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Kansas City Brigade Weekly Release

February 9, 2006 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
Kansas City Brigade News Release


Brigade Inaugural Home Game is Sold Out The Kansas City Brigade announced today that their inaugural home game is sold out. The Brigade will take on the Austin Wranglers this Sunday, at 1pm at Kemper Arena. Kemper holds 16,200 fans for arena football. Of the 16,200 tickets sold, nearly 8,750 are season ticket holders (54%). The Brigade will still offer season tickets (7-game package) and good seats are still available for the remaining games.

Practice Time Change for Tomorrow (2/10) Due to field usage, the Brigade will practice tomorrow at SportsCity in Blue Springs from approximately 9-9:45am, instead of the normal 10:30-11:45am. For questions, please call Rob Thomson (913-226-6024).

Upcoming Events Brigade Coach Kevin Porter will be live on ESPN tomorrow at 3pm to discuss the team, the off field success and the interest by Kansas City, and arena football.

This Friday from 5-7pm for happy hour and drink specials, the Beaumont Club will host a pep rally for the Kansas City Brigade. There will be ticket giveaways and merchandise. The Brigade players and cheerleaders will be present and introduced, sign autographs and take pictures, and the Brigade Cheerleaders will perform on stage.

On Saturday, selected Brigade players and cheerleaders will be at Zona Rosa (in the food court by Marshalls) to sign autographs for fans. The event will be from 12-2pm.

Info on Upcoming Game Kansas City Brigade (0-2) vs. Austin Wranglers (2-0) Sunday, February 12, 1 p.m. at Kemper Arena TV: The WB Kansas City and Metro Sports (Duke Frye, Jayice Pearson and Danni Boatwright) Radio: 97.3 MAX FM (Chris Gervino and Stan Weber) Game notes can be found at www.kcbrigade.com

The Brigade finally gets to show its fans what Arena Football is all about. After opening its inaugural season with two straight road games, the team will play on a brand new field in its home venue for the first time. The Brigade is seeking its first-ever win playing against a division opponent for the second time in as many games. Kansas City fell 58-44 at the Dallas Desperados in Week 1 and 48-41 at the Orlando Predators in Week 2.

The Brigade had strong performances on both sides of the ball last week and is close to putting a complete game together. The team overcame a 10-point in the final quarter and nearly pulled off a 14-point comeback in the final minute. Beware when the Brigade hits its stride as the team is second in the league in total yards and passing yards per game and second in first downs.

The Austin Wranglers come to Kansas City riding consecutive wins to open the season. The Wranglers defeated Las Vegas 64-46 in Austin and beat Arizona 53-34 in Phoenix. The Wranglers do their damage on defense, getting pressure on the quarterback to force turnovers. Already Austin has three sacks and five interceptions and is the third-ranked scoring defense in the league.

Injury List OL/DL Abdul-Salam Noah is probable, OL/DL Chad Pegues is questionable and OL/DL Matt Walls is doubtful. Eight players remain on injured reserve for Week 3. Cliff Green is out for the season with an Achilles injury and the other seven are eligible to come off IR after Sunday's game. As stated in last week's game notes, Travis Coleman was signed to the active roster from the practice squad.

Stats and Tidbits - Andy Kelly is leads the league in passing yards with 616 and completions with 63. Last week Kelly surpassed 37,000 yards for his career and has 727 career touchdown passes. He was named the Offensive Player of the Game against Orlando with a league-high 353 yards passing through Week 2. He also has been prolific against the Wranglers in three meetings, throwing at a sixty-seven percent completion rate for 1,054 yards with 23 touchdowns and four interceptions. He remains eight touchdowns behind Aaron Garcia for the all-time record, as both have thrown for 10 TD's thus far in 2006.

- Jerel Myers is second in the league in receptions with 19 and T12th in yards with 167. James Jordan is T7th in receptions with 17 and 15th in yards with 152. His four touchdowns is also 7th in the league. Jordan was the Fox Sports Net Midwest Ironman of the Game against Orlando.

- Even though their teams don't have a history, Brigade head coach Kevin Porter and Austin head coach Mike Foster do. In 2003, Foster's Tulsa Talons defeated Porter's Macon Knights 58-40 in front of a sold out crowd in the af2 ArenaCup. Now the two winningest coaches in af2 history face off again.

- Michael Foster, Skip's cousin and Austin's secondary and special teams coach, played football at the University of Kansas from 1973-74. He coached at Archbishop O'Hara High School from 1977-80 and was an assistant coach at Coffeyville Community College with Skip. He also coached at Central Missouri State and Missouri State University.

- WR/DB Kevin Nickerson, who still calls Kansas City home, graduated from Central High School and played at Central Missouri State. FB/LB Henry Bryant and practice squad player Chris Canty attended Kansas State. OL/DL Angel Rubio played at Missouri State and OL/DL Ramon Richardson is from Kansas City.

- After being shutout through the first two weeks of the season in the experts' picks segment on www.arenafootball.com, the Brigade have been chosen to win this week by four of the eight experts.

* Steve Smith's TD catch last week where he was being pass interfered, and then made an over-the-shoulder diving catch while crashing into the corner boards in the endzone, was named 4th best play of the week.



Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from February 9, 2006


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