Surprise! It`s that Time Again
Joe Kauffman
Thursday February 6, 2003
But that was a long time ago; 12 years and 30 games have gone by since the Predators beat the Storm 51-38 on June 1st, 1991.
On Sunday, much of the nation will finally have the opportunity to see for the first time what this storied rivalry is all about when the 31st game between the Storm and Predators airs on NBC. They will learn what those of us who live Storm or Predators football have known since 1991: This rivalry personifies Arena Football.
For those of you new to Arena Football this year, I’ll put this rivalry into perspective for you. No two teams in Arena Football have played each other more than the Tampa Bay Storm and the Orlando Predators. Both teams joined the AFL in 1991 and have played each other no less than twice every season. That’s 24 regular season games, with a tied record at 12-12. The longest winning streak for each team is four games, and they have split the regular season series six times, including last season.
The rivalry teeters to Orlando, however, on the road to the ArenaBowl. The teams have met six times in the playoffs, and the Predators hold a 4-2 lead in the postseason, having won the last three meetings. Twice they’ve met in Tampa for ArenaBowl match-ups: The Storm winning ArenaBowl IX and the Predators taking home the ArenaBowl XII Championship.
The rivalry extends beyond the field and into the stands. These fans’ passion for their teams, especially against their famed rivals, is akin to the Bears/Packers fans in the NFL or Florida/Florida State and Michigan/Ohio State fans in college football. Name-calling, boasts, and colorful metaphors bounce back and forth between the equally colorful fans. Most fans, however, use the competition as a form of good-hearted fun, especially as fans from the same home can sometimes have different loyalties.
“Any time I go back to Orlando and play in front of family and friends, it’s always exciting,” remarked Tampa DS Corey Sawyer, who lives in Orlando. “Being a part of the Tampa Bay Storm, I know how the rivalry is. I went to Florida State and we played Miami and Florida. The I-4 rivalry is another intense game and we’ll go out there to show Arena Football what we can do.”
The Storm/Predators feud allows for inter-mingling of the families in other ways, too. Orlando’s starting quarterback, Jay Gruden, who spent the last off-season as a coaching assistant with the NFL Champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers, won championships as the signal caller for the Storm in 1991, 1993, 1995 and 1996, and became a fan favorite. After retiring from the field, he won two as the head coach of the Predators in 1998 and 2000, before returning to the artificial turf as a player last season for Orlando. This season, lineman B.J. Cohen and receiver/linebacker Clif Dell made the jump from Orlando’s T.D. Waterhouse Centre to Tampa’s St. Petersburg Times Forum, hoping to receive cheers from those who in the past offered them nothing but jeers.
They’ll find out Sunday afternoon, and if last week indicates anything, that game will be as good as any other.
Tampa QB John Kaleo returned from last year’s season-ending knee surgery with six touchdown passes in just over three quarters of playing time when the Storm beat the Carolina Cobras 60-20. ADT named Sawyer Defensive Player of the Week for his two interceptions at key points in the game.
“I felt good,” said Kaleo after the Cobras game. “A couple times I felt a little rusty. Sometimes the receivers and I weren’t on the same page, but most of the time I felt back into the swing of things.”
On the Predators side of the ball, WR/LB Corey Fleming earned Ironman of the Week after disposing of the Chicago Rush last week, 47-35. Gruden, at 35 years old and with only three days of practice after returning from the Buccaneers trip to the Super Bowl, threw six touchdown passes proving his age and lack of practice would not deter him from a win.
“Jay Gruden is a big part of this league,” said Sawyer. “He has a lot of respect from all the players and all the fans in this league. We know he wasn’t in training camp, so we’ll give him a couple different looks, because we know he’ll be rusty. Hopefully, we can pressure him and cause some interceptions.”
In a league where offense rules, both teams won because of their great defenses. The Storm intercepted five Cobra passes, returning one during the opening play of the game for a touchdown. The Predators defense also shined, putting pressure on Rush QB Billy Dicken, forcing him to overthrow his receivers time and again.
Twelve years and 30 games mean nothing come Sunday. Both teams will step into the T.D. Waterhouse Centre with little regard for the past record, thinking only of being the one to come out on top this time.
Joe Kauffman is President and Editor in Chief of Arenafan Online, having joined the staff in 2000. He graduated from Florida State University in 1998 with a degree in communications andbuilds ecommerce sites for a day job. Joe has enjoyed Arena Football since 1991 and has been a member of the Arena Football Internet community since 1995. Prior to Joining Arenafan, he was a co-founder and Technical Editor of the Storm Shelter, which covered the Tampa Bay Storm from 1996-99. Joe and his wife Erika live in Hackettstown, New Jersey with their two daughters.
