Neal Tivis Continues To Anchor The Soul Offensive Line
Harrison Brown
Friday July 5, 2019
When Neal Tivis first found out that he’d been selected by the Philadelphia Soul in the 2014 Arena Football League dispersal draft one of the things furthest from his mind was strapping up his pads for another season of football in a new city. The only thing on the now eight-year arena football veteran’s mind was regaining his ability to walk.
“At first it wasn’t even part of it,” Tivis said about being drafted. “I was recovering from back surgery and wasn’t even really walking yet when I found out that Philly had picked me up in the dispersal draft. It was cool, it felt good and everything, but I was more worried about walking again and getting myself right,”
“But after a while I was pretty ecstatic. We’d played against Philly a couple of times, and if I could go play anywhere else other than Utah, Philly would’ve been the spot. It’s pretty cool that it worked out that way,” Tivis said.
The Soul coaching staff and quarterback Dan Raudabaugh would agree: it’s pretty cool that Tivis joined the Soul. Tivis has been an All-Arena offensive lineman twice during his tenure with the Soul and won two ArenaBowl rings with the team as well.
It’s also worth noting that both times Tivis was awarded All-Arena, the entire Soul offensive line was recognized on the list as well. Since Clint Dolezel took over the offense in 2012 the Soul O-Line has been exceptional, a huge reason the team is appearing in their eighth consecutive postseason this year.
“It just matters. I think when Clint was playing, he had some good guys around him, he also had defensive linemen blocking for him. Being that he played not too long ago he really values the O-Line and he goes out and tries to find them,”
“Phil Bogle was a huge part of it too, Bogle was a great coach. I got here and he immediately made me better right off the rip. Lou Russo was also a big part of it in the past, he was our player personnel guy and always brought in studs. He had his system grading guys that was pretty awesome,” Tivis said.
The 2019 Soul offensive line has continued their reign of protecting the quarterback with only two sacks allowed on Raudabaugh this year. Tivis is joined by Keith Newell, Phillip-Keith Manley and Adrian Ferns on the line.
“Everybody gets along pretty well in that group, we kind of just police and consult amongst ourselves at practice. Everybody’s humble, everybody enjoys the work, enjoys getting better, enjoys feedback from each other. It’s a great work environment,” Tivis said.
In addition to pass protection, offensive linemen in Philly have to be prepared to run block more than any other group in the AFL. Fullback Adrian Ferns has attempted forty-one rushes this year, the most of any fullback in the league.
“We replicate the run blocks I would say just as much as we do the pass blocks when we’re doing our individual group and our inside stuff. We start off every day with it, work it pretty good in team, it’s definitely important,” Tivis said.
Offensive linemen don’t show up on many stat sheets but watching Tivis on Saturday he did record a great pancake block on a toss play to Ferns. Another O-Line stat is sacks allowed, in which the Soul are second only behind the Albany Empire who lead the league having allowed only sack.
Tivis began his Arena Football career with the Utah Blaze halfway through the 2012 season. Tivis played with current Albany Empire quarterback Tommy Grady in what is now known as the greatest season from an AFL quarterback ever.
Grady had the most prolific season as a passer in league history, setting the record for most touchdowns, yards, completions, and attempts in a single season. He threw for 142 touchdowns and 5,870 yards completing 507-743 passes.
Tivis started the final six games with Grady and the Blaze in 2012, the same year that he finished his college career at Abilene Christian in his home state of Texas.
“I had just gotten back from a workout in Canada and my agent texted me and said, ‘in twenty-four hours you’re going to fly and play in Salt Lake City,’”
“He kind of explained how it worked and all that saying, ‘They’ll feed you two meals a day and pay you four hundred bucks a week,’ and I was like what? What’re you talking about?” Tivis said with a laugh. “I got up there and got humbled really quick, but I think it worked out in the end,”
Being drafted by the Soul in 2014 initially came with question marks due to his back surgery but joining Clint Dolezel and the rest of the Soul offense certainly benefited Tivis. With such a sense of pride and focus on the offensive line, Tivis has fit right in and found a home in the Soul organization.
“I just like having fun getting to do a few more things. A traditional arena offense is ‘right 50, left 50,’ maybe run it if you’re on the goal line and throw a screen here or there. To be honest that's what a lot of arena offenses revolve around,”
“This offense here in Philly we really get to mix it up. We slide, we five-step, we run it, different types of screens, toss it to our big guys, and offensive linemen are running out to block defensive backs on quick screens. I have fun with it, I enjoy it,” Tivis said.
Harrison Brown is a college student who has been covering Arena Football since he was 12 years old and has been with ArenaFan since 2014. Harrison was a captain of the varsity football team during his senior year of high school and went on to play one season of Division III football in Massachusetts. Harrison has worked for two indoor football teams, in 2018 he was the Director of Player Personnel for the Jersey Flight and in 2016 he was the Color Commentator for the Philadelphia Yellow Jackets. You can follow Harrison on twitter @HarryBrownRusso.