National Indoor Football League

National Indoor Football League

National Indoor Football League logo
Sport Indoor football
Founded 2001
Ceased 2008
Country USA
Last champion(s) San Diego Shockwave
Official website http://www.niflfootball.com (Dead link)

The National Indoor Football League was a professional indoor football league in the United States. For their first six years, the league had teams in markets not covered by either the Arena Football League or its developmental league, af2, however, that changed briefly with their expansion into AFL markets such as Atlanta, Denver, and Los Angeles, and af2 markets such as Fort Myers and Houston.

History

The NIFL, based in Lafayette, Louisiana, was founded by Carolyn Shiver. The league started operations in 2001, with many teams coming from Indoor Football League being bought the previous year and folding operations. In 2002, the league added in the teams from the Indoor Professional Football League. 2003 was the most successful year for the league as 24 teams played a mostly complete schedule, with few cancellations.

Before the 2005 season, nine teams left the league to form United Indoor Football. That same year though, the Intense Football League ceased operations and four teams from there joined the league. Those teams however, left the league before the 2006 season started.

For the 2005 season, the NIFL had an agreement with NFL to handle referee assignment and training. The agreement was not renewed after the season was over.[1]

The 2006 season, was the most chaotic for the league to that point. Ten expansion teams were added to the league, but nine of them had problems that reflected badly on the league. The most notable situation was the owner of the Montgomery Maulers firing the entire team.[2] None of the ten expansion teams returned to the league for the next season.

The 2007 season started with several league-owned expansion teams added in, primarily to supplement games with the returning teams. However, the teams were all poorly funded and had problems. The San Diego Shockwave won the 2007 NIFL Championship.


Former teams

Teams that left the NIFL to join (or plan to join) another league

Defunct teams/failed expansion

Indoor Bowl games

YearWinnerLoserScore
2001Mississippi Fire DogsWyoming Cavalry55–21
2002Ohio Valley GreyhoundsBillings Outlaws55–52
2003Ohio Valley GreyhoundsUtah Warriors45–37
2004Lexington HorsemenSioux Falls Storm59–38
2005Tri-Cities FeverRome Renegades47–31
2006Billings OutlawsFayetteville Guard59–44
2007San Diego ShockwaveNo Playoff

See also

Notes

  1. ↑ "NFL to NIFL: No Deal". 22 May 2008.
  2. ↑ NIFL squad in Montgomery fired after salary dispute
  3. ↑ Hall, Jamie (April 22, 2001). "Tupelo waits to see whether two teams can survive". Southeast Missourian (Cape Girardeau, MO: Rust Communications). Retrieved February 24, 2015.
  4. 1 2 Anne Marie Apollo (June 6, 2007). "Short, strange season for Green Cove Lions". The Florida Times-Union. Retrieved December 14, 2010.
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