The most important player in Philadelphia

By John McMullen
The Phanatic Magazine

Philadelphia, PA - The Sixers got better when they traded Allen Iverson.

The Eagles improved after Donovan McNabb went down with an ACL injury.

The Phillies got hot when Ryan Howard went on the DL.

Even the Flyers stunk a little less when Peter Forsberg went to Music City.

But, the Soul without Tony Graziani? Forget about it.

Philadelphia’s AFL team was an impressive 6-2 with the former Oregon star entering Friday night’s game and you could even argue 6-1, since Graziani went down with a shoulder injury in a Week 7 loss at Dallas.

Without him, Jon Bon Jovi’s boys were a pathetic 0-4 and managed just 38.5 points per contest, while being outscored by an average of 16 points per game. In a league built on offense, the assorted flotsam that replaced Graziani – Justin Wood and Clint Stoerner – proved just how valuable he was.

With Tony, Philly was tallying 64 points a game. They scored 70 or more three times and their season low with Graziani playing from bell-to-bell was 49 points. Perhaps more importantly, the Soul were a serious playoff contender with the former Atlanta Falcons draft pick under center.

The Soul’s coach, Bret Munsey, admitted Graziani returned a little too soon from his injury but he was desperately needed and good enough to help halt an ugly six-game skid when the Soul got the best of the New Orleans VooDoo, 78-34, on May 21. He backed that up by leading his mates to a 76-66 victory in Austin against the Wranglers a week ago.

But, Friday was the true test. Graziani was facing the leagues’s best team. The same club that almost derailed the Soul’s season by injuring him, the 11-1 Dallas Desperados. It might not have been Eagles-Cowboys but was it was Philly versus Dallas with revenge on the mind.

Now, unless you are ESPN, it’s tough to call an AFL game important. But, consider this...40,000 people were already across the street watching a live infomercial for flak seed oil and another 20,000 were across the parking lot sharing assorted illegal substances and taking in the bastardized version of Pink Floyd. And, the Soul still managed to draw a raucous crowd of 15,853 that cheered their every move to the Wachovia Spectrum.

The Desperados played frontrunner, nonetheless, with their own superstar quarterback, Clint Dolezel, making things very difficult for the Philly defense. A tough second quarter featuring two Graziani interceptions and an officiating crew who thought the game was in North Texas made sure Dallas was on top, 31-20.

Graziani rebounded to throw three touchdown passes in the second half but the hole was just too deep. The Soul secondary of Eddie Moten, Kevin Gaines and Mike Brown was torched time and time again by Dolezel and the Desperados moved to an impressive 12-1 on the season with a hard-fought 59-56 victory.

“It’s Dallas,” a disappointed Graziani said after the game “That other stuff doesn’t matter. The Dolezel-Graziani stuff, the fact I got hurt. They got the breaks today and capitalized on it.”

Graziani may have not gotten the happy ending he was looking for but that’s life. A fairy tale is just a story that hasn’t ended. For the Soul, that story moves to Tampa next week and with Graziani under center, the Central Florida chapter has a chance to be a good one.

“Our offense is playing great and if we keep playing like this I have all the confidence in the world that we will go deep in the playoffs,” Graziani said. “If we were going to lose one this was the one to lose. They are already established in the playoffs. We have three (games) to go and every game is a playoff game. It’s gonna be fun.”