Arena Football League Playoffs Continue

Philadelphia can sit back and watch tonight’s Arena Football League playoff game between Baltimore and Tampa Bay. That might make them the only people who are watching. The Soul already clinched home field in Saturday’s Arena Bowl by defeating Baltimore on Saturday. Now it’s a question of who they will play for the title. The oddsmakers say it will likely be Tampa Bay. The Storm are favored by 6.5 points over the Gladiators.

But no matter who wins, the 14-1 Soul are going to be huge favorites. They have been the best team in the league by far and will be at least 14-point favorites Saturday.

But that doesn’t mean tonight’s game isn’t worth watching. The teams played four times during the regular season and three of them were decent games. While the other games was a bit ugly – a 57-27 Tampa Bay win – these teams aren’t much different in talent. The difference is Tampa Bay was able to go 6-2 in games decided by a touchdown or less. The Gladiators were 1-5 in those games. That helps explain why Tampa Bay was 10-4 during the regular season and Cleveland was 5-9.

This has been a bit of a trying year for the Arena Football League. Several teams folded after last season. Others joined new leagues, including the Arizona Rattlers, who were the best draw in the league. Arizona also had the best home attendance last season and were one of the few profitable teams the AFL had. But it didn’t make much sense for the Rattlers to play in a league where the other teams were on the East Coast. But somehow the AFL was able to coax Ted Leonsis to have two expansion teams this year. Both Baltimore and Washington were his teams. His name alone added a bit of credibility to the Arena Football League.