The name John Morris is not known by the average Richmond Raider fan, but it should be. I have never met John Morris or even seen his picture. If I passed him on the street I would not know him from any other man. But his return to the Richmond Colesium on Friday 3/11 is significant for a couple of reasons. For the uninitiated John Morris was a league guy with the AIFA which had an unusual business model. In the old AIFA league ownership would provide capital to assist in getting a new team in a new city. It helped the league by providing more competition for the league while helping local ownership by lessesing the need for initial capital. It would be the same if Roger Goodell had a financial stake in the Washington Redskins and the Dallas Cowboys at the same time, sounds like a conflict of interest right? As far as I know, John Morris was a co-owner for the entire 2010 season.
Luckily for Raider fans, the Fraizer family had the capital and common sense to buy John out last summer when the season ended. Today, the sole owners of the Richmond Raiders are Mike and Elizabeth Fraizer. This allows the Fraizer family to make business decisions without the input of other minority owners...it allows them freedom and that is a good thing.
So why is John Morris returning to the Richmond Colesium this week? Well, because John Morris is a co-owner of the Harrisburg Stampede, who the Raiders will face in the preseason home opener. This is the very same Harrisburg Stampede that beat the Raiders twice last season, including a triple overtime game in Harrisburg, PA. The only triple overtime game in the history of the AIFA.
My final verdict on the preseason opener: a former owner and a team the Raiders have never beat are coming to town. The Raiders need to win this game bad.
The Richmond Revolution played their home opener this past Saturday against the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks. While I was unable to attend due to family obligations, a friend went and he had a really good time with his family. The weather held up and attendance was estimated at around 1,800, which is better than I had projected for their first outdoor game of the season.
However not much else when well for the Revolution. They fell to the Steelhawks 41-38 on a 17 yard touchdown pass from AJ Roque to Irani DeAraugo with 1.2 seconds left to go in the fourth quarter. The problems for the Revolution seems to really rest on the offense in these first two games and Coach Tony Hawkins knows it. Tony stopped short of using the word 'bad' to describe the week one offense on an AM 910 radio interview Saturday morning. If the offense doesn't do something different and soon, the Revolution will be in hole too deep to dig out of and will miss the playoffs.
Go Raiders! The revolution aren't having a good year so far
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