Obscure Football Weekly, Week 2

Obscure Football Weekly, Week 2

With just a few short days until the CFL preseason kicks off (I still don’t have a team yet), the indoor football action is heating up and the WFA teams are jockeying for position in the young season.  Meanwhile, we’re counting the days until Feb.8, 2020.

Arena Football League - The Empire established themselves as the team to beat, going to 4-0 after putting the boots to the Columbus Destroyers, 56-40.  The 0-4 Destroyers fumbled their first snap of the game and Albany took advantage with a 1 yard touchdown run by Mykel Benson.  Tom Grady threw for 320 yards and 7 tds to pace the Empire.  

The rest of the league is muddled in the middle with 2-2 records, as the Washington Valor defeated the Philadelphia Soul on a last second Arvell Nelson touchdown and the AC BlackJacks beat the Baltimore Brigade at home despite a late pick 6 by Baltimore’s Nias Martin.

Indoor Football League - Championship Indoor Football - The Tucson Sugar Skulls took care of business, posting a 52-40 win over the Bismarck bucks to go to 6-5 and put themselves in contention for a playoff spot.  Skulls QB Jake Medlock threw for 114 yards and 4 touchdowns, while DBs Micah Eugene and Edward Burns had Interceptions.  That leaves them tied in the standings with the Green Bay Blizzard and a game ahead of the Nebraska Danger, who couldn’t take care of business against the Iowa Barnstormers and the Sioux Falls Storm respectively.  

Championship Indoor Football - CIF is down a team, as the league’s board of directors officially gave the Texas Revolution the boot.  The team had forfeited several games this season.  The league will hold a dispersal draft at a later date.  On the field, the Beef, who officially have the best name in sports, stomped the Witchita Force, 70-33, as Taylor Hawkins had two INTs and QB Derrick Bernard threw two TDS to Receiver Javon Bell.  The Sioux City Bandits kept pace with their rivals, eking out a 79-71 W over the Amarillo Venom.  

Women’s Football Alliance - Tons of games here, with the D1 leading Boston Revolution making a statement with a 68-0 beat down of the Baltimore Nighthawks.  QB Allison Cahill threw for 300 yards and 5 TDS as the Renegades topped 60 points for the third time this season.  Shantia Creech, Christina Riggieri and Briannah Gallo all had INTs.  

In the OFW game of the week, the DC Divas held off a lower division opponent, edging the Pittsburgh Passion, 26-21

Obscure Football Weekly: Issue 1

Rather than just write general sports content, I have decided to move in a different direction.  Don’t get me wrong, I will still talk about other stuff and I am still going to keep up with the CFL (though I still haven’t picked a team yet).  I just want to do something a little out of the ordinary.

There are a lot of football leagues out there in the United States.  Indoor leagues, women’s leagues, non-power college conferences, you name it and its there.  I am going to bring both of my readers all the news they never new they wanted from those leagues.  Without further adieu, lets get started with:

Arena Football League - Perhaps one of the more well known leagues, the AFL has come and gone throughout the years.  The current iteration has only six teams and its currently in week three. 

Week 3 saw the Albany Empire establish themselves as a the team to beat with a 57-48 road win over the Jon Bon Jovi-owned Philadelphia Soul.  Empire quarterback Tom Grady (that’s Grady, with a G) threw seven touchdowns to pace his team.  The Washington Valor beat the Atlantic City BlackJacks 41-34 while the Baltimore Brigade defeated the Columbus Destroyers 48-30.

Indoor Football League - The IFL’s schedule is coming to an end, with teams jockeying for playoff positioning.  The Arizona Rattlers top the standings at 9-0, with the Iowa Barnstormers (Kurt Warner’s former team) are 9-1.  The Sioux Falls Storm are close behind at 8-2.  

Champions Indoor Football - The eight team CIF is in week 6, with the Omaha Beef (yes, I’m serious) leading the northern division at 5-1 and the Amarillo Venom leading the southern division at 5-2.  Both teams picked up a victory by forfeit over the Texas Revolution this past week.  Wonder when the last time someone won an NFL game by forfeit was.  

Woman’s Football Alliance - So how about this for a league.  63, you heard that right, 63 teams across three divisions.  All three divisions are in week five, With the Columbus Vanguards and Sin City Trojans leading DIII, the Detroit Dark Angels and Mile High Blaze on top of DII and the Boston Renegades and Cali War leading D1. This is going to be a hell of a league to follow.  

And there are other leagues that have yet to start their seasons.  When the NCAA season kicks off I might even include some of the non-power conferences.  You wanted Sun Belt conference coverage?  No?  Well I am going to give it to you anyway.  And don’t even get me started on the XFL... 

Well, that’s a wrap for now.  Tune in next week!

Jumping on the CFL Bandwagon: Choosing a Team

So its official, the Giants are going to be irrelevant for at least the next five years.  As long as the current GM, whose name we will not use ever on this blog, is in town, they will continue to make decisions that aren’t in the best interest of the franchise.  

Go ahead, keep running up the middle for three yards and then punting while the Rams/Pats/Saints/Chiefs et. Al. Keep piling up points.  Tua will be tearing it up and Tampa and Trevor Lawrence will have revived a stagnant Bengals franchise while he who we do not speak of watches Daniel Jones walk off the fields after yet another interception (with the stupid Eli look on his face, you know the one) and thinks “this is fine.”

But we aren’t here to talk about the NFL.  I was going to wait until the season started to resume my sports blogging, but I have decided instead to go to Canada.  As in, the Canadian Football League. I would never give up on my team, but I need to have to have some sort of football to look forward to while they toil in obscurity.  College just doesn’t do it for me.  I have always been fascinated by the CFL and its 110-yard, six guys in motion at once craziness.  Now is as good a time as any to start watching.  Problem is, I need a team and I don’t know where to start. 

In choosing, I will be considering history, city, uniform awesomeness, mascot coolness and success.  Success will be more of a balancing act, as I don’t want to be a bandwagon fan but I don’t want to pick up yet another hopeless obsession.  I will start with the three teams that are already eliminated from contention:

BC Lions - I always liked the lion as a mascot and they’ve been pretty good in recent years, but I always hated the black and orange combo and Vancouver, while apparently awesome, is waaaaaay too far away.

Winnipeg Blue Bombers - The unis are cool, but no Grey cups since 1990?  No thanks.  Add in the fact that Winnipeg is more than a day’s drive and they are out of the mix.

Toronto Argonauts - Stop me if you have heard this one before.  An old, classic franchise (the Argonauts are the oldest pro sports team in North America!) with a great history has come on hard times due to bad personnel decisions.  A few years ago they snuck into the playoffs as a wildcard, got hot and won a championship, but they weren’t particularly good before that and haven’t been good since.  This year, they made a head-scratching decision on a high draft pick, leading those in the media to question whether they have any sort of plan at all.  Sound familiar?

So that leaves us with:

Saskatchewan Rough Riders - They have great uniforms and a cool name, with pretty good success in recent years.  Their fans are widely considered the best in the CFL but apparently, they are a little too crazy.  This is one of those teams where increased police protection is needed at the stadium when rivals come to town, and I don’t know how I feel about that.  Also, really, really far away.

Calgary Stampeeders - The Rough Rider’s rivals and defending champions, the Stampeeders have a great look to them.  I am not normally a fan of the red/white/black look, but they make it work and their helmets are great.  As a pro wrestling fan, Calgary has always had a sort of mystique to me, but its super far away.  I would also be wary of jumping on the bandwagon of a defending champ.

Edmonton Eskimos - The best unis in the league IMO with a great color combo and helmet.  Unfortunately, their mascot is stupid and like its fellow western conference brethren, Edmonton is more than a days drive.

Hamilton Tiger-Cats - Not in love with their logo, but I like the black and gold Mizzou-esque uniforms and the name has a unique backstory.  While they haven’t won a title since 1999, they are always competitive and seem to go after a lot of ex-NFL player and top end NCAA stars, so I was more familiar with their roster than any others.  Also, its the second closest city to drive to, just twenty minutes more in the car than Montreal.  

Montreal Alouettes - Speaking of Montreal, the Alouette (its a bird, fyi) is the stupidest mascot in the league.  Their unis are okay, but their helmets and new logo are awesome.  They have had success in recent years and at just over 7 hours, their stadium is the closest by car of any team.  Montreal is the only city of the group that I have been to and its awesome, so there’s that.  

Ottawa Redblacks - So, what is a Redblack anyway?  Is it a Canadian thing that we Americans don’t know about?  I don’t really like their look (best comparison I could make is Texas Tech) or their mascot.  They are the newest team in the league, founded in 2010, but they have absorbed the history of all the other previous Ottawa teams like the Browns did when they came back into the league.  They have been pretty successful in their short tenure, they came up on the losing end in the Grey Cup game last year.  Ottawa is a little far, but its still a reasonable drive.  

So there we go.  Who should I pick?  Either way I am going to have to make a choice soon.  The CFL season starts June 1.