AAFL Comes To Arkansas

Published on August 27, 2007 under All American Football League (AAFL) News Release

If there is one thing people in Arkansas like more than football games, it is football players.

Just ask anyone who ever walked through Little Rock with former Razorback quarterback Clint Stoerner.

Stoerner was at War Memorial for the Arkansas workout of the All American Football League. He, of course, is one of the greatest quarterbacks ever to play for the University of Arkansas. Not just because he won a lot of big games and broke a lot of school records.

Stoerner was exciting. Unpredictable. A great ballplayer. And a bit of a rogue -- more than a bit, truth be told.

He is remembered for throwing out the playbook -- usually at the line of scrimmage -- and with a nod and a wink sending Anthony Lucas into uncharted territory.

The same Lucas who holds all the receiving Arkansas records; who went on to play with the Cowboys and who aspires to coach in Arkansas with the AAFL.

Stoerner surprised opposing defenses as much as his own coaches. And it usually worked. Big gains. Touchdowns. Wins. Usually.

Fans in Arkansas remember that. The valet at the Hotel Peabody thought he was greeting a rock star when Clint rolled up. (And by the way he is named after Clint Eastwood and he does have a very charming girlfriend.)

When the guys painting War Memorial Stadium in Little Rock saw Clint giving one of our guys a tour prior to the combine, that made their day.

They were thrilled. And the best part about it was this: So was Clint.

We saw that over and over again throughout the weekend. People came from all over Arkansas and Tennessee just to get a glimpse of their Razorback heroes like Chrys Chukwuma, J.J. Jones, Anthony Brown and the like.

And the Razorback heroes were gracious and happy to see them too.

Beside guys like Stoerner who recently played, we had a lot of former Razorbacks who are going to help out our new AAFL team in other capacities, from coaching to advising.

Guys like former NFL quarterback and Arkansas great Joe Ferguson, Anthony Lucas, Madre Hill, another former UA QB Ron Calgani and San Diego Charger great Gary Anderson.

You don't have to be a Charger fan to remember what many consider to be the most memorable play in the history of that franchise. It was in the 1980's. Anderson had the ball in the open field. All that remained between Anderson and the goal line was five yards of turf and one very determined defensive back for the Miami Dolphins.

He took dead aim at Anderson, then made his move. But Anderson was gone. Airborne: Doing a full flip in the air before tumbling gracefully, perfectly, into the end zone. Untouched.

To this day, it is the top highlight in a franchise with reels full of highlights. It is hard to say whether the young men at War Memorial knew anything about the guy putting them through the paces.

But every Charger fans knows that by heart.

The surprise hit of our weekend tryout: Lew Carpenter. Name sound familiar? Maybe not. But it should. After completing a career as one of the top running backs and receivers of his day at Arkansas in the 50's, Lew Carpenter went on to play for Vince Lombardi at Green Bay. He also coached throughout the league.

And he had the rings to show it.

But that darn Carpenter: It's almost impossible to get him to talk about it. He is just as interested in the fans as they are in him.

But persistence really pays off here: Carpenter tells great stories about the greats of Arkansas and the NFL. From his playing and professional coaching days which all told spanned more than 30 years.

Lew, it was an honor.

But the list goes on and on.

Some Little Rock luminaries had a chance to meet and greet our Arkansas players at a dinner on Friday and reception after the workout on Saturday. But to liven it up a bit, we also brought in Reggie Myles, the former Alabama and Bengal safety who spent four years in the NFL, and Shane Matthews, the Florida Gator quarterback who just retired from the NFL after 14 years.

Matthews and Myles put the good folks - and players -- of Arkansas on notice: 'We are all having fun now - but when we put our uniforms on, it won't be fun for you any more. Because we are going to beat you.'

That got the full attention of the Arkansas players and boosters. Including the four top players we signed to a deal during the workouts: Stoerner, Chukwuma, Jones and Brown.

Come Spring, they'll be up for the challenge. That's what they said.

We shall see.

Another note: You can find more than 35 of our players with their own pages on MySpace.com. In less than 30 days, one of our Alabama stars, Rudy Griffin, gathered more than 3000 friends.

Several of them are serving in our armed forces in Iraq. One soldier told Rudy he had to walk three hours to get to a computer to send his message of support to Rudy.

That's humbling. We'll see that soldier again next Spring when he sits front row in uniform as Rudy's guest. He says he'll be wearing his Alabama shirt underneath his uniform. Just like he is right now.

You can find a lot of our players on MySpace.com. Rudy is at http://www.MySpace.com/tidefootball90. Stop on by. He'll be happy to hear from you.

Our players spent a lot of time with newspapers, television and talk radio shows. Lots of interest. Here's just a few of the stories from the NBC affiliate in Little Rock:

Let the frenzy begin:

http://arkansasmatters.com/content/fulltext/?cid=58746

Lots of other great stories and blogs as well.

http://www.nwaonline.net/articles/2007/08/21/columns/harry_king/082207king.txt

Check out the AAFL videos here:

http://focus.arkansasonline.com/pages/gallery.php?gallery=311761

http://showtime.arkansasonline.com/e/static/flash/standalone/

And of course, let's not forget the lead story from the sport's pages of the Arkansas Democrat Gazette: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/198943.

More later!

Marcus Katz

President

All American Football League

All American Football League Stories from August 27, 2007

• AAFL Comes To Arkansas - AAFL

The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.