AFL on TNN
The AFL on TNN was a TV program from TNN Sports that showed Arena Football League games on The National Network (now Spike) from the 2000 season through 2003.
Background
The year 2000 brought a heightened interest in the AFL. Then-St. Louis Rams quarterback Kurt Warner, who was MVP of Super Bowl XXXIV, was first noticed because he played quarterback for the AFL's Iowa Barnstormers. While many sports commentators and fans continued to ridicule the league, Warner's story gave the league positive exposure, and it brought the league a new television deal with TNN, who, unlike ESPN (which aired tape-delayed games, often well after midnight), would televise regular season games live on Sunday afternoons. While it was not financially lucrative, it helped set the stage for what the league would become in the new millennium.
TNN's football coverage in general ended when the XFL folded after just one season in 2001 and Arena Football League games moved to NBC beginning with the 2003 season. The loss of Arena football, the XFL, and motorsports coverage, as well as the network being rebranded to Spike TV, resulted in the end of TNN Sports in 2003.
ArenaCup coverage
The year 2000 also brought a spin-off league, the af2, intended to be a developmental league, comparable to the National Football League's NFL Europe. For the 2000 and 2001 ArenaCups, the game was televised nationally by TNN, who carried AFL games at the time. However, when the AFL announced their televised games would be shown on NBC rather than TNN, the ArenaCup telecast was lost. The 2002 ArenaCup was televised by the Vision Network, and the 2003 game was televised by KWHB, a local station in Tulsa, Oklahoma. After having no television coverage in 2004, the game was telecast nationally by Fox Sports Net in 2005 and Comcast Sports Net in 2006.
Commentators
- Jill Arrington – Arrington was the host of the Arena Football League's pregame show on TNN as well as the sideline reporter for arena football games for 3 seasons.
- Ed Cunningham – After his football career, he became a football analyst for TNN (now known as Spike) calling games for the Arena Football League with Eli Gold as his broadcast partner.
- Eli Gold
- John Jurkovic – Former NFL player who called af2's Arena Cup 2001 with Eli Gold on The New TNN.
- Mark May – Former NFL player who called AFL games replacing Ed Cunningham as well as af2's Arena Cup 2000 with Eli Gold on TNN Sports. (Now with ESPN.)