The Lincoln Capitols were a professional indoor football team that played their home games at Pershing Auditorium in

Lincoln, Nebraska Lincoln is the List of capitals in the United States, capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska. The city covers and had a population of 291,082 as of the 2020 census. It is the state's List of cities in Nebraska, second-most populous city a ...

, United States. They originally planned on becoming the Nebraska Knockout, but the name was scrapped. From 1999 to 2000, they were the Lincoln Lightning of the original

Indoor Football League The Indoor Football League (IFL) is a Professional gridiron football, professional indoor American football league in the United States. The league comprises 14 teams, divided equally between the Eastern Conference (EC) and Western Conference ...

before the IFL was bought out. The Lightning then played in the Arena Football's farm league during the 2001 season, before leaving the league and joining the

National Indoor Football League The National Indoor Football League (NIFL) was a professional indoor football league in the United States. For their first six years, the league had teams in markets not covered by either the Arena Football League or its developmental league, ...

as the Capitols. Lincoln had minimal success for most of the team's history, despite being successful in the regular season. They are the only team to lose in two shutouts, a rarity in the NIFL. During their 2001-2005 run, the franchise's most prominent player was a former Nebraska Cornhusker running back named Damon Benning and the franchise's owner was Andrew Cheesman. In 2006 the Capitols hired EX-NFL player Chris Simpson, who assembled a promising roster. He signed standout players Nate Jacks from Atlanta, Mike Carrawell from St. Louis, Abdul Rasheed (All American Triple Jumper from TCU), Brian Guthrie from National City (San Jose State) and James Easterling (Texas Tech). Coach Chris Simpson brought these key players in to play many roles. Brian Guthrie came in as a DB/LB/RB and later played for the IFL

Wyoming Cavalry The Wyoming Cavalry are an American professional indoor football team based in Gillette, Wyoming. The Cavalry began play in 2000 as an expansion member of the original Indoor Football League as the Casper Cavalry. The Cavalry became a charter ...

(2007–2008). Rasheed came in as a DB/WR. Easterling came in as a candidate for the starting RB/KR position. Mike was an All-American slot receiver from Quincy University and Nate was a shutdown corner back from KU. During the 2006 season, The NIFL, hoping to kill off their APFL competition and make the Capitols better, talked with the St. Joseph Explorers of the APFL and interested them in merging with the Lincoln Capitols and becoming the St. Joseph Storm. The team was still declined and was later bought by the league and made a

traveling team In professional team sports, a traveling team (also called a road team) is a member of a professional league that never competes in a home arena or stadium. This differs from a barnstorming team as a barnstorming team competes in exhibition games ...

. The end result was prospective owners saw NIFL as a league to avoid which was a major factor in the league's problems in 2007.

Season-by-season

, - , colspan="6" align="center" , Lincoln Lightning (IFL) , - , 1999 , , 7 , , 5 , , 0 , , 1st Southern , , Lost Semifinal ( Green Bay) , - , 2000 , , 10 , , 4 , , 0 , , 2nd Southern , , Lost Round 1 (

Sioux City Sioux City () is a city in Woodbury and Plymouth counties in the U.S. state of Iowa. The population was 85,797 in the 2020 census, making it the fourth-most populous city in Iowa. The county seat of Woodbury County, Sioux City is the primar ...

) , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Lincoln Lightning (af2) , - , 2001 , , 6 , , 10 , , 0 , , 7th NC Midwestern , , -- , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Lincoln Capitols (NIFL) , - , 2002 , , 10 , , 4 , , 0 , , 1st Pacific Northern , , Lost Round 1 ( Billings 54, Lincoln 51) , - , 2003 , , 9 , , 5 , , 0 , , 2nd Pacific Northern , , -- , - , 2004 , , 3 , , 11 , , 0 , , 4th Pacific Northern , , -- , - , 2005 , , 1 , , 13 , , 0 , , 5th Pacific Western , , -- , - , colspan="6" align="center" , Lincoln Capitols/St. Joseph Explorers , - , 2006 , , 0 , , 14 , , 0 , , 3rd Pacific Western , , -- , - !Totals , , 46 , , 69 , , 0 , colspan="2", (including playoffs)

References

External links

Lincoln Lightning on ArenaFan.com
* http://www.oursportscentral.com/services/releases/?id=3159363 {{Af2 Defunct American football teams in Nebraska Defunct af2 teams Indoor Football League (1999–2000) teams National Indoor Football League teams Sports in Lincoln, Nebraska American football teams established in 1998 American football teams disestablished in 2006 1998 establishments in Nebraska 2006 disestablishments in Nebraska