PHILADELPHIA. Ron Jaworski sounds excited enough when talking about the return of the Philadelphia Soul arena football team next year that you’d think he might be willing to go back under center if the team needed a quarterback.
“I’m pumped, really pumped to get started again,” the former Eagles quarterback and current ESPN analyst said yesterday of the team he has co-owned since its inception in 2004 with rock star Jon Bon Jovi. “We’re going to get it going for the 2011 season. We wanted to do it right and didn’t think that was possible in the next six weeks before this season starts.”
On a down note, the league’s shutdown last year after the Soul won the league championship in 2008 cost the Soul arguably its main attraction — Bon Jovi.
“Jon is basically in band mode right now, on a worldwide tour with like 200 concerts in a two year period,” Jaworski said. “We’ve communicated over last two years and the timing of it all just didn’t work.”
But Bon Jovi’s charitable work through his Philadelphia-based non-profit formerly known as the Philadelphia Soul Foundation isn’t going anywhere, according to its executive director Mimi Box.
The charity, known for its donations and grants to affordable housing groups and work with Project HOME, also changed its name in the time since the arena football league went on hiatus to the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation.
