Fun With Newspaper Leads

“Have a nice day” was not exactly what Jon Bon Jovi said to the former sales manager of the Philadelphia Soul, who alleges that the rock icon and his partners in the Arena Football League team have not paid him nearly $125,000 in wages and commissions

“It’s my life,” said Bon Jovi, claiming that he did not owe the sales manager any extra money. He added the manager did not do a good job and was “a little runaway,” frequently missing meetings, and would “never say goodbye” beforehand. He said they had a little saying at the office about this guy: “Wanted: Dead or Alive.”

Jovi added several other statements about his time with the Soul. “Everyday” and “Always,” he said, was this guy paid his money, adding the team even bought his wife a “Bed of Roses.”

Later, Jovi seemed distraught. “Say It Isn’t So,” he said, adding that he needed “Something for the Pain.” He did add, though, that he was going to “Keep the Faith.”

Suit: Phila. Soul partners owe nearly $125,000 [Inquirer]
Image by Anirudh Koul used under a Creative Commons license

Philadelphia Soul Are Arena League Champions For Foreseeable Future

The Philadelphia Soul are your reigning Arena League Champions forever! A report in the Cleveland Plain Dealer (your source for Arena Football League breaking news) the AFL has canceled its 2009 season and plans to return in 2010.

The problem was, apparently, that a bunch of teams would not return for the 2009 season, including your defending ArenaBowl champion Philadelphia Soul! Yes, so by threatening to quit — along with the Colorado Crush, Georgia Force, Chicago Rush and Cleveland Gladiators — the Soul have made themselves defending champs for another year.

“We couldn’t be taken seriously if we lost too many teams, especially in big markets,” the source said. “That’s what was going to happen. We needed to shut down and reorganize.”

The source said the deal-breaker was ESPN saying it would not televise a six-, seven- or eight-team league.

The source said owners of franchises that wanted out, including Jerry Jones (Dallas) and Arthur Blank (Georgia), expressed a desire to return in 2010 under a new league business model.

No word if the Soul are one of those teams possibly returning in 2010. Hey, doesn’t Bon Jovi still owe us all a free concert since they won last year?!

The Best Headline You’ll See All Year

This is on the front page of this week’s Center City Weekly Press. I’m not sure if this is as good as the time the paper ran a Super Bowl preview from the game three years earlier, but it’s certainly close.

Larger scan of the front page after the jump.

More »

Penn Kid: Celebrate The Philadelphia Soul!

Although the Philadelphia Soul won the Arena Football League title, Philadelphians haven’t been rioting in the streets over it. And most people haven’t even been using the tired line of, “Oh, look, a team finally won a title!” Obviously, nobody cares about the Soul, because they do not play one of the four major team sports. Sorry, guys. We’re happy for you, but mostly people only care because Bon Jovi is the owner.

But wait! Penn’s Neil Fanaroff says we should celebrate the Soul like they’re World Champions!

That’s nothing really all that notable, until he gets into a lecture about not supporting our local sports “dynasty.”

The Philadelphia Barrage - of Major League Lacrosse - moved from Bridgeport, Conn. in 2004 and proceeded to win three of the next four championships, including back-to-back titles the past two seasons.

But for some reason, the city never embraced this squad - a squad that has remained at the pinnacle of success in the highest-level league of what is arguably the nation’s fastest-growing sport and in one of the sport’s hot spots. This year, after playing at Villanova Stadium the past four years, the team’s poor financial status forced it to hit the road for the entire season.

Despite five years of success - yes, the Barrage are again in the title hunt despite playing “home” games in places ranging from Cary, N.C., to St. Louis to Hillsboro, Ore. - Philadelphians never opted to support the team enough to keep it.

An MLL Championship never warranted a celebration, or a parade, or even a front-page headline in Philadelphia. Now that the Barrage are gone, any joy Philadelphians could have garnered from the team’s success is gone.

Wait, the Barrage are on the road the entire season? That’s totally awesome. I guess we’ll have to settle for not having any of that joy other cities experience when their outdoor lacrosse team wins the league title.

Update: Oh, yeah, there’s a motorcade at 3-ish today down Market Street. Whoo, Soul!

Hey Philly: beggars can’t be choosers [Summer Pennsylvanian]

Philly’s Nuns Finally Win A Conference Title

Woo-hoo! Saturday afternoon, the Philadelphia Soul routed the Cleveland Steamers at the Wachovia Center to win the National Conference Championship; the team now heads to its first Arena Bowl on July 27.

(NB to the Inquirer: Come on, you guys really went with the “one victory away from bringing a championship to Philadelphia” lead? Yes, this is what they said about the Kixx and the Wings and the Barrage and the Charge — women’s soccer — and the Stars — the USFL, natch — and that online Mario Kart race I won the other day. Yes, there are other sports teams in Philadelphia besides the four major sports, but if they win a title that doesn’t mean Philadelphia wins a title or the drought is over or whatever. Okay? Thank you.)

Anyway, as you can see from the screencap from Action News yesterday, the Soul pulled out all its best players for an on-field celebration: Team president Ron Jaworski, two nuns and the team’s starting quarterback (he’s in the right hand corner). If the Soul win the Arena Bowl, does the team play the winner of the CFL next?

Update: Also awesome was this sentence in today’s Daily News:

Attentive father, devout Christian and Arena Football League Player of the Year . . . hard to make a guy like that look bad.

I believe winning the Arena Football League POY is a plenary indulgence, actually.

Philadelphia Soul Do Marketing Research

The Philadelphia Soul are getting ready for the 2009 season, and what better way to do so than this: A camera that measures how long you look at an ad for the team. The billboard, done by Moto Media, contains a camera that can see if people watching are male or female and their approximate age. All together now: Weird.

The camera doesn’t record anything, says Moto Media. KYW 1060 reports that “some don’t see a problem with the cameras” but also notes that “others say if there’s a camera, people need to be informed.” Oh.

Camera Planned for Local Digital Billboard Raises Concern [KYW 1060]

Philly Soul Exist, Are 8-0

Get this: The Philadelphia Soul are still undefeated with an 8-0 record, a game better than also-undefeated Dallas. For those of you not familiar, the Soul are Philadelphia’s Arena Football League team owned by Bon Jovi. (Duh.) They also prevent a problem to writers who aren’t sure whether the name should be treated as singular or plural (either way it sounds weird, I’m sure I’m doing it wrong no matter what).

The Soul actually play the Dallas Desperados on Monday night at the Spectrum for sole possession of first place in the Eastern Division. (No, I don’t know why Dallas is in the East in Arena Football.) And Miss America, the President of Women, is going to be there!

And get this: Apparently, the Soul have drawn over half a million fans to watch its games in the first four years. Judging by how Philly sports have been going recently, though, the Soul will probably lose the battle of the undefeated teams on a bad call from the ref.

Wealthy Man To Improve Philadelphia In A Way Other Than Running For Mayor

Recently, the Inquirer’s Marc Narducci’s talked with Philadelphia Soul owner Jon Bon Jovi (right, with Michael Jackson) about the team’s upcoming fourth season. Oh, yea, Bon Jovi is also a multiplatinum recording artist, a millionaire, etc., etc.

Bon Jovi’s one of those rare rich people who, when you hear them talk, you actually kind of start to like them more. (Actually, scratch that. Bon Jovi is one of those rare people who doesn’t seem like a total asshole. There we go.) Part of this, at least for me, deals with how seriously he takes his role as owner and president of the Soul. He doesn’t meddle in the football decisions — so he’s a smart owner — but he does seem to really get pissed when the team doesn’t do well. And he had a television monitor set up on his tour so he could watch the Soul while he was playing.

He’s also building 21 homes in Philadelphia because, well, he has the money and he can, which is nice.

“If I build 15 houses on that block and you have people who take pride in ownership of houses, they will watch the block,” he said. “The bad guy who wants to deal crack to the neighbors, you watch grandma come out with her broomstick and chase him away.”

Bon Jovi: Making the city safe for grandmas to chase people with broomsticks. Until they’re shot.

Bon Jovi still happy to put his heart into the Soul [Inquirer]
[Photo via Michael Jackson Fan Square]

Quickies: Not tasty at all

• The Tasty Baking Company is offering a $10,000 reward in the hunt for two teenagers who were callous enough to shoot and rob a Tastykake driver. Bastards. [CBS 3]

• The woman who alleged she had been raped by a member of the Philadelphia Soul has requested the charged be dropped. [KYW 1060]

• The jury is deliberating in the Rick Mariano trial. And by “deliberating,” I mean they’re watching the footage of him being hit by that gate and laughing over and over and over again. [Mariano v. USA]

• Hey, Gavin Floyd pitched well yesterday! Could things actually be falling in place for the Phillies? [Daily News]

Their souls are safe?

A quick update on the rape allegations Philadelphia Soul players were facing: They’re back on the practice field, the general manager says he’s not anticipating any charges and everything is all hunky-dory, thank you very much.

Why, that is? According to NBC 10, now the Kansas City police are looking for two men unaffiliated with the team, while the team says the players are witnesses, not suspects. All the Soul’s players questioned did provide DNA samples for the police.

Everything is vague, but if the Soul players are witnesses, then they either (a) saw a rape taking place and didn’t try to stop it or (b) were at a bar, left, and then other men came in pretending to be members of the Philadelphia Soul. Or perhaps (c), some other scenario.

Anyway, the Soul appear to no longer be suspects, at least according to NBC 10. And Jon Bon Jovi is spared a PR debacle that would threaten to ruin his career as an arena league football team owner. I guess he would have had something to fall back on, though.

Soul Says Players Are Witnesses, Not Suspects [NBC 10]
Yesterday: How not to get your small-time sports team on the news