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The Philadelphia Soul were a professional arena football team in the Arena Football League. They began play in 2004 as an expansion team. The team played in the Eastern Division of the National Conference. They won their first ArenaBowl in 2008, defeating the San Jose SaberCats 59-56 in ArenaBowl XXII. The Soul won 13 games and lost 3 in the 2008 regular season, as well as winning three playoff games, including ArenaBowl XXII, and are the current champions. They were coached by Bret Munsey. The team folded along with the league in 2009.
[edit] HistoryThe team was owned by co-majority owners Jon Bon Jovi and Craig Spencer along with minority owners Richie Sambora, Ron "Jaws" Jaworski (former QB of the NFL's Philadelphia Eagles) and Leo Carlin, Jr. The Soul began play in February of 2004, and played its home games at the Wachovia Center, home of the Philadelphia Flyers of the National Hockey League and the Philadelphia 76ers of the National Basketball Association. When there was a scheduling conflict with the NBA or NHL, games were played at the Wachovia Spectrum—the former home of the Flyers and 76ers and the current home of the Philadelphia Phantoms AHL hockey team and the Philadelphia KiXX MISL soccer franchise. The Soul played in the Eastern Division of the National Conference of the AFL. The name "Soul" refered to the Philadelphia soul music genre, as the team was owned in part by musician Jon Bon Jovi. The official mascot of the Soul was the Blues Brother-like "Soul Man".[1] In 2005, the Soul began the season by beating the Austin Wranglers 66-35. However, after five games, the Soul had two wins and three losses, which led to the firing of head coach Michael Trigg. Critics[who?] say that the Soul erred that off-season when they made Tony Graziani the highest-paid player in Arena League history. The move left them with little money under the salary cap to improve their defense, and as a result, they were not in competition for the playoffs. The elimination came even after NBC scheduled 14 games of the Soul to be shown on national or regional television. In 2006, the Soul began 2-0. They went 2-0 against division rival Dallas Desperados (who finished a league best 13-3), and finished the season at 9-7 and earned their first playoff berth through the wild card. In their wild card playoff game, the Soul defeated the Austin Wranglers in Austin, 52-35. The score was 21-21 at halftime, but the #5 seed Soul outscored the #4 Wranglers 21-7 in the third quarter and ran away with the game. The Soul lost their Divisional Round Playoff game 31-27 to the Orlando Predators in the infamous "round of golf", so-called because viewers missed much of the 1st quarter of that game and another AFL game being broadcasted simultaneously due to a PGA Golf tournament that was televised on NBC. The Soul started 4-0 in 2007 before losing to the Georgia Force, 57-49. Afterwards, they lost on a Monday night contest to their division rival, the Dallas Desperados, 51-41. In the game, Tony Graziani left the game early with a separated left shoulder from a sack by OL/DL Rickie Simpkins. He would miss the next four weeks, all losses, dropping the team to 4-6. Graziani returned in week 12 against the New Orleans VooDoo and led the team to its highest scoring output in its short franchise history, winning 78-34. In a Week 16 "win-and-in" matchup with the Columbus Destroyers, Graziani led the Soul down the field and threw a touchdown pass to Charles Pauley with seven seconds left, giving the Soul a 56-53 win and their second trip to the playoffs in their four-year history. In the playoffs, they defeated the Orlando Predators 41-26, then traveled to Atlanta to take on the Georgia Force in the Divisional Round, but lost 65-39. In 2008, the Soul signed WR Chris Jackson in the off-season. He was united with a former teammate in Tony Graziani. In the offseason the Soul were picked by many as the favorite to win the championship. However after another good start, once again Graziani was injured. He was replaced by Matt D'Orazio. Unlike previous years, in 2008 the Soul backup was able to keep the team going. He played well enough that when Graziani was healthy once more, the coaching staff decided to allow D'Orazio to keep the starting job. The Soul finished the 2008 season with a 13-3 record and earned a first-round bye. In the divisional round the Soul defeated the New York Dragons. In the conference finals the Soul were able to defeat the Cleveland Gladiators to earn their first berth to the Arena Bowl. They then won their first ArenaBowl on Sunday, July 27, 2008 in a 59-56 win over the San Jose SaberCats in ArenaBowl XXII. The team folded along with the rest of the Arena Football League in 2009. [edit] Franchise highlights
[edit] Season-by-seasonMain article: List of Philadelphia Soul seasons [edit] Coaches
[edit] Front office staff
[edit] References
[edit] External links
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