Category: Arena Football League

Kurt Warner and teammates on the cover of the 1996 Iowa Barnstormers Media Guide from the Arena Football League

Iowa Barnstormers (1995-2001)

July 31, 2020

The remarkable story of Kurt Warner, who rose from supermarket stock boy to Super Bowl Champion and NFL Most Valuable Player over the course of five years, is one of the great legacies of the now-defunct Arena Football League. Warner, undrafted out of college, famously signed on with the Arena League’s Iowa Barnstormers in 1995. He led the Barnstormers into back-to-back Arena Bowl title games in 1996 and 1997, before earning his shot at the NFL with the St. Louis Rams.  By 1999, he was the NFL’s MVP and quarterback of a Super Bowl championship team in his first season as a starter. Warner’s fame briefly made the Iowa Barnstormers an object of cult fascination, if not quite a household brand name. So what became of the Barnstormers?

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Chicago Rush Arena Football

Chicago Rush

January 27, 2020

Arena Football League (2001-2008 & 2010-2013) Born: June 28, 1999 – AFL expansion franchise Folded: 2013 First Game: April 21, 2001 (L 45-44 @ Oklahoma

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1996 Connecticut Coyotes Media Guide from the Arena Football League

Connecticut Coyotes

December 3, 2019

The Coyotes were the first of two half-hearted efforts to establish the Arena Football League at the Hartford Civic Center during the 1990’s. The Coyotes were really dreadful, posting a 3-23 record across two seasons in 1995 and 1996. The New England Sea Wolves (1999-2000) were more competitive but also lasted just two seasons in Hartford before leaving town.

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Baltimore Brigade Arena Football League

Baltimore Brigade

November 28, 2019

The Baltimore Brigade were a late-era entry in the now-defunct Arena Football League. The Brigade played during one the league’s darkest eras, when the once sprawling national league was reduced to a tiny cluster of survivors in the northeastern U.S. In 2018, the Brigade played in Arena Bowl XXXI, a bizarre spectacle that somehow saw the Brigade lose the championship game to the Washington Valor, the league’s last place team that went 2-10 in the regular season.

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New England Sea Wolves Arena Football League

New England Sea Wolves

November 13, 2019

The New England Sea Wolves were the second attempt to establish the Arena Football League at the Hartford Civic Center. Like their predecessor, the Connecticut Coyotes (1994-1995), the Sea Wolves lasted only two seasons at the Civic Center before getting sold off and relocated.

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