Billings Wins ArenaBowl XXXIII in the Mall

Arena Football Game Played At Shopping Mall Was Bizarre Scenes

The tumultuous season of the Arena Football League’s relaunch ended with the Billings Outlaws defeating the Albany Firebirds 46-41 behind five touchdowns from Isaac Harker to Duane Brown.  At the end of three quarters, it was 33-29 Outlaws. While Billings seemed to have the momentum the whole game — with the “New Jersey Outlaws” as some in attendance at the Red Door dubbed Billings fans pictured on the CBS Sports Network broadcast — the game wasn’t sealed until Billings recovered an onside kick with 7.5 seconds left.  Harker finished 16 of 27 for 184 yards and Brown had nine receptions for 125 yards.

The game was played at the American Dream Entertainment/Retail Center in East Rutherford, New Jersey and televised on CBS Sports Network.  The site of the title game was an odd choice to many since the American Dream Center is essentially a shopping mall.  This was perhaps the most unusual ArenaBowl site in the league’s history.  With the players taking the field on the first floor of the shopping mall, fans were gathered around on field level as well as on the second and third level of the shopping mall. Those higher up were able to peer down over the field while standing against the railing.

It is the first championship for the Billings franchise since its inception for the 2022 Champions Indoor Football league season.  The Outlaws advanced to the semifinals their first two years in the Champions Indoor Football (CIF) league.  This season, the Outlaws joined the reboot of the AFL.

Billings finished the season at 9-1 with the lone loss coming to the Nashville Kats during the regular season but avenged that loss with a semifinal win against the Kats.  

The question now is will the AFL be back next season?  The league started with 16 teams in April and ended with half of the original teams.  The league had to shuffle schedules and eventually tweaking their postseason plans to accommodate a deal with CBS Sports to televise the playoff games.  Most expect that some of the league's strongest teams (Albany, Billings, Nashville, Salina and Orlando) could jump to other established leagues.  Adding these teams might make a league like the Indoor Football League (IFL) more appealing.








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