Indoor Football Weekly #13

Credit; Houma Times

The second week of indoor football was even better than the first one! Well Week three is going to be the biggest yet with two games in the Indoor Football League and five games in Champions Indoor Football for a total of Nine contests!

The history books will be opened this time to year 2002 with the IPFL folding after the 2001 season, the National Indoor Football League would be the only league playing. With 21 clubs this season it was even larger than the 18 that competed in 2001. However only 11 of those clubs would return for a second season. 2002 would see a 14 game schedule ripe with competition. With Louisiana (Eastern), Lake Charles (Southern), Ohio Valley (Atlantic Conf. Northern), Lincoln (Pacific Conf. Northern), and Bismarck (Western) being the five division champions the playoffs would get off to a good start. NIFL Indoor Bowl II would see the Ohio Valley Greyhounds beat the Billings Outlaws 55-52 to win the title. Only three clubs still exist from that 2002 campaign (Omaha, Sioux Falls, and Sioux City) along with one market with another club (Tri-City/Kearney, NE) which now has the Nebraska Danger (playing in Grand Island).

Credit: Indoor Football League

Week Three is upcoming in the IFL, and last week we saw the first full five-game slate of the 2017 Indoor Football League. Week two opened on Thursday night when the Spokane Empire pushed through the Blizzard from Green Bay with a final score of 34-31. With no games on Friday the next games we're played Saturday night, Sioux Falls traveled to Cedar Rapids and knocked off the rival Titans 51-26, the Storm do NOT look unbeatable this season. The other Saturday match-up was the IFL Game of the Week in Week 2 which saw Nebraska take on Wichita Falls, you'll find that below in our Game of the Week section. Sunday saw two games with Colorado playing Salt Lake, the Crush and Screaming Eagles had an entertaining game which ended with Salt Lake winning 42-41 on a two point conversion. The last game was between two old AFL rivals when the Arizona Rattlers hosted the Iowa Barnstormers. Even with Arizona getting two successful onside kick recoveries they would lose to Iowa 51-47.

Coming into Week 3 Cedar Rapids is on a two game losing streak to start the season for the first time in franchise history, while Arizona starts the season 0-2 for the first time since the 2007 AFL season. Only two games will be played this week, on Friday night Spokane travels to Wichita Falls (7 PM CT) and on Sunday Nebraska heads to Colorado (4 PM CT). 

Credit: Champions Indoor Football

Week two, and the first real week of Champions Indoor Football kicks off this weekend as well. Last week had only one game, the Sioux City Bandits and the Omaha Beef (also in our Game of the Week section). The CIF kicks of Week 2 on Friday night when West Michigan travels to Bloomington, IL to take on the Edge at 7PM. Saturday features two contests with Dodge City hosting Duke City at 6:30 PM and at 7:00 PM when Bismarck plays their first game on the road against the 1-0 Sioux City Bandits. The week wraps up on Sunday at 2PM when Wichita heads to Salina as the defending champion Force take on the Liberty. All games are on Eversport.
Speaking of Eversport it's very disappointing, as stated before the CIF whiffed by not moving away from Eversport like the Indoor Football League. The feed on Eversport was (for most of the Sioux City vs Omaha game) unusable. Sioux City had ZERO issues streaming the game against the First City Cavalry on YouTube however Eversport was tested using internet connections of 6 mpbs, 60 mbps, and 100 mpbs and NONE of them worked, it would always state that Eversport needed more bandwith. The CIF needs to get their act together and get out of the contract with Eversport, the Sioux City vs Omaha game also isn't even archived (a common problem in 2016) and move somewhere else, like YouTube following in the steps of the IFL.

 We had a couple of well bummers in last week's Games of the Week, the IFL Game of the Week for Week 2 was the Nebraska Danger hosting the Wichita Falls Nighthawks. The Nighthawks easily proved they were the superior defense at the Eihusen Arena as the Danger were stopped five times on offense, three turnovers and two missed field goals. The stout defense of the Nighthawks was matched by the great offense lead by signal caller Charles McCullum who lead an aerial attack of 240 yards for the Wichita Falls offense which only didn't land points on three times, two of which were due to the half ending and one due to a fumble on short kickoff by Nebraska. All those combined the Nighthawks took down the Danger with ease 65-48 to move to 2-0 on the season, Nebraska with that loss is now 1-1. The Danger and Nighthawks will meet two more times, on May 5th in Wichita Falls and to finish the season on June 17th back in Grand Island.
The CIF Game of the Week in Week 1 was between the Sioux City Bandits and Omaha Beef, as stated prior the feed is not archived and was unwatchable so unfortunately we don't have a recap for you. But Sioux City crushed Omaha 63-44 in front of 3,381 fans inside the Gateway Arena at Tyson Event Center in Sioux City. The Bandits and Beef will meet two more times this season, on March 31st and May 27th both in Omaha.
For Week 3 of the 2017 IFL season, our IFW IFL Game of the Week is the Spokane Empire and Wichita Falls Nighthawks when they play on Friday night at 7 inside the Kay Yeager Coliseum in Wichita Falls, TX. For Week 2 in the 2017 Champions Indoor Football season, our IFW CIF Game of the Week is on Saturday night at 6:30 when the Dodge City Law host the Duke City Gladiators.

Indoor Football Weekly #12: On the Hunt

Credit: Rapid City Journal

Yes that was an exciting week wasn't it everyone? Well things are about to get even crazier, the Indoor Football League enters it's Second Week, Champions Indoor Football enters Week One, and there is even some news on the National Arena League front!! Hold on to your pants for this roller coaster that's about to take off.

As we open the history books this week we step into the magical year known as 2001. Bush was in the White House with Cheney running the show, we had Christina Aguilera and Alicia Keys on the Billboard and a new football league! Yes even though the (original) Indoor Football League was doing well it closed, but that's because the Orlando Predators purchased it since it was a competitor to the af2. In it's place we had the new National Indoor Football League consisting of 18 clubs in 4 divisions and would continue the IFL's tradition of playing 14 games. On the other hand limping to the finish was the IPFL down to just 5 clubs. The NIFL (obviously) was the much stronger of the two leagues seeing 8 teams make the playoffs, including the Sioux Falls Storm's first every playoff appearance. NIFL Indoor Bowl I would see the 2000 IPFL Champion Mississippi Fire Dogs take down Wyoming Cavalry 55-12 at the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. On the other hand the IPFL was nowhere near as fortunate, seeing only 4 of the 5 clubs survive the entire year. The visiting Tennessee ThunderCats would beat the Omaha Beef 47-38 in "The Slaughterhouse" to win the 2001 and final IPFL Championship as the league would die after the season. Yes just four years into the history of this sport and three leagues have already died.

And we're off! To Week 2 in the Indoor Football League, Week 1 saw the IFL play four games to open up the season. On Thursday night saw the Nebraska Danger cream Project Fanchise's Salt Lake Screaming Eagles 78-47. The video feed was good, but the fans SUCKED at calling plays. Friday night brought us two games of very opposite caliber. The earlier (finishing) of the night saw Green Bay put a beat down on Cedar Rapids 46-13. The later (finishing) game saw the Arizona Rattlers take on the Sioux Falls Storm (Coverage below in the Game of the Week Section). And on Saturday night Iowa traveled to Wichita Falls but fell to the Nighthawks 68-53. Now for the updated POWER RANKINGS by Banana Cat. In the top four we have Sioux Falls at #1, Arizona has moved up to #2, Spokane has dropped to #3 in their bye week, and in fourth is Wichita Falls. The rest of the league is as followed 5) Green Bay Blizzard, 6) Nebraska Danger 7) Iowa Barnstormers 8) Salt Lake Screaming Eagles, 9) Colorado Crush 10) Cedar Rapids Titans. Week number 2 in the IFL starts on Thursday night, the 23rd when Green Bay visits Spokane at 9PM CT. On Saturday the 25th two games get played at 7:05 CT as Sioux Falls travels to Cedar Rapids and Wichita Falls visits the Nebraska Danger. To cap off the weekend on Sunday the 26th at 4:00 CT when Salt Lake heads to Colorado to play the Crush. Then at 5:00 CT two former AFL clubs face off when Iowa heads to Phoenix for a game with the Arizona Rattlers. All IFL games are available FREE on YouTube.

CIF oh CIF, yes Champions Indoor Football starts this weekend officially! But lest we not forget last weekend? What is that? You didn't know their was exhibition games!? Well there was and they were not pretty. Sioux City would crush the First City Cavalry 80-0 at the Gateway Arena. Further south the Dallas Marshals would KO the Arlington Longhorns 62-6 at the Mesquite Arena. This weekend sees some more exhibition games, Friday sees the Texas Revolution host the Texas Stealth. Saturday will see the Duke City Gladiators host the First Responders along with Amarillo hosting the LEXFA Mexico City All-Stars. Then Sunday evening the Bloomington Edge will host the Tri-Town Titans. In games that will actually count towards the standings the Sioux City Bandits the Omaha Beef on Saturday night.

One big concern from Champions Indoor Football was alleviated on Sunday afternoon when the league released their streaming information. This is negative on a number of fronts for the CIF, the first being it took until 6 days before the regular season began! The second being that they announced they would be back on Eversport but paid for the season......... While each teams first home game will be free you will be paying for each one after that. Why is this upsetting? For many fans there isn't the budget to pay for yet another streaming service, watch parties aren't an option for fans not near their favorite club. The CIF set the bar last season being free on Eversport, the IFL raised the bar moving to YouTube AND being free (and FYI YouTube also has hosted the NBA D-League along with Northwoods League baseball and even Russian Hockey). The CIF, which has much more parity in the league than the IFL had the chance to move to YouTube be free and one up the IFL with action packed football all the way to Champions Bowl III, but they whiffed on the opportunity. 

Yes I promised we have some juiciness on the NAL front and it's something that's been heavily thought on IFW for a long time. That news is the Dayton Wolfpack have officially folded. That's right after how many months of being pushed that the club had a lease at the Nutter Center in Dayton, well it turns out that the owners didn't and the league will be replacing them with a travel only team. This travel team will be called the Wolfpack and based out of Georgia. Will they be called the Dayton Wolfpack? Who knows but this looks bad on the league folding a team with less than a month to go until the season starts. This leaves the league having a total schedule imbalance. Columbus, Georgia, and Jacksonville will all remain playing 12 games. Corpus Christi, High Country, and Monterrey will be playing 11. Lehigh Valley is down to 10 and the Wolfpack will be playing 7. Thats right a completely and totally unbalanced schedule, you know what other eastern league had all these issues? American Indoor Football, that's right before you even kick off your drawing comparison to the AIF and that is not good. To make matters even worse the NAL is already touting that by April they'll name two expansion clubs for 2018! You read it right, the NAL who has folded a team a month before the season, moved them as a travel only team, is playing an unbalanced schedule, and hasn't even played a down yet, is touting expansion for 2018. This definitely sounds like AIF 2.0 at this time, let's just hope the quality of play is better.

Last week the IFL Game of the Week was between the Sioux Falls Storm and Arizona Rattlers, to open up the game both teams would exchange missed field goals before Sioux Falls had Korey Williams finish off a 5 play 29 yard drive with a 3 yard TD run to make it 7-0 Storm. It would be the only lead Sioux Falls held until the fourth quarter as Arizona marched a 6 play 37 yard TD drive that was capped off when Darrell Monroe barreled his way to the endzone from one yard out. Trickery then ensued as Arizona faked the PAT kick and ran it in for 2 points. It would be 8-7 Rattlers early in the 2nd Quarter. On the next drive Chris McAllister recovered a fumble from Sioux Falls' Lorenzo Brown, 2 plays later a completion from Thomas to Washington and a missed PAT made it 14-7 Arizona. Brown would prove on the next drive that the fumble hadn't gotten to him as he would scramble his way out of a sack 36 yards downfield for a TD to tie the game at 14. Arizona matched the TD again capping a 6 play 35 yard drive with a 9 yard TD pass from Thomas to Anthony Amos, more trickery was done and Wolf ran in another 2 point conversion to make it 22-14. Nearing the end of the half Arizona (who would receive the ball to start the second half) would want to make a defensive stop, end the 2nd quarter with a TD and start fast in the 3rd quarter with a TD. The Storm wouldn't let that happen as Robbie Rouse marched his way to the endzone on a 2 yard run that put the game at 22-21. The Sioux Falls defense would hold on Arizona's final 2nd quarter drive and they missed a 59 yard field goal and the half would end 22-21 Arizona.

The Rattlers would start the 3rd quarter with a drive capped of by an 18 yard TD pass from Thomas to Amos with a kick this made the game 29-21. The rest of the game would be a story of defense as Arizona stopped the Storm's drive dead and brought the ball down to the Sioux Falls 19. On that play Rashard Smith picked off Thomas' pass at the back wall of his own end zone and scrambled downfield 58 yards (officially marked as 50) for Pick 6! With the score now 29-28 Arizona pushed down to the Storm 2 when Smith forced a fumble that was recovered by Byron Bennett at the Storm 9. Sioux Falls didn't manage to score and instead was stopped dead on downs again by a tough Arizona defense. The Rattlers who had turnovers on each of the last two drives would try for a TD again but 7 plays and 14 yards later they were stopped on downs. The Storm would get the ball back and finally push themselves into a lead when Mike Tatum took a 7 yard run to the endzone, with the 2 point conversion no good it was 34-29 Storm. The Storm defense would hold Sioux Falls one last time on the night before scoring a game sealing TD, with a kick missed the score was 40-29 Storm and that's how it finished. Arizona dropped their first game in the IFL and Sioux Falls stays perfect at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. Don't take this the wrong way Arizona played well and I would expect them to be in a July rematch with Sioux Falls for the 2017 United Bowl.

Now for our Game of the Week, this week we have two, one from each the IFL and the CIF. The CIF Game of the Week is well the only one being played and will see the Sioux City Bandits host the arch rival Omaha Beef on Saturday night at 7:05 PM in Sioux City, IA at the Gateway Arena at Tyson Events Center if you can't make it the game will be available on Eversport. The IFL Game of the Week was much harder to pick and with intrigue it will be also this Saturday at 7:05 PM for a inter conference game as the Nebraska Danger host the Wichita Falls Nighthawks from the Eihusen Arena in Grand Island, NE and able to be seen LIVE and FREE on YouTube. 

It's Time! Indoor Football Weekly #11

Credit Our Sports Central

That's right boys and girls, ladies and gentlemen, IT IS TIME. The 2017 Indoor Football season starts this weekend! It's been a long and grueling offseason we know, but we get into full swing with 4 regular season games and 2 preseason games this weekend!

And now we'll take another walk down memory lane. Last week we covered 1999 and today it's on to the year 2000. While both the IFL and IPFL survived (the IFL even thrived) in 1999 they would come back, however they weren't alone. A new league called the Xtreme Football League was being set up to take place, primarily in the deep south. That league was bought out by a league known as arenafootball2, better known as the af2 in July of '99. The IPFL would have 7 clubs in 2000, only Mississippi and Idaho returned from '99 though. In the IFL on the other hand all 8 teams returned with a whopping 13 expansion clubs for a 21 team league! The IPFL played a 16 game season and again saw all 7 of it's clubs survive the year. The Mississippi Fire Dogs would take down the Portland Prowlers, in Portland, in the 2000 IPFL Championship game. The IFL however went from playing just 12 games to 14 in 2000. A grueling 4 round, 12 team playoff culminated in IFL Gold Cup 2000, where the hometown Peoria Pirates smacked the Bismarck Blaze 69-42. As of 2017 we actually have some teams still remaining, the Omaha Beef (IPFL now CIF), Sioux Falls Cobras (now Storm in the new IFL), and Sioux City Attack (IPFL now Bandits in the CIF) are all still kicking. Markets that have clubs are as we've covered Green Bay and Dayton along with Wichita, KS. Wichita, who was the Warlords in the IFL, now has the three year old Force who replaced the Wichita Wild.

Credit Indoor Football League

As I said it's time! To cap off the IFL preseason the Wichita Falls Nighthawks put a beat down on the Cap City Bulls (SIF) by a score of 89-12. Before we get started with the games let's go over Banana Cat's IFL Power Rankings prior to week one. At the top we have (of course) the 6 Time Defending United Bowl Champion Sioux Falls Storm, behind them at number two is last years Intense Conference Champion Spokane Shock. The league newcomers, the Arizona Rattlers, are ranked a respectable third place. And to round out the top four is the Wichita Falls Nighthawks. The rest are in said order 5) Green Bay Blizzard, 6) Nebraska Danger, 7)  Iowa Barnstormers, 8) Salt Lake Screaming Eagles, 9) Colorado Crush, and 10) Cedar Rapids Titans. Now about those games, Week 1 opens up at 8PM (CT) when the newest IFL club the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles host the Nebraska Danger on Thursday from the Maverik Center. The action continues Friday night with a pair of 7PM (CT) kickoffs as the Green Bay Blizzard visit the Cedar Rapids Titans in the U.S. Cellular Center and when the biggest game of the season happens as the Arizona Rattlers face off with the Sioux Falls Storm at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center. The weekend closes when the Iowa Barnstormers travel to the Kay Yeager Coliseum to play the Wichita Falls Nighthawks on Saturday at 7PM (CT). All games will be FREE to watch on YouTube, and if you wanna try your hand at pick-em you can do that here as well. Both the Colorado Crush and Spokane Empire have a bye in Week 1.

And on to the CIF, the preseason officially began this past Sunday when the Omaha Beef hosted the Omaha Outlaws at the Ralston Arena. The Beef would slaughter the Outlaws by a final score of 97-18. You can expect more of that this weekend as there are two games on hand. Both games are Saturday February 18th at 7PM (CT), when the Dallas Marshals host the Arlington Longhorns at the Mesquite Arena in Mesquite, TX and the other when the Sioux City Bandits host the First City Cavalry at the Gateway Arena at Tyson Event Center. As of now the CIF still has not yet announced a streaming deal but we'll cover that when it is announced and give you the CIF Power Ranking before Week 1.

And we introduce a new part to the weekly posts, the IFW Game of the Week. Each week (in the regular season) at Indoor Football Weekly, we'll be selecting one game from each league as our IFW Game of the Week. This week's pick in the IFL is a game we've all been waiting for the Arizona Rattlers taking on the Sioux Falls Storm at the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls, SD at 7PM on Friday Night. This game is the biggest game in the history of the Indoor Football League as two teams with a combined 15 championships (10 Indoor Titles for Sioux Falls and 5 ArenaBowl Titles for Arizona) who have never played each other before. Kevin Guy who has coached the Rattlers since 2008 will have the biggest coaching battle of his career in for him against Kurtiss Riggs whose in his 15th season as head coach of the Storm. The game has all the making of an instant classic and a possible preview of United Bowl 2017. If you can get to the game I couldn't suggest that option enough, if not you can watch the game live on YouTube.

Indoor Football Weekly #10 Preseason 2017, Part 2: Champions Indoor Football

Credit: Our Sports Central

One preseason has started and one is about to begin this week. The Indoor Football League preseason started last week and even had a game (we'll recap that later) and the CIF preseason starts this week with another game!

As we did last week, we're covering the history of indoor football as a special for the 20th Season for the sport. After the 1998 season the PIFL would fold and break up in to two leagues. One league (the IPFL) would take the remnants of the Honolulu Hurricanes (now the Hawaii Hammerheads), the Colorado Wildcats (now the Rocky Mountain Thunder) and the '98 PIFL Champion Louisiana Bayou Beast along with 3 expansion clubs. The (original) IFL was founded by the Green Bay Bombers and Madison Mad Dogs owner Keary Ecklund with those clubs and 6 expansion teams. The IPFL would play 16 games and see all 6 clubs survive the regular season. In the championship game Hawaii would beat the Texas Terminators by a score of 28-16 to win the IPFL title. However at the end of the season only 2 clubs (Idaho and Mississippi) would ring in the new millennium with the IPFL. On the other hand the IFL would play a 12 game schedule in 1999 and it would go much better than the IPFL. In the '99 IFL Gold Cup, Green Bay would travel to Peoria and bomb the Pirates with a 63-60 win. All 8 clubs (plus a few expansion clubs) would come back for the 2000 season. As with '98 there are no clubs left from the 1999 season and only 2 markets still have the indoor game. Green Bay (as we covered last time) and the only addition to them is Dayton. Dayton will have an expansion team (the Dayton Wolfpack) in the new NAL, while they have not announced their arena the Nutter Center at Wright State University is expected to be their home since the Hara Arena has closed.

Now back to the current day and age. As we covered last week the IFL preseason has begun and it opened this past weekend on Saturday night when the Iowa Barnstormers traveled to the US Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids to take on the Titans. The Barnstormers would take down the Titans 38-26 on the road. An overall sloppy game with both teams needing to clean a lot up before the regular season, but that can only be expected after just four days of practice. This weekend will see the second (and only other) preseason game is this Saturday when the Wichita Falls Nighthawks host the SIF's travel only Cap City Bulls at the Kay Yeager Coliseum.

Champions Indoor Football, the second of three stops on the 2017 preseason preview. The CIF has preseason game starting this weekend (Feb 12th) and going through the first week of the regular season (Feb 26th). After all the exhibitions are played half of the league (7/14) clubs will have played an exhibition game, and unlike the IFL all the games are against Non-League opponents.

Northern Division

The CIF's Northern Division sees 4 of 6 clubs return to it from 2016 (Wichita was moved to the Southern and Chicago folded) along with three expansion clubs. These clubs include two completely new expansion teams the Bismarck Bucks and Kansas City Phantoms along with 2016 AIF runner up the West Michigan Ironmen. With Wichita's move to the South the Northern Division will have unmatched parity that normally isn't seen in this sport. Bloomington, Sioux City, and Omaha all finished last season at 7-5. Look for Sioux City (who won the CIF in 2015 to continue to compete along with Omaha and Kansas City to challenge for first throughout the season. As of right now I think the other four clubs, including the expansion clubs will be fighting for third place. 

Southern Division

The South of the CIF is the total opposite of the North, and it starts with the defending league champion Wichita Force along with the two best from last year's Southern Division the Amarillo Venom and Texas Revolution. Those clubs have a good chance at finishing 1-2-3. Dodge City and Duke City will have a fight on their hands to get into one of the playoff spots. Dallas (formerly Mesquite) and the expansion CenTex Cavalry will have some work to not finish in the cellar in 2017.

Games to Watch

Unfortunately with just a few days until the preseason games starting no streaming for the 2017 CIF Season has been announced. Last season the streaming was free with Eversport but hopefully the CIF moves elsewhere and keeps it free. As for what to watch the season opener between Sioux City and Omaha is definitely the first one to watch in 2017. The next is the Week 9 matchup between the Texas Revs and the Amarillo Venom. I also wouldn't count out any of the in the final 3 weeks of the season as they will be the key to the playoffs.

As with the IFL preseason starting last week, Champions Indoor Football's preseason games start this week. The Omaha Beef will host the Omaha Outlaws this Sunday February 12th. We'll have one more preseason preview with the National Arena League in a few weeks!

Indoor Football Weekly #9 Preseason 2017, Part 1: Indoor Football League

Credit: Honolulu Star-Bulletin

Ohhhhhhh yes it's that time again, the preseason is upon us! That's right it's football time once again and the 2017 season is looking like it could be the best in years! We have 3 good leagues this season in the IFL, CIF, and NAL. Without American Indoor Football it looks like 2017 will be clean but who knows in this sport.

Credit: http://www.markthompson.us/gameballs/IPFL/

To start off 2017 is a special year in the sport as it marks the 20th anniversary of the Indoor (not Arena) game being played. That first league was the original Professional Indoor Football League founded and playing only the 1998 Season. 1998 was not a year without it's difficulties as the Minnesota Monsters (coached by Ron Simmons) would fold after just 5 league games, the Texas Bullets would fold after 10 games, and the Utah Catzz forfeited their final game to the Madison Mad Dogs. In the championship game the Louisiana Bayou Beast defeated the Madison Mad Dogs 42-41 at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, LA. After 1998 the PIFL folded and splintered into 2 leagues, the IPFL and original IFL but that is a story for another time. There are no clubs remaining from the original PIFL in the 1998 season and only 3 markets still have clubs. Green Bay (the Bombers) now have the Green Bay Blizzard who have played in the Resch Center (not the old Brown County Veterans Memorial Coliseum) since 2003. Belton, TX (Texas Bullets) will have the CenTex Cavalry playing out of their old stomping grounds, the Bell County Expo Center. And finally the Greater Salt Lake area (Utah Catzz in Orem, UT) will also have an expansion team the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles playing at the Maverik Center in West Valley City, UT. This history section will be a recurring feature this year in Indoor Football Weekly.

Now onto the real stuff! Let's start with the first league kicking off the Indoor Football League! The IFL players reported for training camp already and started on January 30th. Now let's start off with some previews.

Intense Conference

The Intense Conference has some familiar clubs returning such as the Nebraska Danger and Colorado Crush along with last years Intense Conference Champion Spokane Empire. They'll be joined by two new clubs the Salt Lake Screaming Eagles and perennial AFL stalwart the Arizona Rattlers. Salt Lake and "Project Fanchise" do NOT look impressive right now and there slotted at #5 in the Intense. On the other hand Colorado finished 2016 in 4th place at 4-12. While they don't look impressive they do look like they will give Nebraska, who is defiantly in a rebuilding phase, a run for their money for third place. And that is where the problem lies, last season with 6 clubs (3 in each conference) making the playoffs the end of the season was exciting! Colorado and the now folded Tri-Cities Fever weren't out until later and Nebraska and the now folded Billings Wolves fought to the end for the First Round home game! This will not be the case as the IFL has gone back to just 4 teams (2 from each conference) making the playoffs.  And THAT fact brings us to our last 2 clubs the Spokane Empire and Arizona Rattlers. Last years Intense Conference Champion Spokane led by longtime Indoor coach Adam Shackleford will be a force to be reckoned with. On the other side Kevin Guy and the Arizona Rattlers will also be a force even as a de facto expansion club. Picks for the IFL Intense Conference has Arizona facing Spokane in the Conference Championship, winner to close to pick at this moment.

United Conference

Unlike the changes in the Intense Conference the United Conference brings back all 5 clubs from 2016. While last season Green Bay and Iowa were in the cellar, Wichita Falls and Cedar Rapids fought until the end for the home playoff game.. That will not happen this season, Cedar Rapids was truly unimpressive this offseason and they look to be in 5th Place. Green Bay has been a young team in development for a while and they don't look to be playoff material don't count them out as they could surprise us. Wichita Falls continues to look well (which is the opposite of their attendance) and Iowa really is looking to have built a playoff capable team after finishing with a franchise worst finish in 2016. But that doesn't matter in the United Conference unless someone knocks out the King, the Sioux Falls Storm. Sioux Falls is looking to dominate again in 2017 and just added 3 years to Kurtiss Riggs so expect some more championships. Pick for IFL United Conference Sioux Falls beats who cares at this point.

Games to Watch

Well there are a few of these this year, and thank god the IFL will now be free on YouTube for the 2017 season. The first game to watch has a good shot at Game of the Year as the Kings of Indoor Football, the 10 time Indoor Champion Sioux Falls Storm, face off against the Kings of Arena Football, the 5 time ArenaBowl Champion and IFL newcomer, the Arizona Rattlers. The game is set for Week 1 on Friday February 17th inside the Denny Sanford PREMIER Center in Sioux Falls, SD.

The next is the series between Arizona and Spokane, both clubs left the AFL for the IFL in the last two seasons and will be fighting for the Intense Conference Championship. Arizona plays host to Spokane on Saturday April 22nd, while Spokane hosts the games on Friday May 12th and Saturday June 3rd. The final game to watch (at this point) is when a rematch of the 2016 United Bowl when Spokane visits the Sioux Falls Storm on Saturday May 6th in Sioux Falls, SD.

As we wrap things up the Indoor Football League has just two preseason games. One of those is this weekend with the traditional "Home Opener" for the Cedar Rapids Titans as they face the Iowa Barnstormers at the U.S. Cellular Center in Cedar Rapids. The other preseason game will be played on Saturday February 11th when the SIF's travel only Cap City Bulls head to the Kay Yeager Coliseum to take on the Wichita Falls Nighthawks. This is just part one of three as we'll cover both the CIF and NAL closer to their seasons start dates.

Indoor Football Weekly Special Edition #2: The Shit Show 2017: Part Two

In our last article we covered the SIF and EIF. This time we are going to cover Arena Pro Football (APF), Can-Am Indoor Football (CAIF), and Elite Indoor Football Conference (EIFC). Again BEFORE YOU READ: this is a warning about these leagues and teams, while some of these teams are decent most of them are not and should be looked at carefully. To players, coaches, and fans who may get involved please be aware. No we will continue our journey through the underbelly of Indoor Football

To continue we will start with Arena Pro Football, this out of all FIVE of the leagues replacing the AIF is the most legitimate, but don’t let that fool you the APF is nowhere near the level of the CIF, IFL, or NAL in anyway. Arena Pro Football was originally scheduled to be called the National Arena Football League, but did change it before launching. In November the APF announced their first three clubs. The Savannah Coastal Outlaws, Myrtle Beach Sharks, and Birmingham Outlawz.

Let’s break all three of these teams down starting with the Savannah Coastal Outlaws. If Savannah reminds you of something it’s because in our last article we covered the Steam who are also supposed to make their home in that city. To start the Outlaws are scheduled to play just 5 games in APF, all on the road, while also playing two games against EIFC clubs. The rest of their schedule is actually being played in United States Indoor Football. The USIF is a 4 team league entirely based out of the Savannah Civic Center and is the developmental league of the APF. Yes you read that right a quarter decent ultra minor league has a “developmental league”. Up next is the Myrtle Beach Sharks, and if Myrtle Beach sounds familiar it’s because they had the Freedom of the AIF play in town last season. However the difference is that the Sharks have not yet announced their home arena for 2017. And third we have the Birmingham Outlaws, after posting some time last year on their Facebook page that they would be playing out of a decent sized arena in Birmingham they have backtracked on that. They’ll instead be playing out of the Shelby County Exhibition Center in Columbiana, AL, which is some 37 miles away from Birmingham. The fourth team announced was for a club in Virginia, eventually it was announced that the Virginia club would be the new Richmond Roughriders playing out of the Richmond Coliseum, former home of the Speed, Bandits, and Raiders. However the APF made the announcement seem more depressing by saying “Professional indoor football likely will return next spring” as well “The APF is expected to compete in 2017 as an eight-team circuit” and “Teams are expected to play eight-game schedules”. Not very optimistic in an announcement of a new team. Next up as the fifth team to join the APF was the Florida Tarpons, the Tarpons are one of the few stable teams in the Eastern United States being founded in 2012, they’ll now enter their fourth league in 6 years. They concern me, why? You ask. Well it’s because the Tarpons originally announced they would play in the Arena Development League, now the National Arena League. The Tarpons had stated they felt like the ADL/NAL model was unsustainable and the APF model was better, the only difference is the APF is much cheaper and has shadier teams, yes “better”. The sixth and final team for 2017 is the River City Raiders, the Raiders are also a somewhat stable club being based in St. Charles, MO since 2013. They concern me as well because the Raiders were originally admitted to Champions Indoor Football for 2017, they stated the reason they left was due to Chicago folding and their schedule being damaged. However the real reason I have been told was the Raiders didn’t have the finances necessary to play in the CIF. Leaving for another league with massively higher travel costs is never a good thing to do.

Arena Pro Football also announced an expansion team for 2018, the Carolina Wildcats, again not a smart move to announce another expansion team when you haven’t completed the first season. Arena Pro Football also was to have had a partnership with the Elite Indoor Football Conference, and the Savannah Coastal Outlaws are on the EIFC website to play two games but it has been pulled from the APF site. The league will have 2 games against the SIF with Myrtle Beach hosting Cape Fear on April 29th in the Gridiron Classic and Richmond hosting the Triangle Torch in the Capital City Showdown. On top of those the APF will also play the CAIF in the Arena Football Challenge Cup between each leagues champions. The good thing about the APF unlike the EIF they have a schedule released and unlike the SIF the scheduled (outside of Savannah) each team plays between 7 and 9 league games and a total between 7 and 10.

Speaking of the CAIF we move on to them, officially known as Can-Am Indoor Football, this league resembles the mind, body, and soul of everything we came to know about the old AIF. It is an eastern based league (check), it has way to many teams including travel only (check), the games on each schedule vary (check), and not all teams playing home games have arenas (check). It’s a perfect amount of garbage for a dumpster fire to start. I’ll make this short on the CAIF. It was started as a replacement for the AIF so that the Vermont Bucks had a league to play in. There are 10 teams in it’s first season which include 3 travel only teams (Boston, Connecticut, and Glens Falls), 4 teams (per the league’s website) have no home arenas (Lockport, Niagara Falls, NY, Niagara, ON, and Rochester), and only 3 teams (Buffalo who announces theirs on 1/26, New Hampshire, and Vermont)  that have a home arena! Out of these 10 teams Boston is scheduled to play only 2 games, while 3 teams (Connecticut, Glens Falls, and Lockport who is set for 2 home games) are scheduled to play 4 games. While the 4 teams (Buffalo, Niagara, Niagara Falls, and New Hampshire who is scheduled to play an SIF club) are set to play 8 games. And Vermont well their set for 11 games! Yes 11 games, 8 games in the CAIF and 3 non-league games!! Then of course as mentioned earlier the Arena Football Challenge Cup which is set to have the CAIF Champion play the APF Champion.

And now last and certainly least is the EIFC or Elite Indoor Football Conference (which yes is different from the EIF), this league was founded by the Central Florida Jags as a league for them to play in. What teams are in the EIFC? Glad you asked we have the league founders the Central Florida Jags, the Florida Generals, the Lake Park Tigers, the Miracle City Great White, the Polk County Venom, the South Florida Barracudas, and yes the damn Palm Beach Phantoms. What does this league have going for it? Well every team is playing 9 or 10 regular season games and that’s it because only (according to the website) literally only the Central Florida Jags have a home arena (the Lakeland Center in Lakeland, FL)

For all of you who have stuck with I do appreciate it, I know it has been a painful and bumpy train ride so far but we’re almost to the last station. As I mentioned before there are a few teams in these leagues and that’s what we’ll talk about now. The only team that I give a Seal of Approval (for players and fans) to is Florida Tarpons. The Tarpons will be entering their Sixth season in 2017 and in their fourth league, besides the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks and Columbus Lions (both of whom play in the NAL)  the Tarpons are the third strongest team on the east coast. As for a fan investment I can also say the River City Raiders are ok, the only reason is due to all Raiders tickets being free. Other than those a wait and see attitude should be used for players for the Raiders since they just bailed from the CIF as well a wait and see on the Vermont Bucks and Central Florida Jags. I would stay away from every other club as there are bound to be more than a few dumpster fires of both teams and leagues. And now folks we have arrived at the station and you may exit the train now that this painful tour through the underbelly of indoor football is done.

Indoor Football Weekly Special Edition #1: The Shit Show 2017: Part One

BEFORE YOU READ: this is a warning to players and fans about how poorly teams and leagues can be run, now that the disclaimer is done we shall continue. By good it's awful out there, that's right even though the dreaded American Indoor Football finally folded it's not over. Why? Do you ask, well because we have not one, not two, not even just three, but five yes FIVE garbage leagues polluting indoor football this year. Yes it hurts and we all know it but there are some, well, decent teams in these leagues.

To start our journey of pain through the underbelly of indoor football off we'll start with the league that was originally launched in 2016, Supreme Indoor Football. Yes, yes the SIF, the league was started by the Cape Fear Heroes owner in 2016 and was to have partnered with a reborn CIFL. There was many problems, starting with the CIFL could never get off the ground and was dead. But like a phoenix Supreme Indoor Football rose again! Well sorta, the SIF didn’t have enough teams to make a decent league so they have um “partnered” with the EIF (Elite Indoor Football) for the 2017 season. This should tell you how garbage this league is right off the bat, plus they can’t decide how many teams are in the SIF. How you ask? Well depending on where you look on the website (and whether or not you count the EIF teams listed, but we’ll get to that later) they have five, six, or eight teams in the SIF!

For sake of sanity we’ll talk about the EIF clubs later, but currently listed in their Standings area on the Website are the Cap City Bulls, the team is based out of Austin, TX however per their schedule (on the Bulls Website) they’ll play an all road game schedule of 8 games. These games will span four different indoor leagues, including exhibition games against the IFL’s Wichita Falls Nighthawks, and the NAL’s Monterrey Steel. Next up we have the league owners team, the Cape Fear Heroes. The Heroes are based out of the Crown Coliseum in Fayetteville, NC and per the SIF website they have a Seven game schedule, and that’s all the info we have, yep off to a great start so far. Third in line we have the Georgia M.O.B. (or MOB depending on where you look) they are scheduled to play out of Conyers, GA (where I have no idea) and have a whopping four games scheduled in 2017! The M.O.B. don’t even have a website just a Facebook page wow. In fourth place is another expansion club the Greenville Dragons, the Dragons we’re admitted with no home! Yes the SIF let them in this “league” as a travel team and having them secure a venue for 2018. The SIF website lists them as playing four games while the team site has them playing six! Another reason the SIF can’t make up their mind. But I digress last but not least of the teams (at least listed in the standings) is a team who actually played in 2016! It’s the Triangle Torch (yes it’s a stupid name, we know). The Torch played in the now dead AIF in 2016 and finished with a 3-4 record with one game cancelled besides the seven played. They made their home turf out of the J.S. Dorton Arena at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in Raleigh, NC. Per the SIF website they have a whopping five games scheduled and oh gee no website!

And to finish off the SIF they also have listed on their website the Anderson Gladiators who are nowhere to be found in the schedule or standings! As a background the Gladiators we’re originally announced as part of the ADL (now NAL) but bolted to the SIF and have been said to have not found a home arena. We also have listed in the teams section the Louisiana Cottonmouths, a failed AIF expansion team in 2016, and the South Carolina Ravens, a team who was scheduled to play 2017 in the AIF.

Now on to something even more painful, Elite Indoor Football. Yes ELITE Indoor Football, the EIF was founded by Bobby Dammarell the owner of the Savannah Steam. I won’t get into it to deep here but his wife Jenny, was booked into a county jail for “deposit account fraud”. The team was also told by the City of Savannah that due to it’s debts they wouldn’t be allowed a lease at the Savannah Civic Center again, in fact they can’t even play there as a road team! Next we have the Carolina Cowboys, based out of ?, South Carolina. Yes they don’t have a home arena or even city leased and their using the Dallas Desperados logo jeez. Next up is the Florida Tribe to be based out of Tallahassee, FL, where is their home arena, nobody knows. The Roanoke Militia were announced as the fourth team in the EIF, all we know is their base is Roanoke, VA. And finally the fifth and newest team the Atlanta Furious. Where do they play? You guessed it nobody knows. This is a league shrouded in mystery and unprofessionalism, per the website they will play a March through June schedule but yet don’t have an actual schedule released, and all but Savannah don’t have a website!

Stay tuned for Part Two of this nightmarish mess, we’ll show you the disaster of the Can-Am Indoor Football, Arena Pro Football, and the Elite Indoor Football Conference (yes it’s a different league).