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Joey Galloway and the Columbus Destroyers are 60 Minutes away from an ArenaBowl Championship

Joey Galloway’s Columbus Destroyers take on the San Jose SaberCats in ArenaBowl XXI on July 29, 3:00PM ET on ABC
By Gregg Hayim

Joey Galloway knows a thing or two about defying the odds. Listed generously at 5’11 197 LB’s, Galloway doesn’t exactly fit the mold of today’s larger NFL receivers. However, lack of physical prowess has never hindered the 13 year veteran’s effectiveness. And his resiliency is making a mark on a new team, not a team he plays for, but a team he owns. That’s right, Galloway is the co-owner of an Arena Football League team, the Columbus Destroyers, who will play in ArenaBowl XXI against the San Jose SaberCats in New Orleans on Sunday, July 29 at 3 pm ET on ABC.

Five times Galloway has registered 1,000-yard receiving seasons and on three occasions he has been named to the Pro-Bowl team as an alternate. The interesting thing about those 1,000-yard seasons is not so much how they were accomplished, but rather when they were accomplished. The first three were achieved during his first four seasons in the league. The last two came during the 2005 and 2006 seasons. A six year gap wedged in between.

Galloway tore the ACL in his left knee during a week one match-up while playing for the Dallas Cowboys in 2000. The injury required season ending surgery. To a player so reliant on speed, it very easily could have been career ending. Fortunately, it was not. Galloway rehabbed the knee and was back on the field for the start of the 2001 season. However, the explosiveness that defined his game during his tenure in Seattle just wasn’t there. Galloway spent three more seasons in Dallas, never eclipsing the 1,000-yard mark and never quite looking like the game-breaking deep threat both Ohio State Buckeye and Seattle Seahawks fans came to know and love.

Acquired from Dallas by Tampa Bay in exchange for the disgruntled Keyshawn Johnson in 2004, Galloway has since resurrected his career. At the age of 36, Galloway has posted consecutive 1,000-yard seasons for the first time since the late 90’s and has once again emerged as a premier big-play threat.

But the field isn’t the only place where Galloway has been active. In 2003, he purchased a minority stake in the Arena Football League’s Columbus Destroyers; a team that on July 29th will take the field in New Orleans to play for the right to call themselves ArenaBowl Champions. If the past month is any indicator, Galloway must have infused a little bit of his own resiliency into his team.

It’s been an up and down season for the Columbus Destroyers. A turbulent ride that seems to have found a patch of clear air at just the right time--playoff time. The Destroyers certainly didn’t do themselves any favors during their midseason five-loss skid. Concluding the regular season with a record of 7-9 was good enough to squeak them into the playoffs, but it also ensured that they would have to go on the road throughout -- a journey that included trips to both Dallas and Georgia, two teams with a collective record of 29-3.

Three straight road victories later, the Destroyers are still playing the role of Cinderella. "It's never easy; we've been just run through three big-time cities and three great football teams,” quarterback Matt Nagy told the Columbus Dispatch. In the past three weeks the Destroyers, as a whole, have demonstrated the type of moxi that seemed to elude them all season long. A conspicuous display of outright self-assurance has put the Arena Football world on notice; the word “fluke” is not to be used to describe their efforts.

On Saturday night, they looked as though they had built sturdy leads on two separate occasions. They went up 21-7 early and then widened the gap to 42-21 later on. In both instances they saw the lead dissipate. In fact, Georgia grabbed a 49-48 advantage and seemed to have seized all momentum. How did the Destroyers respond? By closing out the game by outscoring the Force 18-7. Not a bad retort indeed.

If the Columbus Destroyers do in fact complete this improbably journey by capturing the first ArenaBowl Championship in franchise history, they will look back and credit their new found resiliency as the catalyst. A team- and an owner- who at times were knocked down, but refused to stay there.

KICKOFF FOR ARENABOWL XXI IS SCHEDULED FOR 3:00 ON JULY 29. THE GAME WILL BE BROADCASTED ON ABC.