Between The Walls

by Josh Stein
Published on April 7, 2004 under National Indoor Football League (NIFL)


The NIFL is now through what is quite possibly the worst week it has ever had. Greenville's replacement, Lancaster, decided to lose by 99 points to a Tupelo team that wasn't even trying. The real Greenville has folded and is gone, as well as what appears to be Fort Collins being dead, too. Now, Myrtle Beach has been thrown out. Why does this league keep doing this to itself? Bring in a bunch of crooks for cheap, and you get what you deserve. So, how do we fix THIS mess?

As I'm writing this, my hands occasionally hold my head, because this is one of the biggest screwups I've ever seen. What to do, what to do? Well, I'm going to throw out my plan here to try and somehow fix the league. It's probably a bit optimistic and what-not (okay, it IS optimistic), but still is what I think about the situation. Maybe someone will even listen and try to change something with this. I doubt that, but optimism is a wonderful thing to have.

The touchdown watch this week is going to be put on hold, because it's certainly questionable where teams stand and what-not with things. After a (fairly) solid week of games and the such, I'll put it back on here. That, and I need to figure out what teams are losing an away game (at Greenville or Myrtle Beach) and put that into the mess. And with the OHSAA High School rankings, that Greenville win isn't going to help Tupelo. I'll wait on that until we really know what teams are where.

So, where do we go from here? Well, there are games to be played. Will they? I hope so. I really do hope so. However, the games aren't even the focus of this article. This is what most people read TWBTW for, though, so I figure that it would probably be a good idea for me to do this.

***** Football. I thought the NIFL was a soap opera!

Omaha Beef @ Tri-City Diesel
Omaha is still a very good team in this league, and Tri-City is not looking all that bad. They will certainly win their division, I have determined. And, since the game is in Kearney, they may even surprise the league and get a win here. Okay, I won't go *that* far. Omaha 33-30.

Lexington Horsemen @ Fort Wayne Freedom
Role reversal. The Freedom don't like losing (does anyone?) and they have a great home field advantage to fix those losing problems. However, with Rocky Harvey not at 100% and the passing game seemingly not able to play with the lack of a sufficient ground attack (at least, at the goal line), Lexington could come in here and get the upset. I think it'll be like last year, home team goes 2-0. Fort Wayne 35, Lexington 29.

**** There actually are some good games this week.

Utah Warriors @ Wyoming Cavalry
What a delicious matchup, especially now that Wyoming is a better team, whipping in Sioux Falls non-standing. Utah is better, especially since they lost to the Yankees by a small margin. Utah is starting to convince me, and they'll win on the road for the first time. Utah 46-34.

Tupelo FireAnts @ Beaumont Drillers
I hope this isn't another show in Beaumont's decline attendance-wise, but we had proof it was true in Alexandria, Louisiana as well. It may be all the fan's fault, as has been expressed by some people, but I find it hard to believe that two different cities that are supposedly SO DIFFERENT are having the same tendencies. There's a game to be played, and Tupelo will be on a high after that thing against Lancaster, so Beaumont could come in here and slap them down. Tupelo will get back off of Cloud 9 by halftime, and will take a hard-fought road win 54-48.

*** Division games are all still important at this stage.

Lincoln Capitols @ Sioux City Bandits
It appears we were fooled. Sioux City isn't too good. Even though the ownership sucks in Lincoln once again, it appears, the Capitols players are still pretty good. It could be close for awhile, but...Lincoln 44-29.

** Not the makings for a good game.

Ohio Valley Greyhounds @ Staten Island Xtreme
Staten Island gets a win because Atlantic City refuses to play on the turf, then promptly plays a longish intrasquad game where no one gets hurt. This certainly makes sense to me. Atlantic City was not not playing because of the turf. With that said, I don't know why they didn't play, but I have my ideas on the subject. They won't have that problem against the Champs, who like to eat expansion teams for breakfast. Greyhounds 54-21.

Billings Outlaws @ Black Hills Red Dogs
After being slapped a bit by a quarterbackless Utah team, Billings looks to rebound. Luckily, they play the Red Dogs. Billings 57-24.

Lancaster Riverhawks @ Atlantic City CardSharks
One team that gave up going against one team that valiantly fought through a bad situation. Most of the Lancaster team will be new, as they have tryouts this week, and will probably not have ever played the indoor game. Atlantic City, you could argue, has not played either, deciding to chicken out in Staten Island after getting smacked around by the Show Me Believers. This will be a good game, if for no other reason than it seems to be two awful teams playing. I think this is Lancaster's best shot to win a game this season. Too bad it's too early for them to really be ready, though. CardSharks 42-33.

Oklahoma Crude @ Waco Marshals
You'd think Coach Bronk would have his mess in Waco figured out on the field by now. Oklahoma should provide for a nice controlled scrimmage, especially on the defensive side for Waco, since the Crude do have a fair passing game that has explosive tendencies. But, Waco gets untracked here. Marshals 49-29.

* What's this crap?

Colorado Venom @ Wichita Falls Thunder
Wichita Falls Rustlers? The league website make a mistake here, or did the Thunder change their name? The rumor from a quality source that I hear says that the team traveling to Wichita Falls will have the strange color mixtures, with weird purples and stuff, but it won't be from Colorado. If I'm wrong and it is the Venom traveling, it'd be a 55-14 Thunder win. With it not being the Venom's weird purple and other color combination, (from what I hear) Houma will go in and show the Thunder that maybe I was wrong about them not being a better team than last year. Bayou Bucks 47-25.

*Note: I hope it's the Venom, because that means they're still something sort-of there. But, I'm probably correct in assuming they're not.

What happens here?

Show Me @ Myrtle Beach
Nope, that's not happening. I would have thought the Believers were a better choice to go to Wichita Falls than Houma, because of this. But a game is better than no game for the Thunder, no matter who it is. And a game against a viable opponent (rather than that 111-12 debacle in Tupelo) is a lot better than no game at all.

Now, let's discuss the NIFL itself. Games like this sure make it easy to write everything off and give up on the game of indoor football and the NIFL all in one fell swoop. All is not lost, however. Bad moves certainly don't help the league's image, or the sport's image as anything more than "bush-league semi-pro." But, as with almost anything, it can be fixed. It can be helped. The NIFL can be seen as a viable minor-league professional sport entity again. But, it will take a lot of work and a while to do.

Shall we begin? First and foremost, even though this Lancaster team is taking over the road schedules of Greenville and Myrtle Beach, there are two problems. One, what about those teams' (Greenville and Myrtle Beach) home games? What are the teams left standing in the NIFL going to do about that? Also, what's going to happen to Fort Collins' games?

If the rumor I've heard is right and Houma is going to Wichita Falls to replace Colorado, my question has just been answered. Teams that are still here simply have to be plugged in to fix these problems. We can go on bashing Carolyn Shiver for letting these horrible owners in, but the NIFL was set up such that the owners have to agree to everything, so it is obvious that Shiver isn't the only one who let the crooks (TIPS and April Coble with her posse) in. And since the owners let ‘em in and they're all dead, it's their problem to have to travel to extra away games and pay for them. If they can't pony up for an extra away game financially, they shouldn't be in the NIFL to begin with. Granted, this hasn't stopped the NIFL from accepting questionable ownership, but that is later on here.

Second, every ownership group in the NIFL needs to be scanned thoroughly for two reasons. One, the league needs to make sure that every team has the finances necessary to make it through the season, even if not one more fan walks through the turnstiles. Two, the league needs to make sure there are no crooks here. How do we do this? Each and every owner needs to provide a letter of credit for an appropriate amount (let's say $750,000), and each and every owner needs to sign a contract (if they are shown viable) that states that they are liable for every expense normal to an indoor football team in the NIFL. If they default or skip town, now Carolyn Shiver and every other owner in the NIFL has proof that the owner is going to be liable. Sure, there's ways around it, but this is still a million times better than the methods we don't seem to have in place here.

Third, the NIFL needs to hire a commissioner or someone of that capacity. No, I'm not talking about a CFL-type commissioner, where the "power" is in name only (with the owners still having the ultimate power over everything. That would be pointless here). I'm talking about someone who can levy fines to teams, someone who can change operating rules for the league if there's adequate reason to show it is needed. I'm talking about someone that has a guaranteed contract for at least a year, so they can do things without worrying about getting canned. And I am talking about someone who currently has absolutely ZERO ties to any existing team. The NIFL doesn't need bias of any sort, in this case. Owners don't want to give up their "power," that's why Shiver left the IPFL in the first place. But, I think we're starting to see very clearly that the NIFL's method is not working.

Fourth, with the jumbling of teams and schedule jumping, there probably needs to be a slight tweak in divisional alignment. Because it really isn't fair to the rest of the Atlantic Conference to have the Greyhounds in a division with an Atlantic City team that may not be here next week, a Lancaster team that lost by 99 points, and a Staten Island team that is still a large unknown, I would suggest that the Atlantic Conference's divisions be changed a bit. Basically, it'd keep the South division the same, and combine the North and East. Then, a second wild card would be added accordingly. This way, you could still have some sort of fight for the division title, and that's where everyone wins.

Finally, the league just needs to sit back and watch this season before worrying about anything else. There are expansion owners waiting in the wings to come on board and do their thing in the NIFL, but with the problems we've seen this season, it is imperative that we don't worry about that at all. The new owners need screened in a very big way (suggestions on the boards include things like seeing past business experience locally by the potential owners, which is a good idea I didn't think of), and that can't be done with full energy while the season is going on.

Now granted, with a league that is having the problems it is having, this is not exactly an exhaustive list. I'm not going to glorify the issue - it's not even close to being an exhaustive list, but it's a start. After the past week and a half or so, a start is something that I can live with, and a start is something that most every fan here can live with. I hear that the NIFL is working with Fort Collins to try to save that place, which is very good. I fear that Greenville (not Lancaster, but Greenville) is probably a wasteland for indoor football, and I also think Myrtle Beach is going towards that route. Of course, with enough work, anything can be saved, even Alexandria, Louisiana. But, that's enough ranting for this week. Until next time, let's just hope that the War stays Between the Walls.

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National Indoor Football League Stories from April 7, 2004


The opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer(s), and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


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