ArenaBowl XXI

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ArenaBowl XXI

| Columbus Destroyers
(National) | San Jose SaberCats
(American)

|

33 | 55
|  | 1| 2| 3| 4 | Total

|
|
|
|
|

COL | 7| 7| 13| 6 | 33
SJ | 14| 13| 7| 21 | 55
Date| July 29, 2007
Arena| New Orleans Arena, New Orleans, Louisiana
MVP| Mark Grieb, QB, San Jose

* Mark Grieb, QB, San Jose (Offensive Player of the Game)
* Omarr Smith, DB, San Jose (Defensive Player of the Game)
* Phil Glover, FB/LB, San Jose (Ironman of the Game)

Attendance| 17,056
Winning coach| Darren Arbet
Losing coach| Doug Kay
TV in the United States
Network| ABC, ABC HD
Announcers| Mike Greenberg and Mike Golic

* <- XX
* ArenaBowl
* XXII ->

ArenaBowl XXI was the 2007 championship game of the Arena Football League and was played at the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, Louisiana on Sunday, July 29, 2007.[1] It was the third-ever neutral site title game in league's history and the first held in the state of Louisiana. ArenaBowl XXI pitted the Columbus Destroyers of the National Conference against the San Jose SaberCats of the American Conference.

## Game summary

[edit]

San Jose took the control of the ball first, after Columbus won the coin toss and deferred to the second half, and scored first on a touchdown run by Brian Johnson. Columbus then tied the score at seven on a touchdown run by Harold Wells. Each team threw for a touchdown to make it 14–14. Trestin George of San Jose then returned the kickoff, following Columbus' second touchdown, for a touchdown, but A.J. Haglund missed the Point-After-Try (PAT) making it 20-14. On the ensuing possession, San Jose's Clevan Thomas intercepted a pass, and San Jose capitalized on the turnover, extending the lead to 27–14. This would be the halftime score.

The teams traded scores in the third quarter, and into the beginning of the fourth quarter until it was 41-27 San Jose, and an errant Matt Nagy pass fell into the arms of San Jose's Omarr Smith.

A Mark Grieb touchdown pass to James Roe made it 48–27 San Jose, and a touchdown by each team led to the final score of San Jose 55, Columbus 33. San Jose won their third Arena Football League title, all since 2002.

## Post-game

[edit]

Grieb was named the MVP, having thrown just five incomplete passes and no interceptions over the course of the game. He was awarded a Mitsubishi Spyder for his performance. Coach Darren Arbet became the second coach to win three ArenaBowls (Tampa Bay Storm coach Tim Marcum has seven).

The game was the first of three neutral-site ArenaBowls to sell out, doing so six weeks before the game in early June. An estimated 40% of the crowd was from outside of the New Orleans area, and led to an overall economic impact of around $25 million for the city of New Orleans.[citation needed]

## Notes

[edit]

1. ^ "Arena League awards title game to N.O. for July '07". NOLA.com. Retrieved December 11, 2008.

## External links

[edit]

* ArenaBowl XXI Boxscore on ArenaFan.com
* ArenaBowl XXI News Article

* v
* t
* e

ArenaBowl

1987–2008|

* I (1987)
* II (1988)
* III (1989)
* IV (1990)
* V (1991)
* VI (1992)
* VII (1993)
* VIII (1994)
* IX (1995)
* X (1996)
* XI (1997)
* XII (1998)
* XIII (1999)
* XIV (2000)
* XV (2001)
* XVI (2002)
* XVII (2003)
* XVIII (2004)
* XIX (2005)
* XX (2006)
* XXI (2007)
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2010–2019|

* XXIII (2010)
* XXIV (2011)
* XXV (2012)
* XXVI (2013)
* XXVII (2014)
* XXVIII (2015)
* XXIX (2016)
* XXX (2017)
* XXXI (2018)
* XXXII (2019)

2024–|

* XXXIII (2024)

* Arena Football League (1987–2008 and 2010–2019)
* Arena Football League (2024)
* ArenaCup

* v
* t
* e

2007 AFL season

| American Conference| National Conference

|

| Central Division| Western Division

|

* Chicago Rush
* Colorado Crush
* Grand Rapids Rampage
* Kansas City Brigade
* Nashville Kats

* Arizona Rattlers
* Las Vegas Gladiators
* Los Angeles Avengers
* San Jose SaberCats
* Utah Blaze

| Eastern Division| Southern Division

|

* Columbus Destroyers
* Dallas Desperados
* New York Dragons
* Philadelphia Soul

* Austin Wranglers
* Georgia Force
* New Orleans VooDoo
* Orlando Predators
* Tampa Bay Storm

Related articles
2007 Arena Football League season
2007 af2 season
ArenaBowl XXI
AFL Arenas

* v
* t
* e

San Jose SaberCats ArenaBowl XXI champions

* 3 Jason Geathers
* 4 Trestin George
* 5 Craig Whelihan
* 7 Scott Rislov
* 8 Clevan Thomas
* 9 James Roe
* 10 Chuck Reed
* 11 A. J. Haglund
* 14 Omarr Smith
* 15 Cleannord Saintil
* 16 Mark Grieb (MVP)
* 17 Rodney Wright
* 19 Marquis Floyd
* 23 Ronald Jones
* 25 Matt Kinsinger
* 27 Brian Johnson
* 31 Phil Glover
* 34 Steve Watson
* 37 Shawn Willis
* 65 Frank Beede
* 66 Troy Reddick
* 77 Patrick Afif
* 80 Ben Nelson
* 87 William Obeng
* 90 Garrett McIntyre
* 91 Dan Loney
* 92 Jeff Littlejohn
* 93 Julius Gant
* 96 Tim Martin
* 97 George Williams III
* 98 Alan Harper

* Head coach: Darren Arbet

* Coaches: Kevin Guy
* Jeff Jarnigan
* Terry Malley
* Dave Witthun

* v
* t
* e

San Jose SaberCats

* Founded in 1995
* Based in San Jose, California

Franchise|

* Franchise
* Seasons
* Players

Arenas|

* SAP Center at San Jose

Head coaches|

* Shell
* Arbet

Playoff appearances (16)|

* 1995
* 1997
* 1998
* 2000
* 2001
* 2002
* 2003
* 2004
* 2005
* 2006
* 2007
* 2008
* 2012
* 2013
* 2014
* 2015

Division championships (10)|

* 1995
* 2000
* 2001
* 2002
* 2003
* 2006
* 2007
* 2008
* 2014
* 2015

ArenaBowl appearances (5)|

* XVI
* XVIII
* XXI
* XXII
* XXVIII

Retired numbers|

* 2
* 16
* 55

Hall of Fame members|

* Darren Arbet
* Ben Bennett
* Sam Hernandez
* Bob McMillen
* Omarr Smith
* Clevan Thomas
* Barry Wagner

Current league affiliations|

* League: Arena Football League
* Conference: National Conference

Seasons (19)

1990s|

* 1995
* 1996
* 1997
* 1998
* 1999

2000s|

* 2000
* 2001
* 2002
* 2003
* 2004
* 2005
* 2006
* 2007
* 2008
* ~~2009~~

2010s|

* ~~2010~~
* 2011
* 2012
* 2013
* 2014
* 2015

* v
* t
* e

Columbus Destroyers

* Formerly the Buffalo Destroyers
* Founded in 1999
* Folded in 2008
* Reestablished in 2019
* Based in Buffalo, New York (1999–2003) and Columbus, Ohio (2004–2008; 2019)

Franchise|

* Franchise
* Seasons
* Players

Arenas|

* Marine Midland Arena/HSBC Arena
* Nationwide Arena

Head coaches|

* Whinham
* Bentley
* Selesky
* Bruce
* Spielman
* Kay
* Sperduto
* Sauk

Playoff appearances (3)|

* 2000
* 2002
* 2007

ArenaBowl appearances (1)|

* XXI

Hall of Fame members|

* Sylvester Bembery

Seasons (11)

1990s|

* 1999

2000s|

* 2000
* 2001
* 2002
* 2003
* 2004
* 2005
* 2006
* 2007
* 2008

2010s|

* 2019

* v
* t
* e

Arena Football League on ABC

Related articles|

* AFL on television
* Arena Football League on ESPN
* Wide World of Sports

Commentators|

| Play-by-play|

* Mike Adamle
* Tim Brant
* Mike Gleason
* Mike Greenberg
* Brent Musburger
* Bob Wischusen
* Ari Wolfe (WPVI 6)

|

Color commentators|

* Ray Bentley
* Sherdrick Bonner (WPVI 6)
* Ed Cunningham
* Gary Danielson
* Mike Golic
* Merril Hoge

Sideline reporters|

* Lewis Johnson
* Merril Hoge
* Holly Rowe
* Lynn Swann
* Stan Verrett
* Marcellus Wiley

ArenaBowl|

* XII (1998)
* XIII (1999)
* XIV (2000)
* XV (2001)
* XVI 2002)
* XXI (2007)
* XXII (2008)
* XXX (televised by Philadelphia's WPVI 6) (2017)

*[1]: First quarter
*[2]: Second quarter
*[3]: Third quarter
*[4]: Fourth quarter
*[v]: View this template
*[t]: Discuss this template
*[e]: Edit this template