Aug 23, 2008 | 7:00 PM | Uh-Oh, Slamball's Making a Comeback.

by: Paul Miles

But I guess if you ask Mason Gordon, the mad scientist who created the formula for Slamball, it never left. After two seasons on the early SpikeTV schedule, Slamball almost completely left the public awareness. There was a one off event in 2007. But Gordon and his crew are putting together a truncated 2008 TV schedule in preparations of rolling out a full league in 2009.

The Versus Network will broadcast a game of the week on Sundays starting next week with CBS showing the Slamball Championships on November 2nd after football coverage. Gordon has made the first fix to turning Slamball into a legitimate sport, he's working on placing 8 teams in cities. Four will be league owned and four franchises sold to owner/operators. With league commissioner Pat Croche's enthusiastic support, I'm sort of hopeful for a Philadelphia squad.

I think since the league played out of a warehouse in East LA and the teams had no regional branding, it ate the "Made for TV" rip, which is part of the charm of shows like American Gladiators, but would have murdered the Arena Football League in it's early days.

An interview with a coach in the league, Brandon Kirsch addressed that issue:

No, one thing we want to make sure of is that people don't think we want to compete with the NBA or the NFL. We don't. A lot of sports "purists" hate Slamball because they don't understand, we want to be a mainstream sport too. Boxing and the UFC exist beautifully together. So does the NFL and the Arena Football League. We want to compliment the NBA and our season will run after the NBA playoffs is over. We aren't going to pull an "ABA" though and try to undercut either league in talent recruitment.

I'm not going to lie, ya'll. I watched Slamball. But I also watched American Gladiators back in the day, and I thought the Hart Foundation was the beginning and tag team wrestling back in the day. I'll be checking out the new Slamball. And if I can get something to watch on a Sunday besides football, that's a win.

Names you know in Slamball.
Pat Croche, commissioner, formerly with the Philadelphia 76ers. He's the best thing to happen to this town, so he was obviously run out on a rail by the evil conglomerate that handles professional sports in this city.

John Starks, coach, was a two guard for the Knicks for most of the 90's. But he's most remembered as a guard for the Orlando Predators of the WBL.

Kenny Anderson, coach, a journeyman guard in the NBA, Kenny finished he career after two seasons with the Lituanian side, BC Žalgiris. He also coaches the Atlanta Krunk of the CBA. A team owned by one of the dudes from C & C Music Factory. Gonna make you sweat. Indeed.

Raghib Ismail, coach, the Rocket was one of the first players to make serious noise transitioning from the Canadian Football League to the NFL.

Here's a clip from the Slamball website.

Labels: brandon kirsch, cbs, john starks, kenny anderson, mason gordon, pat croche, raghib ismail, slamball, versus network

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