Dave’s Football Blog

While the entire city of Raleigh is still celebrating the Carolina Hurricanes’ Stanley Cup Finals victory — which reminds me, I have to put those photos of the big victory party up on Flickr — pretty much nobody in this town noticed that the Raleigh Rebels advanced to the American Indoor Football League Southern Division finals on Monday. Of course, how they advanced is quite a commentary on the sad, sad state of indoor football.

Follow me on this one:

Back in April, the Rebels were supposed to send game tapes to the juggernaut that is Richmond Bandits in preparation for their next matchup with each other. Those tapes didn’t arrive until a month later. This came just a week or two after the team was purchased from the league by the same ownership group that controls the Rome Renegades. It’s unclear how the Rebels were punished by the AIFL for this infraction, but clearly it wasn’t to the Bandits’ liking.

So the Bandits decided to get childish and withheld game tapes from the Rebels for a few days. In response, the Rebels waited even longer to deliver their game tapes to the Bandits. Then the AIFL league office called the Bandits on the day of the game and told them that they violated league rules and had to pay $3,000 in fines. Before kickoff. Or they would forfeit. Richmond complained that the Rebels were even later with tapes and should be fined as well. The AIFL didn’t see it that way.

All full of righteous indignation, the Bandits chose not to pay the fine, forfeited the playoff game, gave refunds to the 1,000 or so disappointed fans who bought tickets in advance, and decided to leave the AIFL.

Can you imagine an NFL team pulling a stunt like that? Can you picture the Seattle Seahawks complaining so much about the refs and “selective enforcement of the rules” that they would decide that principle was worth more than a playoff game? Even Mark “Ask me a real fucking question” Cuban would never go that far.

Granted, the economics of this situation are a lot different at this level. It could be possible that the Bandits ownership determined that paying the fine and playing the game would make them less money than forfeiting and giving 1,000 refunds. Still, giving up a shot at a title — any title — because you think the league is being unfair? I bet nobody who went to this party saw that coming.

The Way Things Are writes that the Bandits probably did the right thing in response to the league, but in the end, nobody really comes out of this situation a winner. AIFL president Andrew Haines is, in the opinion of many people on the Our Sports Central messageboards, a level 40 douchebag who may or may not be playing favorites with his tiny league’s team owners. The Bandits’ front office, however, acted like petulant brats by deliberately delaying game tape shipments, then cancelling a home playoff game when the league went after them, unfairly or not. A little professionalism on both sides could have prevented this mess.

What happens next is anybody’s guess. There’s talk of a new league is being formed for all the teams pissed off at both the AIFL and NIFL. That’s how United Indoor Football was born, and it’s been pretty stable this year compared to the AIFL and NIFL. In fact, UIF has the right idea. It’s a regional minor league that tries hard to keep costs low and keep fan interest high. Maybe there’s still a chance that some of these southern AIFL and NIFL teams will create the same kind of league and build a little interest in this area. Having teams from Raleigh, Richmond, Fayetteville and Greensboro together in the same league might intrigue a few football fans around here.

Then again, maybe Raleigh, still drunk from the champaign it’s drinking from the Stanley Cup, would be better off bringing Arena Football back to town. That would be a lot more fun to watch than the last Raleigh Rebels game I attended.

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