Pride Bowl II recap
Pride Bowl II was held in Chicago June 26-27. The second annual event saw 17 teams from across the country descend on the Windy City. While the death of Jorge Lopez of the Michigan Panthers loomed over the event from Friday morning, some good football was played and good times had in his memory and honor.
In the finals, it was the Phoenix Hellraisers beating BET (featuring players from several cities including Chicago and Los Angeles), 14-12, for the championship. Phoenix quarterback Joey Jacinto was named the tournament MVP. Phoenix and Jacinto had turned a lot of heads at Gay Bowl VIII last October when they were the most-improved team in the tournament and had a great run.
The Washington Metros topped the heart-broken Michigan Panthers, 35-30, in the B-Division finals.
Special thanks to the Chicago Metropolitan Sports Association for putting on the tournament! It’s never easy organizing these events and we salute them for it!
