Minnesota Monsters Entertaining for Fans Despite Loss
I won’t be spending much time covering events off the Range. There are plenty of really fantastic stories to tell right here at home for Full Range Media (hence the name), but once in a while, I like to highlight some of the exciting entertainment options we can enjoy a short car ride away. Monday night’s Minnesota Monsters AF1 game was one of those times. The Monsters are part of the AF1 league, a division of arena football, and they play at Amsoil Arena in Duluth. Watching football in a hockey rink is a different experience for sure!
The Monsters season also happens to run from the late spring into the summer, when baseball is king in the area, and football is a novelty. They play an exciting, fast-paced, high-scoring game and mix in a ton of fan interaction events, like golfing for supper and relay races, where you dress in football gear at each stop, sort of like a minor league baseball game.
Add in players making a point of signing autographs, interacting with kids on the sidelines, and a cheerleader dance squad tossing dozens of free t-shirts to the fans, and it makes for a nice change of pace.
The Monsters hosted the Michigan Arsenal Monday night and played a high-scoring, back-and-forth contest that went down to the last second. They did fall to the Arsenal 41-34, but the team looked good. Quarterback Ja’vonte Johsnon showed off a strong arm, picking up 196 yards on 43 attempts and scoring four touchdowns.
The downfield action is how arena football is unique from what you’re used to. Both on offense and defense, players routinely fly over the wall into the stands, and an overthrown pass being hauled in by a 12-year-old eating popcorn isn’t a rarity.
I’m not going to be running box scores and bog people down in a lot of the smaller stats unless people ask me to. I see it is an entertainment option that happens to be a sport, and I wanted to treat it that way.
I won’t be at their next home game on July 5th (It’s my daughter’s wedding), but I am enjoying watching them and expect to pick up at least one or two more games this season. It keeps me sharp for when I expect to be really busy with some amazing high school sports starting in September!
I have a full week of Range-centered events on the calendar coming up, and I hope you enjoy them!
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