AFL Power Rankings: Week 3
John Hoh
Thursday February 10, 2005
But the Soul played the Rush in Chicago! And thus I watched two Philly teams lose in one day. Not a fact that engenders Brotherly Love.
As the season settles in, the Power Rankings start to gel. But beware—anything can happen! Watch out for the Tampa Bay—Orlando game. Winner could be #1 in next week’s rankings.
Herein are the Power Rankings for Week 3.
| Rank | Team | Record | Previous Rank | Next Up |
| 1 | Tampa Bay Storm (TB) | 2-0 | 1 | @ORL |
| Austin just a prelude to the War on I-4. | ||||
| 2 | San Jose SaberCats (SJ) | 1-1 | 2 | @NO |
| SaberCats take out frustration on Gladiators. Can they nix the VooDoo hex? | ||||
| 3 | Orlando Predators (ORL) | 2-0 | 4 | TB |
| Preds tamed the Rattlers, now host cross-state rival from down the Interstate. | ||||
| 4 | Chicago Rush (CHI) | 1-1 | 7 | @COL |
| Dominating performance against the Soul. Travel to Colorado. Can they avoid the Crush? | ||||
| 5 | New York Dragons (NY) | 1-0 | 6 | @LV |
| Defense of the Eastern Division crown succesfully begun. Trip to the Strip could be telling. | ||||
| 6 | Philadelphia Soul (PHI) | 1-1 | 3 | NAS |
| Dominated by Rush on a day when Philly fans had their focus on a game somewhere in eastern Florida. Kats come to the City of Brotherly Love. | ||||
| 7 | Colorado Crush (COL) | 1-1 | 8 | CHI |
| Dominated rebuilding Rampage. Tougher test with a Rush into the Mile High City. | ||||
| 8 | Georgia Force (GA) | 1-0 | 9 | AZ |
| Loss at LA hurts. Hosts Arizona and the Rattlers second-string QB. Can Germaine be adequate behind center for the Ratts and foil Georgia? | ||||
| 9 | Dallas Desperados (DAL) | 1-0 | 5 | CLB |
| Not quite up to the level as the defending division champs, but are the Desperadoes improving? Playing the Destroyers at home should help Dallas erase memories of last week. | ||||
| 10 | New Orleans VooDoo | 1-1 | 13 | @NAS |
| VooDoo gets mojo back. Next up is the Kats at Music City. | ||||
| 11 | Arizona Rattlers (AZ) | 1-1 | 10 | GA |
| Tough loss to the Preds. Hosting Georgia could be a break. | ||||
| 12 | Las Vegas Gladiators (LV) | 1-1 | 11 | NY |
| Glads come back to earth. Hey, they still will host the ArenaBowl! | ||||
| 13 | Nashville Kats (NAS) | 1-1 | 12 | @PHI |
| Hexed by the VooDoo, the Kats won’t find any brotherly love in Philly. | ||||
| 14 | Los Angeles Avengers (LA) | 1-1 | 14 | @AUS |
| Back on track with win over the Force. Wrangling a win should be easier in Austin. | ||||
| 15 | Columbus Destroyers (CLB) | 0-1 | 16 | @DAL |
| 0-2 realistic after visit to the Big D. | ||||
| 16 | Grand Rapids Rampage (GR) | 0-2 | 17 | AUS (2/19) |
| Snake-bit and a Crush-ing defeat means the Rampage are 0-2 entering their bye week. Austin is next on the horizon and a possible victory Wrangled at the Van Abel Arena. | ||||
| 17 | Austin Wranglers (AUS) | 0-2 | 15 | LA |
| LA isn’t a top-tier team, but Austin is still outclassed. | ||||
Some teams have left us this season. I have been remiss in memorializing them. Herein are the three dearly departed:
| Team | Started as | Memorable Fact(s) | What happened? | Will Arenaball be back? |
| Indiana Firebirds | Albany Firebirds | Won ArenaBowl in Albany; were offered for sale on eBay | Owners wanted out, wanted big bucks. eBay didn’t work. Brian Noble, one-time Green Bay Blizzard (af2) coach, sought to buy the ‘Birds and move them to Milwaukee. Alas, we remain without a team in Beer City. | Maybe. They got good press (front page coverage) from the Indy daily paper. Advertising was done. But somehow Indy denizens were unaware of another indoor, highly-offensive football team in town. |
| Carolina Cobras | Carolina Cobras | Um….. | Ownership group came in when Collective Bargaining Agreement struck. I doubt they were prepared for the new realities of the game, economically. | Two AFL teams have failed and af2 not doing much better. Not likely, unless Panthers owner gets ivolved. |
| Detroit Fury | Detroit Fury | Logo on one side of the helmet. | Co-owners a mixed bag of sports success. Bill Davidson’s teams won the Stanley Cup (Tampa Bay Lightning), NBA (Detroit Pistons), and WNBA (Detroit Shock). William Clay Ford owns the perennially woeful Lions. | Maybe. Detroit a market looking for football success. Enough venues available. |
John L. Hoh, Jr., is a free-lance writer from Milwaukee who grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, as an avid Dolphins fan. He followed Arena Football since its inception, at one point watching tape-delayed games on low-powered WAV-TV in Waukesha. His happiest day was when Milwaukee was awarded the Mustangs franchise; his saddest when the Mustangs were contracted out of the league. John is married to his wife Maija (13+ years) and has a young son, Matthew. John pines for the return of the Arena Football League to Milwaukee.
