for 2010
. AFL. Retrieved: August 12, 2010. , , -- , - !Totals , , 109 , , 65 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

Head coaches

Note: ''W = Wins, L = Losses''

Notable players

Final roster

All-Arena players

The following Vipers players were named to All-Arena Teams: * FB Dan Alexander (1) * DB Vince Hill (1)

Coaching staff

* Dean Cokinos – Head coach * John Kirk – Offensive line coach * Demetrius Derico – Defensive backs coach

References

External links

Official Alabama Vipers site

Alabama Vipers page on AFL's site

Alabama Vipers at ArenaFan.com

Alabama Vipers Booster Club
{{Af2 Defunct 2000 establishments in Alabama 2010 disestablishments in Alabama