Leathernecks in the Arena Football League

Sat Mar 28, 2015 5:35 pm

With the Arena Football League starting up this weekend, I thought I'd be good to give another rundown of what former Leathernecks are playing in the AFL.

Russ Michna was released by the San Jose Sabercats after last season and was thought to be one of the top free agents going into this season, but at this point he hasn't been picked up by anyone. I'd imagine that if anyone's starting QB gets injured, he'd be near the top of the list to be picked up.

WR Marco Thomas is currently playing for the Philadelphia Soul - http://www.arenafootball.com/sports/a-f ... rco00.html
WR Reggie Gray is still with the San Jose Sabercats - http://www.arenafootball.com/sports/a-f ... 30485.html
K Taylor Rowan handles the kicking duties for the Spokane Shock - http://www.arenafootball.com/sports/a-f ... 46286.html

Also, in the "semi-pro" indoor football leagues (which are really hard to dig through sometimes...some of those websites are pretty janky):
Eric Tapley (LB) plays for the Bloomington (IL) Edge of the X-League - http://www.bloomingtonedge.net/roster_p ... ric-tapley

Mon Aug 24, 2015 5:10 pm

"Big Play" Reggie Gray (San Jose Sabercats) won the AFL's WR of the Year award for this season: http://thesanjosesabercats.com/reggie-g ... -the-year/

Gray (5-10, 185, Western Illinois) set every major single-season receiving record in San Jose history, totaling 162 catches for 1,695 yards and a League-high 44 touchdowns in 2015. Last season’s J. Lewis Small Playmaker of the Year, Gray raised his game to a new level in his fifth AFL season, earning First Team All-Arena honors for the first time in his career. This is also his first Cutters Wide Receiver of the Year selection and the first time a San Jose SaberCat has won the award.

Mon Aug 31, 2015 10:58 am

Gray had 9 catches for 95 yards and 3 TDs in the SaberCats ArenaBowl XXVIII win over the Jacksonville Sharks by a score of 68-47.

ibleedpurpleandgold · Fri Jan 08, 2016 10:50 pm

why do i not remember eric tapley.

Sat Jun 04, 2016 9:43 am

Reggie Gray is now a member of the Jacksonville Sharks AFL team: http://www.jaxsharks.com/news/?article_id=1082

Fri Sep 16, 2016 11:14 pm

Reggie Gray is still listed on the roster for the Jacksonville Sharks, but he apparently is also (and this is a new one to me), going to be playing on a Chinese Arena League team. Apparently this is the first year for arena league football in China, and Gray will be playing for the Qingdao Clipper (Clippers?...not for sure...I think I'm losing something in translation).

If you're curious, here's the list of players that were involved in the first ever CAFL (China Arena Football League) draft:

If you read through, it looks like about half are from the US and maybe half are from China. There's a couple of names I recognized just at a quick glance through, with the most familiar being Chris Dieker, the QB for Beijing. If you don't recognize the name right away, then maybe this, this, or this might refresh your memory.

Anyway, I found out about this from Gray's twitter account (which forwards to a link on his instagram account of their new practice jerseys):
[tweet]776986887332458496[/tweet]