Indoor Football Weekly #21: What a 'Creaming Shame.

Well this week has been . . . I can't say entertaining as much as I feel it's sad and disgraceful at what's happened. Usually there is something hilarious in these moments and that we can get some humor out of. This really isn't one of those times, peoples lives and businesses have been effected without the care of ownership. Now this is a story of course you've heard a thousand times over and over but this move could play the death in an entire league. Is this the death bell for indoor football? I hope not, I hope the Grim Reaper continues to stay away.

Credit: Indoor Football League

The IFL's Week 10 was extremely eventful, not only did a good amount of upsets occur but as well major news broke about Project Fanchise and it's two clubs (the Colorado Crush and Salt Lake Screaming Eagles). Normally at IFW we would recap the games then bring you the news. Due to the amount of news that broke and when it happened we're going to start out with Thursday. On Thursday April 20th the Wall Street Journal broke a story about Project Fanchise. In that story it was stated that the ownership group, Project Fanchise, had informed the Indoor Football League earlier in the week that they planned to start their own league in 2018. That league would be called the Interactive Football League and feature 8 teams playing out of just a single venue and be streamed exclusively on Twitch, which the Screaming Eagles are already using instead of YouTube as all 9 other IFL teams do. That article was later updated to state that Project Fanchise had reached a deal with the IFL to finish the 2017 season for the Screaming Eagles. That still left in question the other team they own, the Colorado Crush and whether or not they would finish the season let alone play next year. The next night on Friday the Crush would host Wichita Falls and in a THRILLING game worthy of Game of the Year (across all leagues) the Crush would beat the Nighthawks 77-73 in a game that came down to the final play. On Saturday morning more news broke about the Screaming Eagles and Crush in which it was said that originally Project Fanchise wanted to fold both the Screaming Eagles and Crush immediately, this would have been the first time since 2010 when the Alaska Wild only played 10 games in the 14 game season, that a team wouldn't have completed a full season in the IFL. Along with the news of Project Fanchise attempting to fold both teams to save money, it was also reported that players and coaches in Colorado have not been paid in a month (players have since been paid including back pay that was owed), and that both the arena and hotel have not been paid at all. The IFL has also fined the ownership group for moving the Salt Lake vs Colorado game to Twitch and breaking the contract the IFL has with YouTube. With these reports out a reporter for a Salt Lake area sports talk station retweeted a link of the news being broken, which both the Screaming Eagles and Project Fanchise twitter accounts blasted him for which you can see here. After Fiasco Friday, Saturday saw four more games being played kicking off with a rematch between Sioux Falls and Green Bay. The Blizzard kicked out to an early 17-0 lead but the Storm came back to edge out the Blizzard 56-49. Next up was the 2017 Iowa Bowl as the Cedar Rapids Titans hosted the Iowa Barnstormers. The Barnstormers had the lead the entire game but in the fourth quarter they tried their hardest to give the Titans the win, but Iowa came out on top 31-25 in a very undeserved win. Last up for the 7:05 starts was the Nebraska Danger hosting the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles. The Danger would control the game the entire night and would win 49-30. Wrapping up the night was the IFL Game of the Week between the Arizona Rattlers and Spokane Empire. This is the first of 3 meetings between the clubs and the first since 2015 in the AFL. The Rattlers would fight hard all night but a late field goal by the Empire gave them a 9 point lead and put the game out of reach for Arizona, The Empire would win 60-51 and stay in the top spot in the Intense Conference.
The new week started off again breaking some news, and again bad news coming from the Project Fanchise camp. Late on Sunday night the news broke that Colorado Crush head coach Jose Jefferson had been fired as head coach due to "cost cutting measures" and as of posting of this article a new head coach has not yet been named. This marks the second time this year that Project Fanchise has fired a head coach immediately after winning a game. A request for comment by the Colorado Crush, Salt Lake Screaming Eagles, and  or the ownership group Project Fanchise has not been responded too. All the news brings us to the IFL Week 11 kicking off on Friday night when the Nebraska Danger (5-4) host the Cedar Rapids Titans (1-8) at 7:05 PM CT. Saturday night features three games kicking off with the Iowa Barnstormers (6-2) hosting the Colorado Crush (2-6) at 7:05 PM CT, with the recent developments out of Loveland we'll let you know if anything changes with the game. Also at 7:05 PM CT sees the Wichita Falls Nighthawks (7-2) hosting the Sioux Falls Storm (8-0). Wrapping up the games on Saturday is the Arizona Rattlers (4-4) hosting the Green Bay Blizzard (2-7) in the first ever meeting between the teams. Wrapping up the weekend is a Sunday showdown when the Spokane Empire (6-2) host the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles (1-7) at 5 PM CT.

Credit: Champions Indoor Football

Champions Indoor Football had a much less eventful week, and that was for the good. Week 9 kicked off with just a single game on Thursday night, the CIF Game of the Week which saw the Bismarck Bucks knock off the visiting Omaha Beef 59-41. Four games were on the slate for Saturday all at 7PM CT as well. In the one of the most surprising games the West Michigan Ironmen crushed the unbeaten Sioux City Bandits 76-35. Another shocker of a game saw the Battle of DFW won for the first time ever by the Dallas Marshals, as the Marshals took down the Revolution 73-58 in Mesquite. Another shootout, but still blowout occurred on the Texas Panhandle as the Amarillo Venom cruised to a 94-63 win over the CenTex Cavalry. Capping off the week was another Northern Division clash as the Kansas City Phantoms traveled to Bloomington, IL to take on the Edge. The Edge would take a fairly low scoring victory over the Phantoms with the score 38-13.
As we enter Week 10, we come into the back third of the CIF schedule this week and it features just four games on tap. With just two games on Saturday the Omaha Beef (3-3) head to Salina, KS to take on the Liberty (0-7) at 6:35 PM CT. At 7:05 PM CT a rematch from last week happens as the Sioux City Bandits (6-1) host the West Michigan Ironmen (3-4), the Bandits will sure need to respond well after the thrashing they took last week. Sunday night features two games starting at 2:05 PM CT when the Kansas City Phantoms (1-6) host the Dodge City Law (6-1). Wrapping up the weekend is a 7:05 PM CT Lone Star State showdown when the Texas Revolution (4-2) host and get a rematch against the team that took away a perfect season, the Amarillo Venom (6-0). All games are viewable LIVE on Eversport.

Credit: National Arena League

The National Arena League, the newest and smallest of the leagues has been fairly quite with only 3 games over the past two weeks. Week 6 of the NAL had two of those three games and it started on Saturday night at 6 PM CT as the Columbus Lions hosted the High Country Grizzlies. The Lions would come out with a win at home in "The Jungle" 57-44 over the Grizzlies. On Monday night the Monterrey Steel hosted the Jacksonville Sharks in the NAL Game of the Week. The Sharks would be the kings of the unbeaten with a 60-21 win over the Steel.
The NAL was also back in the news this week in an article by the Trentonian about  the Jersey Flight, an expansion team in the NAL announced to start playing in 2018. A key statement in that article comes early on when interviewing co-owner Kyna Felder-Ruiz as she stated “It was announced a year earlier solely for marketing efforts and giving us time to build our fanbase, to connect with the community, to raise the dollars that we’re going to need to successfully run a whole season. I think that the other teams before us didn’t work out mainly because of poor management.” The key part of that sentence is "to raise the dollars that we’re going to need to successfully run a whole season." That's right it's just as bad as it sounds the National Arena League, which has not even completed it's first season, has admitted a team whose ownership group doesn't have money to play a full season. There is a great quote I read about his "If you don't already have money for three seasons, then you won't last more than one." I can't think of anything more true in this sport. Again I will clearly state I do not want to see the NAL or the sport fail out east but this is absolutely not how to do this.
The NAL's Week 7 sees three games being played this week. Both games are being played at 6 PM CT. The first games has the Jacksonville Sharks (5-0) hosting the Columbus Lions (3-2) from "The Shark Tank". Up north the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks (4-1) host the Corpus Christi Rage (0-4). And the final game this week is from Albany, GA as the Georgia Firebirds (1-4) take on the Wolfpack (0-3).

After a decent set last weekend with the Game of the Week this week looks to be of about the same caliber. This week the NAL Game of the Week kicks things off as the Jacksonville Sharks (5-0) host the Columbus Lions (3-2) at 6 PM CT from the Jacksonville Veterans Memorial Arena. This will be the second meeting between these clubs, during the first in Week 1 the Sharks beat the Lions 56-41 in Columbus. Next up is the IFL Game of the Week as the Sioux Falls Storm (8-0) travel to Wichita Falls to take on the Nighthawks (7-2) from the Kay Yeager Coliseum. The teams have met one other time this season and the Storm took that game 55-21 at home in Sioux Falls. Wrapping up the weekend is the CIF Game of the Week on Sunday at 7:05 PM CT when the Texas Revolution host the Amarillo Venom from the Allen Event Center. Amarillo and Texas met just two weeks ago when the Venom beat the Revolution 70-63 in Allen. As always the IFL and NAL games can be seen on YouTube while the CIF can be seen on Eversport.