ArenaBowl XVII was played on June 22, 2003 at the
St. Pete Times Forum (formerly the
Ice Palace) in
Tampa, Florida before a sellout crowd of 20,496. The
Tampa Bay Storm earned their
AFL record fifth
ArenaBowl title, by defeating the
Arizona Rattlers, 43-29. The win was just months after the NFL's
Tampa Bay Buccaneers won
Super Bowl XXXVII, making Tampa Bay the first metropolitan area to simutaneously hold both NFL and AFL championships.
Game summary
Hall of Fame coach
Tim Marcum earned his seventh
ArenaBowl title as his
Tampa Bay Storm took a first quarter lead and never relinquished it, defeating fellow Hall of Fame coach
Danny White's
Arizona Rattlers by 14.
The teams traded scores in the first quarter, but early in the second
Tampa Bay lineman
Kelvin Kinney scooped up a
Sherdrick Bonner fumble - one of four lost
Rattler fumbles on the day - and ran 26 yards for a rather controversial touchdown. Though it appeared
Kinney had thrown the ball in the air in celebration before crossing the goal line, the touchdown stood, and the
Storm took a 20-10 lead. Though
Arizona answered with a
Bo Kelly touchdown run to close within 20-16, the
Storm used two second-half touchdown passes from veteran backup quarterback
Pat O'Hara to
Lawrence Samuels to keep the
Rattlers at bay. The 34-year-old
O'Hara, who defeated the
Storm in
ArenaBowl XII as the quarterback for the
Orlando Predators, had thrown only 14 passes all year but was pressed into action when starter
John Kaleo was...
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