The Nashville Venom were a professional indoor football team, one of eight franchises of the

Professional Indoor Football League The Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) was a professional indoor football league that played four seasons from 2012 to 2015. Like the Lone Star Football League, the PIFL was mainly composed of teams formerly part of Southern Indoor F ...

(PIFL). Based in

Nashville, Tennessee Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

, the Venom were members of the American Conference. The team began play in 2014 as an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

. The team played at

Nashville Municipal Auditorium The Nashville Municipal Auditorium is an indoor sports and concert venue in Nashville, Tennessee. It opened October 7, 1962 with both an arena and exhibition hall. The former exhibition hall has been permanent home to the Musicians Hall of Fame ...

in Nashville, which opened in 1962. The Venom were the second indoor/arena football team to call Nashville home, and the first since the

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 Arena Football League season, 1987 season, making it the third longest-runnin ...

Nashville Kats The Nashville Kats were an Arena Football League team, located in Nashville, Tennessee. They were last coached by Pat Sperduto, who coached the team's original incarnation to two ArenaBowl appearances prior to the original franchise's move to A ...

(1997–2001 and 2005–07). After two seasons and the folding of the PIFL, the Venom ceased operations in 2015.

Franchise history

2014

In November, 2012, it was announced that the Venom would be the eighth and final expansion team of the

for the 2014 season. A few days after being introduced it was announced by Managing Partner Jeff Knight that Billy Back would be the first coach in Venom history. The Venom began their inaugural season on March 29, 2014, in

Huntsville, Alabama Huntsville is the List of municipalities in Alabama, most populous city in the U.S. state of Alabama. The population of the city is estimated to be 241,114 in 2024, making it the List of United States cities by population, 100th-most populous ...

against the Alabama Hammers. Their first home game was on April 5, against the

Harrisburg Stampede The Harrisburg Stampede were a professional indoor football team based in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. The Stampede participated in several different leagues over their history: the American Indoor Football Association in 2009 and 2010, the South ...

. The Venom finished the regular season 10-2, the best record in the league, and won the American Conference regular season title. Their nine All-PIFL selected players were the most of any team. In the American Conference Championship Game, the Venom defeated the Columbus Lions 44-39 to advance to PIFL Cup III. On July 12, 2014, the Venom won their first PIFL Cup Championship, defeating the Lehigh Valley Steelhawks 64-43.

2015

Following the 2015 PIFL season, the league folded and the franchise folded soon afterward.

Players of note

Final roster

Awards and honors

The following is a list of all Venom players who have won league awards:

All-League players

The following Venom players have been named to All-League Teams: * WR Phillip Barnett, Jordan Jolly (2) * OL Chris Thompson, Stanlee Bradley * DL Wayne Daniels, James Frazier, Walter Thomas * LB Cobrani Mixion, Douglas Rippy, Will Johnson * DB Scooter Rogers, Corry Stewart (2), Kenny Veal * K Christian Reed * KR Mike Whittaker

Head coaches

Coaching staff

Season-by-season results

* Season currently in progress

References

External links

* {{PIFL 2013 establishments in Tennessee 2015 disestablishments in Tennessee American football teams established in 2013 American football teams disestablished in 2015