The 2007 Tampa Bay Storm season was the 21st season for the team in the Arena Football League and 17th in Tampa. They tried to improve upon their 7–9 record from 2006 in the Southern Division, and looking to get back to the playoffs for the first time since 2005. The apparent cause of their turnaround from an 0–5 start was the replacement of John Kaleo at quarterback with Brett Dietz. Whereas they were a combined 1–6 under Kaleo and the injured Stoney Case, they were 8–1 under Dietz. On June 13, two weeks after being placed on "left squad", T.T. Toliver was released by the Storm and subsequently signed with the Orlando Predators. On June 23, they clinched the #3 seed in the National Conference, and hosted a home playoff game vs. the #6 seed in the National Conference, the Columbus Destroyers, which they lost 56-55.
Coaching
Tim Marcum, head coach since 1995, entered his 13th year as Storm head coach.
The Storm opened their season with a lousy performance March 2 against their rivals the Orlando Predators. Kicker Bill Gramatica missed four extra point attempts while Predators player DeAndrew Rubin scored on two long plays to give Orlando a 14–0 lead that would hold up for the entire game as they won going away 52–27.
In their opening road game, they again lost soundly. Despite being tied as late as the third quarter, Will Pettis, on two long plays (56 and 23 yards, respectively) gave Dallas a lead they would not lose. They went on to dominate the fourth quarter as well to win 59–40 and pick up their second victory while Tampa Bay went home to play Georgia still looking for their second victory.
Still looking for their first win in week 3 vs. divisional rival the Georgia Force, the Storm would keep a close game well into the 2nd half of the game. Both Dan Burnett and Seth Marler missed on two extra point attempts. For the Force, however, they would prevail on the strength of a 21-point fourth quarter to finish the Storm and win 61–47, which left the Storm again without their first victory.
Tampa Bay finally looked like they would pick up their first victory of the season as they seemingly always answered New York's touchdowns into the early part of the 4th quarter. But, despite a 52–38 lead, they lost 59–52 when they allowed a touchdown with 31 seconds left to give New York their first lead and only lead of the game. This left the Storm still looking for their first win of 2007.
Heading out west, still winless, the Storm took on the 1–2 San Jose SaberCats. And again, the Storm would come up on the losing end as they lost soundly 69–49 to San Jose. San Jose scored two touchdowns in the first 2:36 of the game which gave them a quick 14–0 lead that they would not relinquish, as the Storm headed home 0–5 and their playoff hopes seemingly dashed. In this game, Stoney Case replaced John Kaleo as starting quarterback.
Heading home, the Storm finally won their first game of the season in convincing fashion, with a 66–43 drumming of the New Orleans VooDoo, playing their first game vs. New Orleans since 2005 due to Hurricane Katrina. Unfortunately for Tampa Bay, Stoney Case, who replaced John Kaleo as quarterback, was injured for the rest of the season, which left Kaleo as starting QB again.
The Storm entered the playoffs for the first time since 2005, and coming off an 8–1 stretch that earned them a home-field berth, they faced the team that they won their first game in the stretch against, the Columbus Destroyers. In a game that was back-and-forth scoring, the key play was a missed extra point by Storm kicker Seth Marler with 1:06 left in the game. Following a delay-of-game penalty, Marler missed an extra point attempt that, had he made it, would have given the Storm a 56–49 lead. After Columbus got the ball on the ensuing kickoff, they drove down to the Storm 1-yard line with 10 seconds left. Columbus QB Matt Nagy called his own number and sneaked into the Storm endzone with 7.9 left in the game, and, after the extra point attempt, the Destroyers had a 56–55 lead and looked to pull off the upset. With 3 seconds left and at their own 10-yard line, Marler tried to make amends by attempting a field goal that, if good, would give the Storm a 58–56 win and a game against division rival Georgia. Marler's kick looked good to begin with, but curved off to the left and missed, giving Columbus the upset win and abruptly ending the Storm's season.
For scoring summaries, weeks 1–6 are from arenafootball.com, and weeks 7–17 and playoffs are from espn.com. All awards and game-comparison statistics are from arenafan.com
