Dave’s Football Blog

The Arena Football League season may have ended weeks ago — Ditka! — but its redheaded stepsister marches on. The AF2 playoffs begin tonight in Manchester, NH, and Fresno, CA. The gang at Fringe Sports Central is right on top of the Arena Cup, which sounds like it needs disinfecting as badly as the Redskins’ training camp facilities. Don’t drink out of that cup, guys. You don’t know where it’s been.

Of course, if you would rather watch a 7-on-7 party than an 8-on-8 competition, you should be in Bethlehem, PA this weekend for the Great Lakes Indoor Football League All-Star Game. Never mind the fact, of course, that none of these guys are even close to being stars, but hey, the GLIFL seemed to have a pretty successful first season, so if they want to throw a party, who are we to tell them they can’t?

The league is planning on expanding, too. The Miami Valley Silverbacks and the Steubenville Stampede, both late of the AIFL, announced that they’re moving to the GLIFL starting next season — would the last team to leave the AIFL please turn out the lights? — and there may be as many as 12 teams in the GLIFL in 2007. So if you live Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey or Maryland, you’ll have yet another option for indoor football next spring.

Still no word on who else will be joining the WIFL for its inaugural season, though speculation continues to point to both the Fayetteville Guard and the Chattahoochee Valley Vipers as potential members. The Fayetteville Observer is practically begging the Guard to consider the WIFL. In this environment, that may be enough for them to make a move. We’ll see.