I know Donald Trump constantly complains about our inability to compete with China imports. No one says much about American exports, but this past month one such export finally was brought to fruition. After four years in the planning stages, China imported American arena football. And their league’s version of the Super Bowl is being played on November 6.
The first China Bowl will be played in Shanghai. The league kicked off its inaugural season this past month with six teams playing 8-on-8 arena football. Four Chinese players and four “foreign” players are on the field at a time for each team.
Even though this league is not affiliated with the Arena Football League in the US, the ownership is very familiar to Philadelphia Soul fans. The whole concept is the brainchild of successful businessman, Marty Judge, who happens to own the Philadelphia Soul of the AFL. One of his partners is former Eagles quarterback, Ron Jaworski, and the League Executive is former Eagles head coach, Dick Vermeil. And, does the name Lou Tilley sound familiar? He used to be the sports guy for the local Philadelphia TV channel. He is the Vice President of Creative and Broadcast Operations for the new league.
Local Forks Township resident, Mick Moninghoff, is also spending time in China. He is part of Lou Tilley’s enterprise and does both marketing and broadcasting work for the new league. The games are broadcast both in Mandarin and in English and Mick is part of the broadcast team.
The league held its first draft on June 10. 500 players registered for the draft. 120 players were selected. 60 of the players were American; 43 of them had AFL experience and some had NFL experience. 60 Chinese players were from China or of Chinese descent. Germany, Spain, and Italy were, also represented on the rosters. The season was called the “Super Series” leading up to the championship finale – The China Bowl.
The six teams are the Beijing Lions, Dalian Dragon Kings, Guangzhou Power, Qingdao Clipper, Shanghai Skywalkers, and Shenzhen Naja. If you want to know how to pronounce the team names and see some of the action, watch here:
Qingdao will take on undefeated Beijing for the title. I do not know if China also imported American sports gambling so I cannot give you the spread on the game. However, for Judge and company, this venture has to be the ultimate in “fantasy football”.
ABOVE THE EARS (SOME MUSINGS)
- Did you see that the average ticket price to see the Cubs in Chicago this past week was $2,603 for Game 3 and $2,327 for Game 4? This was the highest average price ever sold for a World Series and topped every Super Bowl except the last two. Game 6 looked like a bargain when the average price on the secondary market was @$650.
- If you were in charge of your team’s draft picks and knowing what you now know, would you take Dak Prescott of the Cowboys or Carson Wentz of the Eagles? I still like the Eagles’ choice.
- Since I made you a GM in the last musing, now I ask you as the Dallas Cowboys head coach, would you start Tony Romo once he is healthy or stick with Prescott?
- Alabama, Clemson, Washington, and Michigan are ranked #1-4 and all of them are undefeated. Western Michigan is, also, undefeated and ranked #8. Can the top four hold their spots to vie for the national championship? Ohio State is looming at #5 and they want in.
- On Friday, November 4, the District football playoffs begin. Ironically, there are not many attractive match-ups with quite a few mismatches on tap. We tried to pick the best. The RCN-TV crew will have the 6A Nazareth – Parkland LIVE at 7:00 PM. That game will be followed by 4A Bethlehem Catholic at Central Catholic. They played each other just one week ago and Central prevailed. That game is on at 9:30 PM. Lehighton will play Notre Dame on Saturday in 3A at 2:00 and we will have it LIVE.
Gary’s Guesses: NFL Picks – (Last week – 7-5-1; Overall – 71-50-2 – 59%)
Week Nine
ATLANTA
PITTSBURGH
PHILADELPHIA
MIAMI
DALLAS
KANSAS CITY
DETROIT
CAROLINA
NEW ORLEANS
TENNESSEE
GREEN BAY
DENVER
BUFFALO
