Like so many dynasties before it, the fall of the Albany Empire began with a slide into the DMs.

On February 21, the Arena Football League’s official account posted classic 1990s highlights of Albany Firebirds legend Eddie Brown snaring pass after touchdown pass. It’s a classic of early-’90s football: huge shoulder pads, concussive hits, over-the-shoulder catches. The compilation caught the eye of one @AB84: Brown’s son, a receiving specialist himself by the name of Antonio.

“My daddy was a legend,” Brown wrote in a quote-tweet of the video. “Imagine what that's [sic] makes me.” There are a number of ways to answer that: Super Bowl champion, NFL All-Decade wide receiver, accused lawbreaker, persistent troublemaker, author of the most dramatic take-this-job-and-shove-it in recent NFL history.

But Brown also had deep ties to the Albany area, and that’s what intrigued Mike Kwarta, the owner of the Albany Empire, a two-time reigning champion in the National Arena League. Kwarta, the owner of an Albany-area disaster restoration company, saw Brown’s tweet, and two days later, @thealbanyempir replied, “Hey @AB84 wanna make history?”, with an accompanying trophy emoji.