How I Spent My Monday Night
Randy Snow
Wednesday March 26, 2008
In 2004 I wrote an article for ArenaFan called, “How I Spent My Friday Night.” In it, I described how I followed a Rampage game over the Internet with the help of my dial-up modem. I was reduced to reading the online stats as they came in live during the game. But now its 2008 and I have a high-speed Internet connection at home.
When the Grand Rapids Rampage traveled west to take on the Kansas City Brigade Monday night, I knew I would be able to get the radio broadcast on the Internet with no problems. I have listened to many football games over the Internet before, including the Vanier Cup, the Canadian college football national championship game from Toronto last November. (The Manitoba Bisons defeated the St. Mary’s Huskies 28-14)
So there I was, sitting at my computer Monday night listening to longtime Rampage play-by-play man Joe Parson calling the action during the first quarter of the game along with Alex Clark, the team’s Director of Media Relations. However, this particular night, the audio quality was not very good. It was hard to listen to the game so I began looking around for another site where I could access the game.
I went to ArenaFootball.com and a banner at the top of the page said the Grand Rapids-Kansas City game was being broadcast on AFL Net, for free! What? Watch the game? For free? It only took a few minutes to get myself registered and before I knew it, I was watching the game on my computer screen.
And what a game it was! Grand Rapids set a franchise record for most points scored in a game with a 92-52 win over the Brigade. It was the second most points ever scored in an AFL game, the previous high was 99 points by the New York Dragons back in 2001. Not only was it the first win of the season for Grand Rapids, but it was also the first win for new Rampage head coach Steve Thonn.
AFL Net not only has live games, but you can also watch highlights from every game this season. If you have a high-speed connection at home, I highly recommend signing up for AFL Net. Do it now, before your favorite team has its next road game.
Incidentally, the arenafootball2 is also going to have a similar setup this year called af2TV. It is also free on the Internet and it will give you a chance to see tomorrow’s AFL stars in the making.
Randy Snow covered the Grand Rapids Rampage of the Arena Football League for ArenaFan from 2003-2008. He also covered the Fort Wayne Fusion of arenafootball2 in 2007. From 2004-2008 and in 2010, he was a member of the Arena Football League Writer’s Association and, since 2011, has been a member of the Professional Football Researchers Association. Randy lives in Kalamazoo, Michigan but will travel just about anywhere for a football game or a great football story. He runs the web site www.theworldoffootball.com and hosts a podcast with his son, Adam, called “This Week in The World of Football.”
