Game over for arena football

Call it the ceremonial kneel-down.

Remember the Indiana Firebirds? No? Well, remember the Arena Football League? No? Well that's the problem. No buzz and no audience. The league that brought us Kurt Warner is officially shutting its funny little doors today. Gone are the 50-yard fields and the 99 to 85 scores. Gone are the front row fans getting drilled by a player. Gone are the wacky team names like the Desperados, Voodoo and the SaberCats. It will go down in history as the coolest sport no one cared about. They were football's version of Slamball.

Neither rock legend Jon Bon Jovi nor NFL Hall of Famer John Elway (both team owners) could save the league. That's saying something. I don't know what, but it's saying something.

Which leads me to Bon Jovi's hit song "You give love a bad name". It had some foreboding lyrics that make me wonder if the song was actually about Arena Football. "You're a loaded gun, there's nowhere to run. No one can save me, the damage is done. I play my part, and you play your game." Huh? I know, spooky right? All this time we thought the song was about some awful girlfriend.

But cheer up, AFL. 22 years is a good, long run and something to be proud of. That's 21 years longer than the XFL.