first and foremost, congrats to the philadelphia soul for winning their first championship.  anyone who’s ever played a ten-player sit-n-go at party poker will tell you that winning anything can be difficult.  so mad props for winning the arena bowl!  and free bon jovi to boot!  woohooo!

the philadelphia daily news, in reporting the victory, has asked if this means the city’s 25 year championship-less run is over.  are they fucking smoking crack?

take a looks at these screencaps from the biggest sports sites on the planet.  as you will see, the sotry of the soul’s championship is buried on si.com and espn.com and not even reported on foxsports.com.  here are some stories that had a higher profile than the arena bowl:

• china using underage gymnasts (wuh?)
• former arizona st. golfer gets first pga tour win (wuh?)
• golden state warriors ink andris biedrins to new contract (wuh?)

this information should answer the question.  while a nice, feel-good story for the soul and the city, this is nothing more than a nice diversion on the road to further civic humiliation at the hands of the city’s professional sports teams (see rollins, jimmy).

wow, nothing like using a pre-championship game press conference to declare that john elway is your good buddy and that you never meant to stay so long and you’re leaving.

arena football league commish david baker shocked the seventeen-member arena football fan community by announcing he’s bolting….just two days before jon bon jovi’s soul attempt to bring a championship…..ANY kind of championship……back to titlelesstown, aka philadelphia.

nice timing, david baker.  nice.

ap story here.