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 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 ...

or its developmental league,

AF2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football r ...

, however, that changed briefly with their expansion into AFL markets such as

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, and Los Angeles, and AF2 markets such as Fort Myers and

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head coach

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running back Fred Jackson,

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quarterback John Fourcade and

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Super Bowl running back Bam Morris, all played in the NIFL. The league folded in 2008.

History

The NIFL, based in

Lafayette, Louisiana Lafayette ( , ) is the most populous city in and parish seat of Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, Lafayette Parish in the U.S. state of Louisiana, located along the Vermilion River (Louisiana), Vermilion River. It is Louisiana's List of municipaliti ...

, was founded by Carolyn Shiver. The league started operations in 2001, with many teams coming from

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 ...

being bought the previous year and folding operations. In 2002, the league added in the teams from the Indoor Professional Football League. 2003 was the most successful year for the league as 24 teams played a mostly complete schedule, with few cancellations. Before the 2005 season, nine teams left the league to form United Indoor Football. That same year, the Intense Football League ceased operations and four teams from there joined the league. Those teams however, left the league before the 2006 season started. For the 2005 season, the NIFL had an agreement with NFL to handle referee assignment and training. The 2006 season, was the most chaotic for the league to that point. Ten expansion teams were added to the league, but nine of them had problems that reflected badly on the league. The most notable situation was the owner of the Montgomery Maulers firing the entire team. None of the ten expansion teams returned to the league for the next season. The 2007 season started with the addition of several league-owned expansion teams, primarily to supplement games with the returning teams. However, the teams were all poorly funded and had problems fielding competitive squads. The San Diego Shockwave were declared the official league champion. The league then officially folded prior to the 2008 season. In 2016, a new website announced that the league operations were relaunched by Carolyn Shiver with announced goal of bringing 34 teams into the former AFL markets starting in the 2017 season. As of June 2016, the league was looking for local team ownership under the league's business model.

Former teams

Teams that left the NIFL to join (or planned to join) another league

* Beaumont Drillers – joined APFL in 2008 and has since folded. * Evansville BlueCats – joined United Indoor Football and folded following 2007 season. * Everett Hawks – joined the

in 2007 and has since folded. * Fayetteville Guard – moved to

American Indoor Football Association American Indoor Football (AIF) is a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

, and have since folded. * Fort Wayne Freedom – joined United Indoor Football, then had assets bought out by Fort Wayne Fusion of

. * Greenville Riverhawks – moved to

as Johnstown Riverhawks and have since folded. * Katy Copperheads – moved to

as Texas Copperheads and has since folded. * Lexington Horsemen – Joined United Indoor Football then

later changed to Kentucky Horsemen and finally folded. * Montgomery Maulers – moved to

as Montgomery Bears and have since folded. * Odessa Roughnecks – moved to

, and have since folded. * Ohio Valley Greyhounds – moved to

, and have since folded. * Omaha Beef – now in

National Arena League The National Arena League (NAL) is a professional indoor football league that began play in 2017. As of the end of the 2024 season, the league consisted of five teams. A team's typical payroll budget is $600,000 per season, but as of the 2022 ...

* Osceola Football – moved to World Indoor Football League as Osceola Ghostriders, and have since folded. * River City Rage – moved to

, and have since folded. * Rome Renegades – joined American Indoor Football League, then left for World Indoor Football League, but folded before playing a single game there. * San Angelo Stampede – moved to

, and have since folded. * San Diego Shockwave – Has announced going on hiatus for 2008 but planned on joining another league for 2009 and never did. * Sarasota Knights – Moved to APFL as Florida Knights, and have since folded. * Sioux City Bandits – now in

. * Sioux Falls Storm – now in

. * Tri-Cities Fever- moved to

and then

and are now dormant. * Tupelo FireAnts – joined United Indoor Football, then folded after one season there. * Wyoming Cavalry (Casper, Wyoming) – moved to

, and have since folded.

Defunct teams/failed expansion

* Arkansas Stars * Atlanta Thoroughbreds * Atlantic City CardSharks * Austin Knights * Austin Rockers * Bay Bandits * Big Sky Thunder * Billings Mavericks * Bismarck Roughriders * Black Hills Red Dogs * Charleston Sandsharks * Cincinnati Marshals * Colorado Castle Rocks * Colorado Venom * Colorado Wild Riders * Columbia Stingers * Dayton Bulldogs * Dayton Warbirds * Daytona Beach Hawgs * Denver Aviators * Eugene Mercury * Florida Frenzy * Fort Myers Tarpons * Fort Worth Sixers * Green Cove Lions – Evidently formerly the Jacksonville Stallions, they folded in 2007 before ever playing a home game. * Greensboro Revolution * Hammond Heroes * Houma Bayou Bucks * Houston Wild Riders * Jacksonville Stallions – folded before playing a game, and evidently became the Green Cove Lions. * Johnstown J Dogs * Kissimmee Kreatures * La Crosse Night Train * Lake Charles Land Sharks * Lakeland Thunderbolts – won

2007 * Lincoln Capitols * Long Beach Surf * Los Angeles Lynx *

Louisiana Bayou Beast The Louisiana Bayou Beast were a team in the Professional Indoor Football League (1998), Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) in 1998, in the Indoor Professional Football League (IPFL) in 1999 and reincarnated in 2001 in the National Indoor ...

* Louisiana Rangers * Louisiana Swashbucklers * Lubbock Gunslingers * Lubbock Lone Stars * Miami Vice Squad * Mississippi Fire Dogs * Mobile Seagulls *

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* New Jersey XTreme * Oklahoma Crude * Pomona Cool Riders * Port St. Lucie Mustangs * Pueblo Pistols * Rapid City Flying Aces * River Cities LocoMotives * River City Renegades * San Bernardino Bucking Bulls * St. Joseph Cyclones * San Antonio Steers * Southern Oregon Heat * Staten Island Xtreme * Tennessee Riverhawks * Tennessee River Sharks * Tennessee ThunderCats * Tri-City Diesel * Tri-Valley Ranchers * Twin City Gators * Utah Express * Utah Rattlers * Utah Warriors * Waco Marshals * Wichita Falls Thunder * Winston-Salem Energy *

Yakima Shockwave Yakima ( or ) is a city in and the county seat of Yakima County, Washington, United States, and the state's 11th most populous city. As of the 2020 census, the city had a total population of 96,968 and a metropolitan population of 256,728. The ...

Indoor Bowl games

Notes

External links

National Indoor Football League official website

San Antonio Steers vs Beaumont Drillers clip
via

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

{{Profootball Defunct indoor American football leagues in the United States Sports leagues established in 2001 Sports leagues disestablished in 2008 2001 establishments in the United States 2008 disestablishments in the United States