Indoor Football This Week
by Danny Burnham
August 6, 2009 - American Indoor Football Association (AIFA)
In this edition of Indoor Football This week, we have the end of season lists of the most influential people in the sport. Yes, I said lists because there are two of them. The good and the bad. We'll start with the good.
I was advised by, well, an adviser to add myself to this list. I don't really like the idea of patting myself on the back outside of the messageboard setting, but out of respect, I'll do it in a "bonus" spot.
10.5 Danny Burnham, considered by some in the sport to be the John Clayton of indoor football. And apparently, his column on Oursportscentral.com raised a few eyebrows. He also considers it a great honor to join these names on the good guy list.
10 Adam Pringle, owner Muskegon Thunder. His death in a pre-season snowmobile accident was a tragedy. Would have been a major player in the sports future.
9 AIFAfans.com - Once again, Gene and Joe did a better job of covering the league then PR Director Bill Hazen, though Bill's podcast wasn't bad when it didn't have Mink or Morris on it.
8 Ft. Wayne Freedom players. Made it to the championship game without getting paid a big chunk during the regular season. Everything that's good and bad about this sport was featured in Ft. Wayne. Players were the good stuff.
7 Dart Clark and Barney Welch, GMs of El Paso Generals. Let's see. Start a team in a new market. Average 4,000 a game, get your team into the playoffs. And how are you rewarded? Your owner Brandon Smith fires you. That's indoor football - owners suck. You guys did great.
6 Dan Ryan, Director of Communications, SIFL. He moved to Utah for birth of a step-grandchild and you could never tell it by the way the Louisiana-based SIFL's website blew away all the other leagues on gamenight - well, unless you were listening to him call Utah Valley Thunder games on the AIFAfans site.
5 John Hargrove and the Columbus Lions owners. Got to handle it to the team keeping the WIFL legacy alive - they've gotten better and are putting out a great product each year in Columbus.
4 Heron O'Neal, Coach and Adam Steadman, GM, Billings Outlaws. Among the train wreck that we came to know as the IFL, all O'Neal and Steadman did was win 14 games, get to the league championship game and put fans in the seats. What a great concept.
3 Thom Hager, SIFL President and Louisiana Swashbuckler owner. Launches a league that struggles until new ownership groups strengthen the league at season's end as well as owns a team that threepeats. And he had to deal with Michael and Natalie Coleman. Pretty busy. His business model may just save the sport.
2 Steve McMichael, Chicago Slaughter. Yeah, I'm a Bears fans. Make something of it. Mongo had a perfect season. Yeah, he had an AFL roster, but that's what your supposed to do, get good players. The CIFL needed a great storyline and Chicago provided it.
1 Bernie Nowotarski, Reading Express Head Coach/GM. Why not McMichael? Bernie had to beat Columbus and Wyoming on the road to win a championship and runs one of the sport's best franchises. McMichael had his run with the Bears, let's give it to Bernie because he's done the sport right.
The bad.
10 Dave McCarthy and Bob Bartosiewicz, Rochester Raiders Couldn't live up to their own hype. 9-5 and first-round playoff loss ain't anything special.
9 Bill Fahlsing, owner, Ft. Wayne Freedom, OK, OK, he saved his own butt and raised enough cash to get the Freedom into the CIFL championship game and provided a feel-good story. I'd rather feel good about an owner making payroll EVERY week and avoiding feel good stories.
8 Quincy Carter, QB, Abilene Ruff Riders. From one Georgia boy to another, this might be a good time to hang it up.
7 Chad Dittman, Corpus Christi Hammerheads owner. This year's incidents included grabbing the facemask of a player during a game and one of his own guys cold cocked a ref. You know, this guy pretty much deserves a lifetime achievement award and will be on this list every year I do it.
6 Franklin Thomas, Houma Conquerors. Went 0-5 as a coach and didn't pay his bills as an owner. Everyone in Houma wants a team, they just don't want Franklin Thomas around anymore.
5 Michael and Natalie Coleman, Coach and GM of Florida Kings. Michael's offense didn't score a touchdown in two games. The Kings lost 81-0 and Natalie declares it was ``home cooking'' and says a player from the other team exposed himself to her. You know, I really don't need to write anything else about them, except good riddance.
4 Barbara J. Spigner, Florence Phantoms owner. From AIFA champions to a sorry team that gave ghetto football a bad name. So much for building on a championship.
3 Eli Abraham, Corpus Christi Hammerheads player. After being ejected from a game, goes back on the field and slugs the official. Needless to say, he won't be playing anywhere for a while.
2 Tommy Benizio, IFL Commissioner. Ramrodded a merger between two leagues, left his associates in Texas hung out to dry, gets overturned on one decision after another , puts an expansion team in a market where another league has already done so, and pretty much proved he doesn't have the football background or experience to run a national level football league. Instead of moving the sport forward like he could, only delivered more of the same at best.
1 Kent Vucurevich, owner Sioux Falls Storm. Face it, if he had done what he was supposed to do and properly pay insurance, the Storm would be in the playoffs and Benizio wouldn't have had to deal with a situation he wasn't ready to handle.
On the field: Indoor football season officially comes to close on Saturday. River City travels to Billings as the two teams square off in the IFL United Bowl.
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