It seems that no pro football league (except the NFL) can resist the lure of San Antonio. With a modest 3-season run from 2012 to 2014, the Talons of the Arena Football League quietly outlasted the rest of the Alamo City’s extensive roster of pro football flops.
The Oklahoma Wranglers were a well-traveled Arena Football League franchise that settled in Oklahoma City in the spring of 2000 following brief runs in Memphis (1995-1996) and Portland, Oregon (1997-1999). The Wranglers played their two seasons at the 28-year old Myriad Convention Center downtown. The team intended to move into the $89 million Ford Center upon its opening in the spring of 2002. But owner Ed Gatlin removed his financial support of the money-losing franchise during the summer of 2001. The AFL dissolved the franchise in November 2001.
This long-gone Arena Football League entry was notable mainly for its celebrity ownership and and its naming rights agreement with a briefly popular beer of the late 1990’s, Miller Brewing Company’s Red Dog lager. Former NFL 1st round draft pick Tommy Maddox started at quarterback for the Red Dogs during their final season in 2000. Maddox would later return to the NFL for five more seasons with the Pittsburgh Steelers (2001-2005) and earned that league’s Comeback Player-of-the-Year Award in 2002 along with a Super Bowl championship ring.
Arena Football League (2002-2008) Born: 2002 – Arena Football League expansion franchise Folded: August 4, 2009 First Game: April 20, 2002 (W 57-44 @ Carolina Cobras)
The original Carolina Cobras were an Arena Football League franchise that split their time between Raleigh (2000-2002) and Charlotte (2003-2004).The Cobras never finished better than .500 in five seasons of competition, but did manage to make the playoffs in 2001 and 2002. The hapless 0-16 Cobras squad of 2003 demands consideration as the worst in the 32-season history of the Arena Football League.
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