Opponents twice a year since 2004, the New York Dragons and Philadelphia Soul will square off for the first time ever in the playoffs
By Peter Schwartz -- Can’t we all just get along?
Not if you’re a sports fan in either New York or Philadelphia. Regardless of what sport you’re talking about, the fans and the teams just don’t like each other. Whether it’s the Mets and the Phillies in baseball, the Giants and Eagles in the NFL, the Knicks/Nets and Sixers in basketball, or the Rangers/Islanders/Devils and Flyers in hockey, there has always been a not so friendly relationship between the players and the supporters of the rival metropolitan areas.
You can now add another rivalry to the storied history of battles between teams from the Big Apple and the City of Brotherly Love.
When the New York Dragons relocated from Iowa for the 2001 season, they immediately had a natural geographic rival with the New Jersey Gladiators. However, that only lasted for two seasons before the Gladiators moved west to Las Vegas just prior to the 2003 campaign. The following year, the Philadelphia Soul joined the AFL as an expansion franchise thus creating a new rivalry for the Dragons.
Over five years, the all-time series is tied at five wins apiece and the two Eastern Division rivals will meet for the first time in the post-season on Saturday night in the AFL’s Divisional Round at the Wachovia Center (7 p.m. ET ESPN, ESPN HD, ESPN360.com, Sirius Satellite Radio).
“I think there’s always been a natural rivalry between Philadelphia and New York, not only in Arena Football but pretty much in any sport,” said Soul President and part-owner Ron Jaworski. “Much like Philadelphia has this tremendous dislike for Dallas, I think the fans have a dislike for New York teams. I can’t speak for New York, but they probably feel the same way.”
A very good assumption Jaws!
The rivalry really heated up this year with a physical pre-season scrimmage in Philadelphia and a testy pre-season combined practice in New York. Then, in Week 4 of the regular season, things got even nastier. In the third quarter of Philadelphia’s 63-42 victory over New York, Dragons lineman John Nix delivered a late hit on Soul quarterback Tony Graziani that put him on injured reserve with a sprained MCL in his left knee. Later in the game, Soul linebacker Anthony Dunn popped Dragons’ quarterback Aaron Garcia with a helmet to the ribs that forced Garcia to miss the rest of that game and the following week’s game against Arizona.
“These are bitter rivals,” said Jaworski. “The way that the Dragons and the Soul approach this game, we know its going to be a physical, tough football game. We both believe in a physical style of play.”
Bitter is probably a good word to describe the relationship between these two teams, but according to Dragons Head Coach Weylan Harding, it is simply a get-together of two clubs those know each other very well.
“I don’t know about the bitter part but it’s definitely a rivalry,” said Harding. You’re talking about two proud franchises and it’s New York against Philadelphia. It’s healthy competition. Anytime we get together, it is going to be a good one.”
Philadelphia completed a season sweep of New York with a 50-39 victory on Long Island in the regular season finale on June 22nd which wrapped up the number one seed in the National Conference playoffs and a first round bye. Having that extra week of rest is one of the goals when the season starts, but sometimes it might cause some teams to be a little rusty.
“You hope not,” said Soul Head Coach Bret Munsey. “We had a bye week during the season and came back and played well. The playoffs are a different tempo. We have to come out and play well right off the get-go.”
The biggest question for the Soul during their layoff was determining who will start at quarterback. After an injury riddled regular season, Tony Graziani is healthy but hasn’t seen much action. Backup Matt D'Orazio, who led Chicago to the ArenaBowl XX title in 2006, was signed during the off-season as insurance for Graziani who has suffered the injury bug over the past few seasons. In fact, in 2006 and 2007 the Soul was 1-6 when Graziani was unable to start. D’Orazio turned out to be one of the best moves that any team has made in the history of the league as he was the AFL’s top rated passer this season.
That made the decision easy for Munsey who named D’Orazio the starter earlier this week. The news didn’t make Graziani a happy camper who declined to speak with reporters after the announcement. Munsey made the decision that he felt was in the best interest of the team.
“I talked to Tony and it comes down to him not being able to practice for the last four or five weeks or play,” said Munsey. “For me to just go ahead and throw him in the lineup with the uncertainly of his health and not taking those reps...I can’t do that to this football team. We’ve got a backup that’s playing as well as anyone in the league.”
For the Soul, it’s been a terrific season. Despite some major injuries, they were able to compile a league best 13-3 record and will attempt to break the city of Philadelphia’s twenty-five year championship drought. The Philadelphia 76ers were the last team to win it all capturing the NBA title in 1983. With a couple of wins at home, the Soul will find themselves in ArenaBowl XXII on July 27th in New Orleans.
“We are very excited about this opportunity,” said Jaworski. “When the season started, our short term goal was to win the division championship and we were able to do that. Then, secure home-field advantage throughout the playoffs and get a bye and we were able to do that. We believe that gives us the best percentage chance to get to the ArenaBowl.”
Standing in the way are the Dragons who would love to follow in the footsteps of the Super Bowl Champion New York Giants and bring another championship to the Big Apple. After knocking off the Dallas Desperados last week in the Wild Card round, they get another shot at preventing a team from sweeping them in three straight games. They did it in Dallas and now the Dragons have the opportunity to do it again in Philadelphia.
New York is well aware that it won’t be easy.
“We have to play mistake free football,” said Dragons wide receiver Kevin Swayne. “I would definitely say, arguably, they’re the best football team that we’ve faced all year. They’ve played us tough the last two times that we played them, but if we play within ourselves and play Dragons football, we’ll be in the game, get a shot, and hopefully have an opportunity to advance.”
A big key to this game is if the Dragons defense can find a way to shut down the highest scoring team in the AFL this season. In fact, the Soul scorched New York scoring 122 points in their two regular season meetings. Philadelphia is banking that sticking to what they do best will get the job done once again.
“Just being smart,” said wide receiver Chris Jackson who led the AFL with 49 touchdown catches.
“They’re a team that mixes up their defense. They’ve got a great man-to-man guy in (defensive back) Billy Parker but they also mix in some zone. They’ve got Monty Montgomery who we didn’t play against two weeks ago.”
The Wachovia Center will not only see its share of physical battles on the field Saturday night, but it will likely play host to plenty of verbal battles in the seats. Philadelphia is just a two-and-a-half hour drive from New York, so there figures to be a good amount of Dragons fans making the trip down the New Jersey Turnpike. After the Soul faithful invaded the Nassau Coliseum a couple of weeks ago, the Dragons are hoping get plenty of support as they face a tough task in moving a step closer to the ArenaBowl.
“We need some of our fans to get on a bus and go down to Philly like their fans came to New York,” said Dragons quarterback Aaron Garcia who will try to lead his team to another upset win.
“We have to do what we did (last week against Dallas). Take it one play at a time, stick together no matter what happens throughout the game for four quarters and I think we have a good chance to come out on top.”
While the “War on I-4” between Orlando and Tampa Bay will always be considered the most storied rivalry in the AFL, the Dragons and Soul could be on the verge of solidifying their dislike for each other as the clear cut choice for the second best rivalry in Arena Football. This year’s chapter began with plenty of pre-season rough stuff. It will come to a conclusion with what should be another hard-fought physical confrontation on Saturday night.
As Elton John would say “Saturday Night’s all right for fighting.”
Especially with a berth in the National Conference Championship on the line.
Peter Schwartz is a regular contributor to arenafootball.com and is the co-host of “This Week In The AFL” on Sirius Satellite Radio.
