Can the Storm Repeat?
(February 4, 2004)

The Tampa Bay Storm begin the 2004 Arena Football League season this Sunday. There have been some changes on the team, and a few changes in the AFL, but one question has to dominate the discussion. Can the Storm repeat? Will they play better as defending champions than the Buccaneers? When Orlando comes to Tampa this Sunday afternoon, we will begin to find out.

Some key players have moved on since the Storm won Arena Bowl XVII. Quarterback John Kaleo signed a free agent contract with the expansion team in Austin. Bj Cohen went to the new team in New Orleans, Al Lucas signed with Los Angeles, Omarr Smith returned to San Jose and Corey Sawyer signed with Chicago.

Shane Stafford will begin the season as the starting QB. Stafford played well for the Storm in 2002, before going to NFL Europe and the Bucs training camp. Pat O'Hara will be back as well and the team also picked up Stoney Case. He played seven seasons in the NFL with Baltimore, Detroit and Arizona. Case started seven games at quarterback for Baltimore in 1999.

Other players with NFL experience have joined the team. Defensive back Antonio Langham played seven NFL seasons and was Cleveland's top pick in the 1994 draft. Langham also played for Baltimore and New England. Lineman Shawn King had played in the NFL for Carolina and Indianapolis. Lineman Evan Pilgrim played six seasons in NFL, defensive specialist Del Lee was with the Jets in 1999 and played the last three years in the AFL, lineman Cyron Brown played with the Broncos in 1999, and lineman Emil Ekiyor was on the Bucs practice squad in 1996. Other new faces include defensive specialists Carlos James, a three time All-Arena selection, and Shea Showers, a member of the 1998 All- Rookie team.

The AFL added three teams this season and now has a total of nineteen. The new entries are the Austin Wrangers, New Orleans VooDoo and Philadelphia Soul. After five years in Buffalo, the Destroyers have relocated to Columbus. Since the league has an odd number of teams, there will a bye week for each. Since the regular season will be extended one week, the first round of playoffs will be eliminated. Now eight teams will make the postseason, instead of twelve, and there will be no first round byes. There have also been some juggling of the division alignment and the Storm's Southern Division foes will now be Austin, Georgia, New Orleans and Orlando.

Can the Storm repeat? They have lost some key players, especially on defense, and they say defensive wins championships. A national media poll has ranked San Jose as the AFL's best team with Tampa Bay second, so there is a perception that this will be a pretty good team again. Tampa Bay was the first area to hold both the NFL and AFL championships at the same time. The Bucs reign as champions has ended. The Storm now begins to defend its title. Repeat? The last team to win back-to-back Arena Bowls was the Storm in 1995-96. Repeat? As the other Tampa Bay football team found out, it will not be easy.