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How I spent My Monday Night
by
Randy Snow
Originally
posted on ArenaFan.com, Wednesday, March 26, 2008
They say that a picture is worth a thousand
words. When it comes to football, nothing beats watching a game, either in
person or on TV. But sometimes your favorite team is on the road and the game is
not available on TV in your area. In that case, radio is the next best thing.
But even then, you may not be able to get the game on a local radio station.
That’s where the Internet comes in.
In 2004 I wrote an article for ArenaFan called,
“How I Spent My Friday Night.” In
it, I described how I followed a Rampage game over the Internet with the help of
my dial-up modem. I was reduced to reading the online stats as they came in live
during the game. But now its 2008 and I have a high-speed Internet connection at
home.
When the Grand Rapids Rampage traveled west to take on the Kansas City Brigade
Monday night, I knew I would be able to get the radio broadcast on the Internet
with no problems. I have listened to many football games over the Internet
before, including the Vanier Cup, the Canadian college football national
championship game from Toronto last November. (The Manitoba Bisons defeated the
St. Mary’s Huskies 28-14)
So there I was, sitting at my computer Monday night listening to longtime
Rampage play-by-play man Joe Parson calling the action during the first quarter
of the game along with Alex Clark, the team’s Director of Media Relations.
However, this particular night, the audio quality was not very good. It was hard
to listen to the game so I began looking around for another site where I could
access the game.
I went to ArenaFootball.com and a banner at the top of the page said the Grand
Rapids-Kansas City game was being broadcast on AFL Net, for free! What? Watch
the game? For free? It only took a few minutes to get myself registered and
before I knew it, I was watching the game on my computer screen.
And what a game it was! Grand Rapids set a franchise record for most points
scored in a game with a 92-52 win over the Brigade. It was the second most
points ever scored in an AFL game, the previous high was 99 points by the New
York Dragons back in 2001. Not only was it the first win of the season for Grand
Rapids, but it was also the first win for new Rampage head coach Steve Thonn.
AFL Net not only has live games, but you can also watch highlights from every
game this season. If you have a high-speed connection at home, I highly
recommend signing up for AFL Net. Do it now, before your favorite team has its
next road game.
Incidentally, the arenafootball2 is also going to have a similar setup this year
called af2TV. It is also free on the Internet and it will give you a chance to
see tomorrow’s AFL stars in the making.
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