James Roe Moves Past Barry Wagner With 266th Receiving Touchdown
Adam Markowitz
Saturday May 26, 2012
On the same night that the Arena Football League began to announce its list of the Top 25 wide receivers in the history of the league, one of the best to ever put on a uniform in the AFL reached a tremendous career milestone. With his touchdown reception in the third quarter on Saturday night against the Chicago Rush, Roe now has 266 receiving TDs, besting another former member of the San Jose SaberCats, WR/LB Barry Wagner. He is now fourth in league history, and he is going to threaten to become the fourth man in the history of the league to catch at least 300 TD passes in his career this season.
Roe has been a career-long SaberCat, something that not many players have been able to say for this period of time. He made his debut in 2000 as a defensive back and a receiver for a San Jose team that was just starting to assert itself as one of the best franchises in the league. In just his second year in 2001, Roe had 78 receptions for 1,232 yards and 28 TDs, one of the best years in his career. It was a real springboard for a man that is now one of the top veterans in a league that has a ton of young and inexperienced players.
Roe was named to the All-Ironman Team in 2003, 2004, 2005, and 2007, and he certainly has been one of the best 10 to 15 ironmen in the history of the league. Coming into this week, Roe had 865 receptions for 10,567 yards, and 264 receiving touchdowns. He also had a TD passing and two rushing. Defensively, Roe has 102 solo tackles, 69 assists, 15 pass breakups, four forced fumbles, four recovered fumbles, and eight picks, four of which were returned for TDs.
In case you didn't believe me that Roe was one of the best players in the history of the league, just look at where he sits in AFL history with some of the most important stats in the league. At the outset of this week, Roe ranks No. 7 in total receptions, and he will be surpassing Mike Horacek for sixth all-time either this week or next week in all likelihood. He is No. 8 in receiving yards and is one of the 11 men in the history of the league to have at least 10,000 yards. Roe will also become the seventh man to reach 11,000 receiving yards later this season. When he does reach that 11,000-yard plateau, Roe will join Wagner and WR/LB Lawrence Samuels as the only players in the history of the AFL to have at least 11,000 receiving yards and 100 tackles.
A member of three different ArenaBowl-winning teams, Roe was the Ironman of the Game in ArenaBowl XVIII for his tremendous effort. That day, he caught eight passes for 119 yards and five TDs.
Roe is the active leader in the AFL in all of the major receiving categories by a country mile. The next closest receiver to his stats is Orlando Predators WR TT Toliver, who is behind Roe by almost 1,000 yards, almost 150 receptions, and nearly 70 touchdowns.
