Daily League News & Notes

Arena Football League

VooDoo Welcome DB Chris Brown

The Arena Football League has assigned DB Chris Brown to the New Orleans VooDoo and the VooDoo has placed WR Samora Goodson on reuse to report, announced the VooDoo front office Thursday, May 2.

Brown (6-1, 200, Grambling State) tallied a career-high 65 tackles and four interceptions with the Dallas Vigilantes in 2011. In 2010, Brown collected 48 tackles and one interception with the Dallas Vigilantes. While with the Dallas Desperados in 2007, he recorded 57 tackles and three interceptions and recorded one tackle in 2006. During time spent with the Philadelphia Soul in 2005. Brown recorded 12 tackles as a defensive back and 14 receptions for 158 yards and two touchdowns as a receiver.

Brown played his collegiate career at Grambling State.

Champions Professional Indoor Football League

Haymakers Week 8 Preview

The Lincoln Haymakers look to avenge an early season loss to the Bloomington Edge this Friday night in Lincoln.

The Edge took the first game at home in this two game series, with a final score of 62-46. The Edge took an 11 point lead going into halftime, that came out to be the too much for the Haymakers late game run as the Edge outscored the Haymakers by 7 in the second half.

The Haymaker's 3rd ranked rush offense and leading rusher quarterback Blake Bolles will try break through the Edges stout 2nd ranked rushing defense. Bolles looks to continue growing as the season goes on in his second matchup against the Edge. The last time these two teams met Bolles established himself as the team's starting quarterback in the second half.

Along with the offensive side of the ball the defense looks to step up their game in the second go around as they gave up 62 points in the first match-up. With Cortny Grixby and Jon Banks establishing themselves as defensive leaders, both have three interceptions a piece. The Edge should have a tougher time finding open receivers Friday night against an improved Haymakers secondary.

Haymakers come into this week's game with a record of 2-4, and the Edge come in at a mark of 4-3. The Haymakers Kickoff at 7:05 in the Historic Pershing Center in downtown Lincoln, Nebraska.

Professional Indoor Football League

Lions To Make First Visit To Lehigh

The Columbus Lions (3-3) will look to overcome their disappointing loss from a week ago when they make their first ever visit to Bethlehem, PA to take on the reeling Lehigh Valley Steelhawks (2-4), losers of three straight.

This weekend's game will serve as the longest road-trip of the season marking just the second time in franchise history, first since 2009, in which the club will embark on a road trip to the Keystone State.

Set to leave on Friday night for a Sunday matinee start time of 4:00 PM ET, other than a trip across the Appalachian Mountains many obstacles lay ahead for the Lions. First things first, Columbus must examine what went wrong or even better what went right in their 77-65 loss to the Louisiana Swashbucklers one week ago.

"We continue to shoot ourselves in the foot by committing turnovers and making bone-headed plays on defense," says Columbus Lions Head Coach Jason Gibson. "Seasons can take turns for worse or better, we will see what that loss did to the make-up of our team."

It was hard loss to swallow especially considering the Bucs came into the game with the one of the lowest rated pass offenses in the PIFL. QB Chris Mitchell scorched the Lions secondary passing for 270 yards while WR Jordan Rideaux caught nine passes, five of which were for touchdowns.

The Columbus defense will have to make a 180 degree change if they expect to have any chance against the Steelhawks who boast the league's number one pass offense (260 yards/game). Led behind QB Adam Bednarik, the PIFL's most accurate passer completing over 68% of his passes for 1,275 yards and 22 touchdowns, the Hawks offense is one of the most potent and is one of two teams in the league to average over 50 points/game.

In comparison, Lions QB's have combined to throw just 1,264 passing yards and 27 touchdowns in six games good for second to last in the league. On offense, the turnover bug continues to nip the Lions in rear with the team ranking last in turnover margin (-5) along with Columbus quarterbacks having combined to throw the most INT's (15) leading all other teams.

One bright spot of late has been the re-emergence of Lions all-time receiving leader Gerald Gales. Through the club's first four games, Gales hauled in just seven receptions finding the end-zone just once meanwhile in the last two games he has towed in 13 receptions with seven going for touchdowns.

In spite of having one of the top offenses in the league, Lehigh has to be scratching their heads having dropped three straight losing their last two games despite having leads late in the 4th quarter in both games. One big reason has been their secondary play which is giving up an average of 16 yards/completion, highest rate allowed in the PIFL. Club made a mid-week change announcing that former player Matt Cohen would be promoted to Defensive Coordinator with his predecessor Kevin O'Hanlon resigning for personal matters.

Both teams have crossed the mid-way point of the season with Sunday's meeting will be pivotal as they prepare to make playoff pushes. The pair will meet one more time this season with Lehigh making a trip to Columbus on Sunday June 8th.

Coverage of Sunday's game against Lehigh will begin at 3:55 PM ET, to follow the entire heart-pumping action log on to www.columbuslions.net and click on the Listen Live icon.