CLEVELAND — Who would have thought a piece of advice in a song written for his band’s 2000 Crush CD might come back to haunt Jon Bon Jovi a little more than eight years after its release?
Bon Jovi’s hit “It’s My Life” talks about people who rise up in the face of opposition to live life how they want. At the end of the second verse, Bon Jovi warns: “Tomorrow’s getting harder, make no mistake, luck ain’t even lucky, got to make your own breaks.”
Today’s 1 p.m. Cleveland Gladiators vs. Philadelphia Soul battle for the Arena Football League National Conference championship is likely to come down to just that — breaks.
So will it be the Gladiators (11-7) or the Soul (14-3), a team Bon Jovi co-owns, that will make the most of those breaks this afternoon at Wachovia Center in Philly?
“Both teams match up pretty well against each other,” Bernie Kosar, the former Browns quarterback who serves as President, Chief Executive Officer and part-owner of the Gladiators, said in a teleconference this week. “Both teams from the top down really strive to win.
“You get to this by what you can do on the field. You get here by what type of effort and what type of work you put into the week preparing for that game. You don’t get to this level by gimmicking a speech. It’s won or lost by what happens on the field. At this stage of the game, the players know what’s at stake.”
With the pressure of another playoff game mounting, the Gladiators were as loose as a first-year team could be at practice — smiling, laughing and enjoying another week in the postseason.
The Gladiators should be loose and relaxed based on the way they played the Soul in two meetings this season. The Gladiators handed Philadelphia its first loss of the season in Week 10, scoring 20 points in the fourth quarter for a 67-55 win.
Cleveland quarterback Raymond Philyaw threw for 290 yards and five touchdowns — four to receiver Otis Amey – and had just one interception. Philadelphia needed a committee of quarterbacks in Tony Graziani and Elyria-born Matt D’Orazio to complete the game. They combined to go 31-of-44 for 287 yards and six touchdowns.
In the rematch at Philadelphia, the Soul needed a late score and an interception of a Philyaw two-point conversion pass to seal a 62-61 victory.
“The last time they beat us, they got away with a win,” Cleveland fullback/linebacker Joshua Rue said. “That’s how we feel. We felt that we should have had that win down there. (This is) redemption and (we need to) come out focused and ready to play ball.”
The Gladiators have to find a way to slow down a Philadelphia offense averaging 61.24 points per game. D’Orazio and Graziani have 102 touchdowns and eight interceptions between them. D’Orazio is the only quarterback in the AFL with a passer rating (131.3) higher than Philyaw.
“Philadelphia’s a good offense,” Gladiators coach Mike Wilpolt said. “They’ve got probably one of the top two receivers. We’ve got Otis Amey, they’ve got Chris Jackson. We need to get more pressure on the quarterback. This offense is a little different than Georgia. Georgia was three-step, get the ball out. They let plays develop a little longer than Georgia does.”
Jackson was named the 2008 AFL Offensive Player of the Year earlier this week. He has 49 touchdowns and 1,719 yards receiving on the year.
The winner of the Soul-Gladiators matchup will travel to New Orleans for ArenaBowl XXII. Awaiting the National Conference champions will be either the Grand Rapids Rampage or the defending Arena Bowl champions, the San Jose SaberCats.
“It’s about having the opportunity to get to the big dance, but you don’t want to look past Philly,” Philyaw said. “It’s all about how far do we want to go. Do we want our dreams to end this weekend or do we want have an opportunity to finish a full season? When you report to camp, (you want) to be around to get to the ArenaBowl. We have the opportunity, but we’ve got to handle Philly first.”
Contact Matt Florjancic at 329-7135 or ctsports@chroniclet.com.

TODAY

WHO: Cleveland at Philadelphia
WHAT: Arena Football League National Conference final
TIME: 1 p.m.
WHERE: Wachovia Center
TV/RADIO: ESPN; WKNR 850-AM

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