Who has the Best Uniforms? (Central Division)

Recently a post was put on ArenaFan.com asking which AFL teams uniform was the coolest, so I decided to do a completely independent unscientific study of it. The criteria includes originality, color scheme, and general style on a scale of 1 to 10. Home and away uniforms will be averaged together for a teams total score. Here is the list. (I'm trying to be somewhat objective) This will be published in four parts, one for each division, I will then pick the best from each division and tell you who has the best.

Who has the Best Uniforms in the Central Division?

Chicago Rush

The Rush are neither great or bad. Just a middle of the road decent. A strong uniform with the classic sleave stripes and standard pants. Any creativity points they get come from the color they use. I couldn't find an official color on their website, I have unconfirmed information that the color may be a reference to the blue collar workers of the city. I only have one major issue with the uniforms. That "R" that faces the back of the helmet. anytime they choose a logo that doesn't make sense on both sides of the helmet bugs me. Anyway, it's minor.

Home 6 Away 5

Average 5.5

Monday Night Football

Tonight is the first and only Monday Night Football game of the season for Columbus. My initial call with Graziani out is that the Destroyers will pull off the upset and take second place in the division.

My reason is that Philadelphia, as good as they are, seem to not be able to take on great competition. At this point many say, "Columbus...Great competition?" and I say "YES!!" Columbus has only taken three loses and two of those are to great teams.

The New Orleans loss was rough as a last second attempt to tie the game was stopped. The Chicago loss could have gone Columbus' direction had they pulled themselves together with 5 minuets to go. The disappointment against Dallas was the greatest meltdown in Destroyer history. This team could be 4-2 or even 5-1 had a few chance incidents gone their way.

Philadelphia is a good team that will make the playoffs but I think they were riding their quarterback. Depending on how long Graziani can't play they may have to face Dallas or Georgia in the first round, which will end their Arena Bowl run real quick. Columbus has defeated the mighty Force and could have beaten Dallas.

Tonight, Nagy has a great game and Gerrald Brown will infuse the great Nationwide crowd with some great defense. This will not be as large a win as last week, but will be much bigger for the franchise. The race for the number 3 playoff spot is on.

Destroyers 65-Soul 59 (The Destroyers will REDOUT the Soul)

Destroyers 72 Wranglers 49

Entering this game I didn't know what to expect. Would we see the team from the beginning of the year that couldn't crack 50, or maybe the team from the last two weeks that could put up a great first half against the best teams in the league and then fall apart to lose it?

Thankfully neither, the Columbus Destroyers put together one of the most complete game I have seen in the AFL this year since Dallas thumped New York in week one.

For the majority of the first half both teams traded scores. 7-7, 14-7, 14-14, all the way up to 28-28 with less than 1 minute to go in the half. McPherson threw the ball out of bounds on third, and the Wranglers missed the field goal. This may not have been such a blow except that as Columbus was moving down the field, trying to make use of this stop, a Wrangler got called for unsporstmanlike conduct. Columbus converted the field goal and took a 31-28 lead. Columbus came out after half time and outscored Austin 21-7 in the third quarter. Matt Nagy and company kept the offense fired up while the defense had three interceptions. By the end of the second the Wranglers had been outscored 41-21.

While the game was one sided I would encourage Wrangler fans to keep heart and McPherson. His interceptions came off of tips and he had a long run for a touchdown late in the game that made my heart skip a beat. If his defense could have given him a stop or two this would have been a whole different ball game.

The most encouraging part of this win was that Columbus had a better second half than first. If this team can keep playing like this they could finish 11-5 or 10-6. I also take some pride in that the 72-49 final was only 7 total points away from my prediction of a 67-52 final, and almost as important is that the attendance was higher than 14,000 (15,121).

The importance of this game cannot be overrated as next week Columbus will have to play the mighty Soul(4-1), at Tampa Bay (1-6), then home against New York(1-5) and Grand Rapids(2-4). That is a four game stand in which Columbus could conceivably go 4-0 over three home games.

At the end of the night, I think the AFL should have realized that the Columbus Destroyers may be able to make a deep playoff run or be a dark horse Arena Bowl team this year.

Arena football: Is it America's fifth major sport?

Recently USA today ran an article asking Arena football: Is it America's fifth major sport?

Who has the Best Uniforms? (Western Division)

Recently a post was put on ArenaFan.com asking which AFL teams uniform was the coolest, so I decided to do a completely independent unscientific study of it. The criteria includes originality, color scheme, and general style on a scale of 1 to 10. Home and away uniforms will be averaged together for a teams total score. Here is the list. (I'm trying to be somewhat objective) This will be published in four parts, one for each division, I will then pick the best from each division and tell you who has the best.

Who has the Best Uniforms in the Western Division?


New Orleans VooDoo:


First of all they get big points for the cool logo. The skull and crossbones with a top hat and sunglasses rates up there with the best. The style of the home uniform makes the best of a purple and red color scheme. The snakes on the sleeve are a plus, but the two factors that hurt them are the type of pants stripe, and the way the away uniform fails to make the red and purple jive. Maybe some non-white away pants would help their case.


Home 8 Away 6
Average 7




Arizona Rattlers

Again a team with a great strength being the helmet. The logo and golden dome creates for a great look. After that, only the tactful use of turquoise in a football uniform and making it work is their saving grace. The design is rather bland and there is no real use of color or imagination besides the helmets. (I did not take away points but would like to vent complaint that the Russell Athletics logo and the Rattler logo are so similar. It looks like every team in the league is rooting for them.)

Home 6.5 Away 5

Average 5.75

Las Vegas Gladiators


The Gladiators have the great pewter helmets like the Buccaneers, which help their style and color rating, but hurt their originality. Other things that help them is that their colors work well together as a whole and they pull off a good looking all color (color jerseys and pants) style. The white combination doesn't help them much; all white can look classic, but also boring. The shields on the sleeves are a good touch.

Home 7 Away 6.5
Average 6.8


Los Angeles Avengers


This team is about halfway to a perfect uniform. The helmet has a cool logo. they make an odd baby blue color work with the red and blue most of the time. But oddly I like the all whites more than the home uniforms. Maybe because the whites incorporate enough color to keep it from getting boring. Also because the home uniforms seem to have problems with getting the jersey stripe under the arm to match up with the pants stripe.

Home 7 Away 7

Average 7

San Jose SaberCats
I must admit that I love the SaberCats logo. It isn't often that a logo has that level of detail. The green and gold works well, the design is nothing to right home about but is nice. The road uniform is solid. Not solid enough to help the average, due to it's lack of the secondary color, but respectable.



Home 7 Away 6


Average 6.5

Utah Blaze

The Utah Blaze have some of the best uniforms in the AFL. I'm not a big fan of orange and black. But the Blaze put it together to hold a great uniform as far as style, and color combination. The logo elicits mental images of motion and power. Just as cool are their away uniforms. They make those while jerseys with orange work.

Home 8.5 Away 8

Average 8.25

The final standings for the Western Division are as follows:

• Blaze 8.25
• VooDoo 7
• Avengers 7
• Gladiators 6.8
• SaberCats 6.5
• Rattlers 5.75

Hope you enjoyed this and look forward to the Central Division reviews.

The Hall of Glory

This is the first of one of the less X's and O's centered columns. Nationwide Arena is a spectacular place to watch an Arena Football game.

Destroyers-Wranglers

This is the first day for "Building a Tradition". This is a blog dedicated to the Columbus Destroyers Arena Football Team. I'm Frank, a college student in the Central Ohio area who is attending the Destroyers games this year and who wants to put my ideas on the team out there for everyone to read and criticize if they want to. I know that this is starting late in the season but, better late than never. Tonight is the Destroyers 6th game of the season. A pivotal early season showdown with the Austin Wranglers.

First off this will be an interesting game for the Columbus Defense. They have been able to get stops in the early going against two of the better offenses in the league in the last two games (Dallas, Georgia) but can't hang on. The test this week will be Adrian McPherson, a mobile quarterback who can create opportunities and has a decent arm. But if Columbus can slow him down like they did to Griesen then they should be okay.

Offensively, the Wranglers could be a cure for a Destroyer team that has scored over 60 only once this year. Nagy will have a game that reminds us of his Georgia days and Columbus of why they traded for him. Nagy to Groce, Nagy to Saunders, Nagy to Knight, all night long.

Pick: Columbus 67 Austin 52 (and roughly 14,000 in attendance)