Intense Football League / National Indoor Football League

IFL and NIFL to Merge

El Paso Rumble could still fold

By Matt Young
Caller-Times

One of the main complaints hammering the Intense Football League last season was the limited number of teams, which led to some teams playing each other four times in a season.

The IFL teams won't have that problem any longer.

A week after the Amarillo Dusters - last year's IFL champions - jumped ship to af2, the IFL announced a merger with the 31-team National Indoor Football League.

The Corpus Christi Hammerheads, San Angelo Stampede, Lubbock Lone Stars and Odessa Roughnecks will all join the NIFL.

The El Paso Rumble - the lone remaining IFL team, but one which struggled financially in its first season - is still a possibility to join its original league partners, or it could fold completely.

IFL founder and president Chad Dittman immediately shot down conjecture that the move bailed out his fledgling league. Instead he looked at it as a way to remove some pressure off his shoulders.

In his league's only season, Dittman ran into problems when the El Paso franchise struggled and he had to take over its operations, while he still ran the Corpus Christi franchise and tried to keep the rest of the league happy.

"(The league) definitely could have made it, and we were prepared to come back for another season until (the NIFL) called us," Dittman said. "This move will help everyone, and it takes a huge burden off me. I have a family, and I spent a lot of last year on the road and dealing with all kinds of details in the league. Now, I won't have such a huge load. Now, if a team is struggling financially, I don't have to worry about it. I can just handle my team, and let the other owners handle theirs."

The NIFL, which is also adding three Florida teams, will work almost the same as the IFL except for the amount of teams and a few minor rule tweaks, like three offensive players being allowed to go into motion and a wider array of defenses being legal.

The biggest change for fans is the move of the schedule. Instead of beginning in May like the IFL planned, the league will begin play in March. The Hammerheads' first home game is expected to be March 12 or 13 at the American Bank Center.

"I think the league will be about the same," said Hammerheads quarterback Chris Harrington, who played in the NIFL for the Louisiana Rangers before coming to Corpus Christi. "The games will still be high-scoring, and the talent should be about equal. What makes this better is just the number of teams, and the exposure you get from playing all over the country."

One problem with a league that stretches from Everett, Wash., to Lakeland, Fla., is the travel. However, NIFL president Carolyn Shiver says the teams will likely be broken into six divisions focused heavily on regional rivalries.

"This is definitely a bus league," Shiver said. "We thought these IFL teams would be a great addition to our league, because we already have existing teams all around this area. It made sense for us to expand by adding the IFL."

Schedules aren't expected to be released until the end of November, but Corpus Christi could be in a division with any number of possibilities, including: Odessa, Lubbock, San Angelo, Beaumont, Houma (La.) and Lake Charles (La.).

Contact Matt Young at 886-3702 or youngm@caller.com

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