Commentary: NIFL daily buzz

by Jerry Hewitt
Published on May 4, 2006 under National Indoor Football League (NIFL)


Here we go again

Arkansas Stars coach says no pay, no play

05/04/06 NWA News

Stars players and coaches are awaiting payment for past games and are considering not playing again until compensated, Coach Marshall Foreman confirmed Wednesday. Other financial problems also have surfaced for team owners Ron and Katona Hargrave, including failure to pay the full amount of their venue lease. Go to http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Sports/153700/ for full the article.

Aces flying into the sunset?

Rumor has it the Aces will announce their ceasing of operations today. This comes after a very turbulent few days of trying to stay alive in wake of their owner, Howard Neal, turning out to be the traveling con man of the NIFL.

We'd like to just share some quotes from the media on the situation and let fans shake their head in disbelief.

From the Rapid City Journal, Meanwhile, the league's role in the Howard Neal debacle is puzzling. How could NIFL officials not know that a man using two aliases was going around the country claiming nearly simultaneous ownership or management involvement in three separate NIFL teams?

From KNBN-TV, Rapid City, Some wonder how the NIFL could overlook Neal's past record with the Miami Morays and Cincinnati Marshalls.

From KEVEN FOX TV, However, Wednesday morning there appeared to be a light at the end of the tunnel. After working the phones, Maciejczak found out 6 local potential sponsors were leaning toward investing about $10,000 each to keep the winning team in Rapid City. However, the National Indoor Football League would have to send the team about $25,000. Maciejczak says they refused to do that. Therefore, the Rapid City Flying Aces are no more

And there is so much more it's ridiculous. But here is the big question, how could Mr. Neal, aka how many other names have free reign around the NIFL, burning Miami and Cincinnati last season, now Rapid City and almost Arkansas without anyone being the wiser? Well my opinion is somebody was the wiser and chose to ignore the facts. We're not dealing with super criminal here. He left his trail in a desk drawer upon fleeing his latest fleecing, not exactly a smart move although I give him credit for evading law enforcement so well.

From the Rapid City Journal article: "Katona Hargrave, co-owner of the Fayetteville Stars, confirmed Wednesday that Howard Neal arrived last week. She said that the NIFL sent Neal to Fayetteville to help the struggling team generate ticket sales and find investors."

1. Arkansas listed as "struggling" (potential fire watch) 2. NIFL SENT HIM THERE!!! How can CS claim she did not know?! She dealt directly with him, confirmed by an Aces co-owner and Stars co-owner.

I won't take credit for the numbered questions above, they were passed on to me by a fellow editor, but I would agree 100%, how could she not know?

See ya Rapid City

Yeah, see ya. I wonder if its easy to just turn your back on a team you maybe deceived owners into allowing into the league. Is it easy to turn your back on fans in a community that rallied around this team in a market most considered dead. How easy is it to dole out league funds to save teams that shouldn't even be in the league, yet not help out what appears to be a gem and possible asset to the league for many years to come? I wonder if its easy to just say oh well, another one bites the dust, more where that came from. I just wonder how some can sleep at night.

From a fan

"Get this, in light of those articles about Howard the Fraud (HtF) and his auto dealings, you'll never guess how big that story got. Barbara Walters, yes, that Barbara Walters, did a story on 20/20 detailing HtF's fraud on January 15, 1999. That's right, a nationally-known reporter did a story on a national network, and somehow this never popped up during CS's extensive background search. She did not protect the NIFL or its member teams be doing even a basic search on this guy the first time around."

Who else gets hurt.

The Aces have Tri-Cities and Billings left on their home schedule, leaving five on the road. If these dates can't be filled, Wyoming, Tri-Cities, Billings and even Big Sky lose out on what could be a big gate considering how good of a team Rapid City is. That's a potentially big loss to those teams and outside of Big Sky, we're talking about three teams considered among the best off the field in the NIFL. So by the league not stepping up to help keep Rapid City alive, more potentially will suffer. So what says some, the league will just bring in some semi pro team to fill those dates. Smart thinking there folks. Yeah just as many will turn out to see some traveling circus act as they would to see their playoff bound team face what some consider the leagues best team. Bottom line, if Rapid City folds, other teams will join in their pain at the box office.

Game tonight

Yeah, with all this going on, that little detail just might pass us by. Fayetteville now with one loss travels to Charleston. Darn, I sure hope both these teams are still around tonight to play.

It's a good question

I titled this edition with that phrase and I close with it ................. It's a good question

Fire watch

Arkansas added to our fire watch as fires close in on Louisiana. The winds have clearly shifted towards Louisiana. All fires are indeed headed that way very rapidly. For the safety of the fire crews, most have been pulled out as most of these fires are so out of control, it would be impossible to stop them at this point.

Weather forecast

Official NIFL weather report and fire control updates. NIFL fire crews are hard at work trying to contain some of the fires, while they are just letting some burn themselves out. In some areas, local fire crews have been left on their own to battle the blazes. Reports from our watch towers are no new sightings, but the weather forecast includes a 90% chance of thunderstorms over the next eleven weeks. Additional fire crews have been put on alert that their services could be needed at a moments notice and should be prepared to go anywhere in the NIFL forest. As always, we have our own spotters that will be on the front lines covering the disasters as they happen.

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National Indoor Football League Stories from May 4, 2006


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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