Dave’s Football Blog

Do you live in North Carolina? Are you utterly desperate for something — anything — resembling professional football? Then get up off your couch on Saturday and head out to Dorton Arena, Raleigh’s original Cow Palace, where the Raleigh Rebels of the American Indoor Football League open their 2006 campaign against the Carolina Ghostriders, who will be based in Asheville in 2006.

Oh, yes. It’s a 50-yard indoor war without a net. At the Cow Palace. Aren’t you glad you read this blog?

Wait, there’s more where that came from. The National Indoor Football League has two teams in North Carolina as well, the Fayetteville Guard and the Greensboro Revolution, and there’s talk of their expanding into Charlotte as well, though we all know how well indoor football sells in the Queen City.

And just because you can never have too many indoor football leagues, there’s also the United Indoor Football League, which doesn’t have any teams in North Carolina at the moment. They do, however, have the Omaha Beef. And the Omaha Beef have serious fans.

It’s kind of a shame that the Carolina Cobras never got an opportunity to stay in Raleigh after the AFL decided to start its season in February instead of May. Arena Football was starting to find audience around here. But the American Indoor Football League? Yeah, good luck selling that one. The Rebels’ second home game is scheduled for Thursday, March 9, the first day of the ACC Basketball Tournament. I’m guessing the expected first-round byes for Duke, NC State and UNC won’t help the Rebels’ attendance figures all that much.

How many indoor football leagues can one football-crazy superpower support? I guess we’ll just have to wait and see…

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