The team was led by head coach Chan Gailey in his second year, and played their home games at Legion Field in Birmingham, Alabama.
They then rebounded and went unbeaten over their next four games with wins over San Antonio, Frankfurt and Sacramento in addition to the first tie in league history against London at Wembley Stadium.
Birmingham then lost in their rematch at San Antonio before they completed the regular season with four consecutive victories over Barcelona, Montreal, Orlando and Ohio to clinch the final playoff spot.
[4] The players allocated to the Fire included: quarterbacks Shawn Moore from the Denver Broncos, and Greg Jones from the Detroit Lions; running backs Steve Avery from the Green Bay Packers and Brian Lattimore from the Indianapolis Colts; guard Joe Valerio from the Kansas City Chiefs and linebacker Kyle Freeman from the Los Angeles Raiders.
[8][9] After Birmingham opened the scoring with a 50-yard Philip Doyle field goal in the first quarter, Sacramento answered with a pair of second-quarter touchdowns to take a 13–3 halftime lead.
[9] The Surge extended their lead further to 20–3 early in the third on a 10-yard Archer pass to Carl Parker before Doyle scored the final points of the game with his 46-yard field goal later in the quarter.
[10][11] In the quarter, Eugene Rowell scored on a seven-yard touchdown run, a 47-yard Philip Doyle field goal and on a 32-yard Arthur Hunter interception return.
The first came when Alexander missed a 39-yard field goal wide right with only 0:12 remaining, and the second when Howard Feggins intercepted a Norseth pass and returned it to the Fire three-yard where he was tackled as time expired.
[17] Birmingham then closed the game with a pair of touchdowns first on a 56-yard Norseth pass to Eddie Britton and a one-yard Jim Bell run for the 28–14 win.
Wayne Walker scored first on a 23-yard Mike Johnson touchdown pass, a 37-yard Jim Gallery field goal and on 22-yard Chris Oldham interception return.
[19] After a 20-yard Doyle field goal in the third, the Fire extended their lead to 19–7 in the fourth after Mike Norseth threw a 54-yard touchdown pass to Steve Avery.
[19] Although unable to take the lead, the Dragons then scored the final ten points of the game on a three-yard Tony Rice touchdown run and on a 38-yard Teddy Garcia field goal.
With just under ten seconds remaining in overtime, Jim Bell scored on a one-yard touchdown run to give the Fire a 23–16 win over the Montreal Machine at Legion Field.
[20][21] After field goals were scored for the Machine by Björn Nittmo from 43-yards and for the Fire by Philip Doyle from 36-yards in the first quarter, a 16-yard Mike Norseth touchdown run in the second gave Birmingham a 10–3 halftime lead.
[20][21] Field goals of 21 and 23-yards by Doyle extended the Fire lead to 16–3 early in the fourth before the Machine tied the game with a pair of late touchdowns.
[22] Birmingham took a 7–3 lead at the end of the first quarter after Tracy Bennett connected on a 42-yard field goal for the Thunder and Elroy Harris scored on a seven-yard touchdown run.
[23] The Fire then shutout the Glory in the second half and scored on a two-yard Bell touchdown run in the third and on a 30-yard Philip Doyle field goal in the fourth to win 27–24.