Commentary: NIFL daily buzz

by Jerry Hewitt
Published on June 1, 2006 under National Indoor Football League (NIFL)


I guess the NIFL has snuck in and readjusted the standings to reflect most, if not all postponed games now as cancelled and forfeits declared. By just doing it and not saying anything I guess they figure nobody will notice and remember they were postponed, not cancelled. Nice try NIFL, but you've been caught again!

This week's games and no games

Right off the top three are definite no games, Billings at Big Sky, Dayton at Twin City, and RiverCity at Palm Beach. Just speculating still as no official word that I know of on Twin City, but odds are they are gone. Big Sky is an announced done for the season team as is Palm Beach, although Palm Beach might continue as a replacement team, but with this week's game scheduled in PB, well, guess no game is the logical conclusion.

In this week's "shouldn't have to play them" or "slaughters of the week" category, Arkansas at Charleston and Tennessee at Fayetteville. Both Arkansas and Tennessee seem to be filled with replacement players and their competitive status is near zero.

Still some good games left though, which is almost unbelievable. Wyoming at Beaumont should be good. This is a game the Drillers can win. I don't believe they are as good as the Cavalry, but honestly the Cavs suck on the road this season. Osceola at Montgomery should also be good with both teams trying to hang on for a play off spot. Greensboro at Florida ought to be very competitive. Neither team is very good, but pretty even. Game of the week of course is Rapid City at Tri-City. The Aces suffered their first defeat at Billings last week, but easily handled the Fever in RC two weeks ago. The Fever got a week off to get healthy for the first time this season and have revenge on their minds. Given that the Fever are healthy and play tough at home, this could be a one score final.

Leadership

There is questionable leadership or those close to the top in almost all of the indoor leagues. Depends on who you talk to if that leadership is questionable or not in some, but that's not the issue. As long as cancer is allowed to exist in positions of power, teams in those leagues will continue to suffer. I have no answers as to how to remove the cancer as some have themselves written into their leagues in such a way they can not be removed. What's really sad is they can look around at all the fires they started and continue to think they are on the right path, even though they can't get one person to agree with them.

Answer to an email

The question was whether I thought a regional league as opposed to a national one was better. This seems to be an ongoing debate, so I'll give my opinion.

I don't think either is bad or either better, depends on management. Smaller leagues are easier to manage, but can be just as bad as any national league that is poorly run. If you have a national league, it has to be set up in regions with local rivalries paid attention to, plus travel held to a minimum. If I were to have a national league, it would be sectioned off into regions with a minimum of 6 teams in each region. These regions initially wouldn't have to border each other, just number of teams in each enough to be able to play games without going out of the region.

I think the af2 tries to have the national thing with regional divisions, but maybe because of higher costs can't really keep teams long enough to ever achieve it. Their latest try is the Northwest and it looks pretty good for 07 to work, but question is will Sam Adams continue to play while losing money in Everett? Will Boise buy into the game after being burnt by the IPFL? If Portland comes in, will the people support a team, when they have never supported any kind of pro football in the past?

Many smaller regional leagues work, but they need to cooperate more with each other and stop fighting for territory.

Everything comes down to management of course and in reality it is management that spells success or failure of any league no matter its size.

As to the future, it depends. Until the indoor leagues start cooperating with each other to make the sport stronger, the af2 will continue to use the instability of indoor football to grow their sport. I think indoor will survive, but unless cooperation and a degree of professionalism achieved in all the leagues, it'll never rival the af2.

In closing

To teams. The NIFL and failed teams have left a trail of unpaid bills in failed markets. There are players still unpaid going back to the first season. Also I should mention unpaid medical bills of players, even though they were told they were insured. Even some league employees are left unpaid as agreed. And of course the unknown amount of lawsuits filed over those things I've mentioned. This pattern is just that, a pattern dating back to the very first year. If this is the kind of league you want to be associated with, then I guess you will be known by the company you keep.

Signing off

This is it, the final edition of the Daily Buzz, at least by me. I won't have internet access for a period of time so does no good to beg me not to stop. You all want news, good and bad, well just pay close attention to the message boards, everybody post what they hear. If it's rumor, post it as such. More read the boards than you might think, owners, sponsors and even the media look in. CS once told me she paid no attention, but she sure knew when to tell me to remove certain posts, so I think even she reads them.

Keep the faith fans, support your team. Maybe in time it will play in a league we can all be more proud of. So anyway, thanks to everybody for their help and support over the last six years. Maybe I just might show up sometime at a game near you, if it isn't cancelled before I get there of course. LOL



National Indoor Football League Stories from June 1, 2006


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