Dear Albany Empire,

Congratulations on your first ArenaBowl appearance! It’s been 20 years since our humble city hosted its first and only ArenaBowl and now, in your second season, your have advanced to the first championship in team history. Now that you’ve gotten here, allow me to tell you how I got here.

My dad brought my brothers and I to our first Arena Football game on July 6, 1990 at the then-named Knickerbocker Arena. I was 12 years old and I was overjoyed that my hometown had a professional football team: the Albany Firebirds.

Although it was a valiant effort, the Firebirds lost the game 51-20 to the dominant team of the era, the Detroit Drive. But the sport gained a fan for life. Three weeks later, I went to the home finale against Denver thanks to free tickets from a local television station drawing.

My love for the Firebirds continued the next season and now we could watch away games on local television via satellite from PRIME Sports Network. The Firebirds and their Orange and Black Zubaz uniforms (so hot – bring ‘em back!) finished 6-4 and had a rising star emerging in Fred Gayles. The Firebirds went to their first playoff game against Detroit.

It was then I experienced my first Arena Football heartbreak.

Our Firebirds lost out on an ArenaBowl appearance when Gary Gussman missed a 16-yard field goal with less than a minute remaining in the game and lost 37-35.

Additional heartbreak would follow through the years: first round knockouts the next two seasons, an upset at the hands of Arizona in 1994, Stevie Freakin’ Thomas in 1995, Kurt Freakin’ Warner in 1996, missing the playoffs entirely in 1997, and a first round upset to a team named after a BEER in 1998.

Would the heartache ever end for our Firebirds?

Then came 1999. Fans could sense that it was their year to capture the first ArenaBowl championship in franchise history. The team finished with an 11-3 record as QB Mike Pawlawski threw 79 touchdowns (45 to OS “Touchdown” Eddie Brown) and the Firebirds earned the 3 seed in the upcoming playoffs.

Two playoff wins and the Firebirds were on their way to the ArenaBowl to host defending ArenaBowl champion Orlando Predators, who barely made the playoffs, but clawed their way back to the championship as the 8 seed.

I remember much from that RAINY Saturday afternoon on August 21, 1999. It was the day after my 22^nd birthday and I blasted Van Halen’s “Right Now,” the official team song of the Firebirds, out the speakers of my Pathfinder as I drove down to the Pepsi Arena (now the Times Union Center). Brown had the game of his life with 203 total yards and four touchdowns in what was a tight game throughout. The Firebirds were up by only four with 26 seconds left, but Pawlawski’s seventh touchdown pass, this one to FB/LB Jon Krick, with 10 seconds remaining put the game on ice.

The Firebirds were finally ArenaBowl champions! Fans spilled out onto the field as Daley, Pawlawski, Brown, GM Joe Hennessey, team owner Glen Mazula, and the rest of the team hoisted the Foster Trophy aloft and celebrated the crowning achievement of the franchise.

There was no social media, smartphones, or digital cameras to capture this moment, but the organic jubilation could be felt throughout the Capital District.

Our Firebirds were eliminated in the playoff quarterfinals in 2000 and then came the ultimate dagger: the team was relocated to Indianapolis as our market could not compete with the league expanding to larger markets (thanks a lot, NFL). Arena Football came back to Albany in 2002 with af2, but the Conquest/Firebirds 2 couldn’t capture the same magic that the original Firebirds did.

And that’s where you come in.

The league came back in 2018 and we welcomed it and you with open arms. The inaugural season may have been a success at the box office, but you considered it to be a failure after losing in the playoffs to Washington. And rightly so: the playoff loss only added to some of the lore of heartbreak that us fans in Albany had been accustomed to in years past.

The 2019 season has been reminiscent of the 1994 Firebirds team that, like you, went 10-2 and, like you, averaged nearly the same amount of points per game, give or take a few points. But your team has a unique blend of hungry rookies who want to level up and veterans who have been in the league for a LONG time that have not won an ArenaBowl. Unlike the 1994 team, though, you are on the cusp on completing the mission of winning the title.

Now, 7,295 days after the Firebirds won their only ArenaBowl championship, you have the opportunity to conclude the Unfinished Business you set out to finish this season. The only team in your way now is the big brother of the league and chief rival Philadelphia. You own the lifetime series against them and you have the chance to beat them on national television for the ‘ship.

Best wishes and good luck this Sunday. The Mighty 518 will be right behind you.

Ryan McCarthy has been an on-and-off Internet columnist and blogger since 1997. He has been an avid follower of Arena Football since 1990 when the Albany Firebirds were established. Ryan currently attends Regent University, where he is pursuing his Bachelors degree in Communications with a Journalism concentration. He anticipates graduating toward the end of 2019. You can follow Ryan on Twitter at @rwhoisryanmcc