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.

Indoor Football Weekly #16

Credit: Our Sports Central

We're through five weeks of indoor football now and coming up on week six. This week we have the most games played so far this year. 15 games, 5 in the IFL, 4 in the NAL, and 6 in the CIF, make up this weeks games.

Last week we saw what 2004 offered us, this week our trip through the history brings us into 2005. With 2005 saw the most leagues playing up to this point with four. Both the APFL and NIFL would return from 2004 while the Intense Football League would take 2005 off as it would be on a one year hiatus. Two new leagues we're also formed, United Indoor Football a league based mostly in the Midwest, along with the Atlantic Indoor Football League, a league based in the Eastern US formed by five expansion teams and one former NIFL club (Johnstown formerly Greeneville in the NIFL) for it's inaugural six teams.
The APFL who had four clubs in 2004 lost the Texas Thunder, who only lasted one season, but did add the Kansas Storm, Nebraska Bears, and Wichita Aviators too compete with six teams in 2005. The NIFL had 26 teams in 2004 lost 10 clubs (mostly to the new UIF and one to the new AIFL) to new leagues, 7 teams (Atlantic City, Colorado, Houma, Lake Charles, Tri-City, Utah, and Wichita Falls) that folded. That meant that only 9 teams returned to the league for the 2005 season, 13 new teams were added to give a total of 24 teams for 2005. The newly formed Atlantic Indoor Football League had six teams, with 5 expansion teams and from the NIFL the RiverHawks who moved from Greenville, SC to Johnstown, PA. In United Indoor Football it was made up EXCLUSIVELY of existing franchises. 9 of the 11 moved from the NIFL while Peoria (formerly the Pirates now the Rough Riders) and Tennessee Valley (formerly the Vipers now the Raptors) moved from arenafootball2.
The APFL's third season would see the Kansas Koyotes take on the Iowa Blackhawks, who had beat Wichita in the Semi-Final, for the APFL Championship. The Koyotes would reign supreme again barely edging out Iowa 26-24 at the Landon Arena to go 9-0 for a third straight season. While in the AIFL the playoffs looked a little different for a six team league as all six teams would qualify for the playoffs. After 2 rounds of playoffs the number one and two seeds, Richmond and Erie would play for the 2005 AIFL Championship. The Bandits would come out on top with a 56-30 road win over the Erie Freeze. The National Indoor Football League, even with all it's turmoil, saw this biggest amount of playoff teams at 16, just like the year before. With Indoor Bowl V being played at Three Rivers Coliseum in Kennewick, WA. With a sellout crowd seeing the expansion Fever taking on the Rome (GA) Renegades, Tri-Cities took the Championship 47-31. In the first year United Indoor Football 8 teams (of the leagues 11) would go into it's inaugural playoffs. UIF United Bowl I would be held at the Gateway Arena at Tyson Event Center in Sioux City, IA. The hometown Bandits would fall in a tough game 40-38 to their arch rival, the Sioux Falls Storm. United Bowl I was the Storm's first ever league Championship and set off the pace for the team that would win 10 titles in 12 seasons.

Credit: Indoor Football League

With the IFL's Week 5 in the books it was well not what we had expected at all. Kicking off the week was Colorado hosting Spokane. The Empire would put the Crush down in an avalanche by a score of 70-37. With no games on Saturday the next one was a Sunday matinee in Cedar Rapids, between the Titans and Blizzard. After a very close game and leading the entire time, the Titans would drop the game in the final minute to the Blizzard 34-28. To wrap up the IFL was a Monday Night clash between the Sioux Falls Storm and Iowa Barnstormers in our IFL Game of the Week. The game would be exactly the opposite of what was expected. Iowa made mistakes, everything from penalties to turnovers to bad snaps, and everything else you can think of all night long. The Storm would take those and use them to the fullest extent and absolutely massacre Iowa 70-13.
Week 6 has all ten teams playing once again this weekend. The weeks kicks off on Friday at 9PM (CT) with Spokane vs Salt Lake. It's followed up on Saturday with two games at 7:05PM (CT) with Wichita Falls visiting Sioux Falls and the Nebraska Danger hosting the Colorado Crush. Sunday finishes the week with two games, Iowa hosts Cedar Rapids in the Barnstormers home opener at 3:05PM (CT). While the Arizona Rattlers travel to Green Bay to take on the Blizzard also at 3:05PM (CT) from the Resch Center. As always the games are LIVE and FREE on YouTube.

Credit: Champions Indoor Football

In the CIF, Week 4 saw all 14 teams play 7 games for the first time this season. The opening game saw the Sioux City Bandits defeat the Bismarck Bucks 30-16 with the only game on Friday night. Saturday saw the other six games played. The defending league champion Wichita Force dropped their second game of the season 40-38 on the road against the Duke City Gladiators. Next up was another matchup between expansion teams as Kansas City traveled to Muskegon, MI. The Phantoms just edged out the Ironmen 50-47 to win their first game in franchise history, the Ironmen, who are last year's AIF Runner-Up, is still winless in the CIF. For the third straight week we had an all-Kansas showdown as Salina hosted Dodge City. The Law would edge the Liberty 34-32 putting Dodge City to 3-0 and Salina to 0-3. The Omaha Beef knocked off the Bloomington Edge in another close on 55-50. While in Amarillo the Venom hosted the Marshals and would take that game at home 59-32. The final game was our CIF Game of the Week between the Texas Revolution and CenTex Cavalry. And while yes it was the beatdown you expected with the Revs taking down CenTex 69-21, it featured the return of one of the sports greatest, Chris Dixon, who made his debut at Revs QB. Dixon looked as sharp as ever in that game.
The CIF's Week 5 will have six games, kicking off on Thursday when the Texas Revolution host the Dallas Marshals at 7PM (CT). Saturday features the other five games this week starting with yet another all-Kansas clash when Salina heads to Dodge City to play the Law at 6:30PM (CT). At 7PM (CT) Wichita will host Amarillo, Duke City hosts CenTex, the Bismarck Bucks travel to Bloomington to face the Edge, and Kansas City heads north to take on the Bandits in Sioux City. All games can be viewed of course on Eversport.

Credit: National Arena League

The National Arena League finally kicked off it's inaugural season this past weekend and it opened up with the NAL Game of the Week on Friday at 6PM. "The Jungle" the Columbus Civic Center with 2,456 fans inside the building the hometown, and two time consecutive (2015 PIFL and 2016 AIF) Champion, Lions hosted the former AFL club the Jacksonville Sharks. The game would NOT start very pretty and saw the Sharks storm out to an early lead and by halftime the game was 40-20. With a 20 point lead in hand the Sharks cruised out to a 56-41 victory to win the inaugural game in NAL history. With one game being played each night over the weekend Saturday saw the Georgia Firebirds host the High Country Grizzlies from the Albany Civic Center in Albany, GA. High Country would take this game by a score of 62-29 beating a team that just was terrible in the AIF in 2016. Sunday saw the Atlanta based Wolfpack travel up to the PPL Center in Allentown, PA to play the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks. Lehigh Valley would crush the Wolfpack with a final of 66-25. The final game of the week, which wasn't even shown live like promised by the NAL, was Monterrey hosting Corpus Christi. The Steel we're the much better team and held a shutout much of the night winning 55-12 over the Rage.
Now something that was very interesting is during the Lehigh Valley-"Dayton" game the Steelhawks owner stated that there would be four expansion teams coming in for the 2018 season. A league that hadn't even completed it's first week of play touting expansion teams. Plus add the fact that "Dayton" is based out of Atlanta and is not really known what will happen to them after this year. The NAL is sounder more and more like the winner that the AIF was. Well on Monday the NAL announced the first of the expansion teams for 2018, the Jersey Flight. This team will be based out of Trenton, NJ Sun National Bank Center. This market is one of the most well known for being terrible for all sports, multiple indoor football, hockey, and basketball teams have failed just inside that building.
For Week 2 of the NAL's first season the games start on Saturday with two being played at 6PM (CT). Jacksonville will host Georgia in the Sharks 2017 home opener. The other game on Saturday has High Country hosting Lehigh Valley in the Grizzlies first ever home game. Sunday at 7PM (CT) has the Corpus Christi Rage facing the Columbus Lions. This will be the Rage's first ever game at the American Bank Center as they replace the former Corpus Christi Fury who played there from 2004-06 and 2010-16. The final game of the week is on Monday night at 9PM (CT) when Monterrey hosts the Wolfpack. And per the NAL, and just like the IFL, all games are LIVE and FREE on YouTube.

Now that all three leagues are playing as of last week there will be three (one from each league) Games of the Week until the playoffs start. This weekend all three will be played on Saturday night and they start with the NAL Game of the Week. This week sees the High Country Grizzlies (1-0) host the Lehigh Valley Steelahwks (1-0). This will be the Grizzlies first ever home game in franchise history as they kickoff at 6PM (CT) from the George M. Holmes Convocation Center in Boone, NC. High Country vs Lehigh Valley is LIVE and FREE on YouTube. Next up is the CIF Game of the Week is a rematch from last years Champions Bowl II in the same building, the INTRUST Bank Arena as the Wichita Force (1-2) host the Amarillo Venom (2-0) in a South Division clash at 7PM (CT). The CIF Game of the Week is available of course on Eversport. And finally now the IFL Game of the Week, this has got to be the most exciting of all the games this week. A battle of the United Conference unbeatens is the game. At 7PM (CT) the Sioux Falls Storm (4-0) with the leagues toughest defense takes on the Wichita Falls Nighthawks (4-0) with the leagues highest scoring offense. If you only can watch one game the IFL Game of the Week is definitely the one to go towards.