Ron Jaworski talks Philadelphia Soul, AFL television deal

During his state of the franchise address, Soul co-majority owner Ron Jaworski gave glowing reviews of the AFL's new national television deal with CBS Sports Network, which will feature the Soul in the first game of the season against the Arizona Rattlers Saturday.

But Jaworski also said that the AFL is in the negotiating stages of striking more television deals – namely with FOX and NBC – and possibly broadcasting more games next season or during the second half of this season.

Jaworski said that networks are looking for as much live football as possible and the AFL seems to be more than willing to give it to them.

"We have seen the Saturday night package on college football now become tremendously popular when it wasn't a popular night for sports," Jaworski said. "The networks are now looking for live football."

On the local television front, Jaws also announced that Comcast will carry Soul games locally. According to general manager Tom Goodhines, 11 of the Soul's games will be televised between Comcast and CBS Sports Network. A local radio deal is still in the works as well, but nothing has been made official quite yet.

The news doesn't stop there, however.

Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie said Monday that he would push for a Super Bowl in Philadelphia if the New York/New Jersey experiment works out next season.

It turns out Philadelphia could have an ArenaBowl coming its way as well.

Jaworski said Tuesday that the ownership group has talked "many times" about the possibility of placing a bid for the AFL championship game.

This year's ArenaBowl was awarded to the city of Orlando, home of the Orlando Predators.

"This is a football town," Jaworski said of Philadelphia. "People love football in this town and I think if we can get an ArenaBowl here it would be good for the Arena Football League, but yes we have discussed that."