McNear to sign with Bandits

The Sioux City Bandits have bolstered their 2010 roster as they reportedly have reached an agreement with quarterback James McNear.

McNear has played the last three seasons with the Omaha Beefa and has ranked at or near the top in many offensive categories.

The signing was first reported by McNear on his Facebook page earlier this evening and confirmed to me just moments ago via text message "yes...100%" that he will be playing for the Bandits this season.

"As a professional athlete, I have been longing for continuity and integrity. Omaha has some of the best fans in the world and I will miss them dearly," McNear said via text message Friday night. "Professional football is a buisness and somtimes things just work out in funny ways."

Stay tuned for more details surrounding this developing story.

Beef acquire 15 in trade with River City

With River City closing up shop last week, owner Jeff Sprowls wasn't about to let that talent go to waste and with confirmation of a 22-player deal, the Omaha Beef have just become the United Conference favorite.

The deal, which Sprowls confirmed to me this morning sent Joe Bevis, Ben Sankey, Paul Simpson, Darnell Terrell, Cornieules "Pig" Brown, Byron Jones, Daryon Bruteley, Ben Sankey, Luke McCardle, Randy Bell, Shawn Piper, Anthony Harris, Richard Birch, Joel Clinger and George Batiste to the Rage.

River City acquired Brent Hafford, Dorsey Golston, Harold Clewis, Zach Gradoville, Ricky Lebeda, Demitrius Wilbert, Johnnie Taylor in the deal that and were released, along with the rest of the Rage roster, on October 15.

The addition of "Pig" and Bevis alone provide the Beef with a huge upgrade on defense where they struggled at times last year, allowing nearly 47 points per outing.

On the offensive side, I see more negative than positive potentially coming out of this.

It is great to have a plethera of playmakers, but at some point players are going to get fustrated when balls don't come their way and may cause a rift in the locker room and with the amount of talent in the Beef locker room, there is not enough pigskin to go around.

Obviously we are a long way from seeing out it plays out -- all the players involved in the trade must sit out the first three games of the season according to league sources -- but as of now the Omaha Beef definatley have the look of a championship contender...

For more on the trade read the story in Thursday's Billings Gazette. (www.billingsgazette.com)

With the announcement (courtesy of the Alaska Dailey Newsminer) of Chicago, Macon, and Green Bay possibly joining the IFL, it got me wondering what an ideal divisional alignment would be.

I say leave the regular season at 14 games and would like to see it broke down like this:

Play everyone in your division home and home (10 games -- except for the Intense South that would be 12 games and this leaves either 2 or 4 slots for out of division games or rivalry games...just a thought let me know what you think!!!

United Conference

Central Division

Sioux Falls

La Crosse

Bloomington

Green Bay

Omaha

Wichita

United Conference

East Division

Chicago

Muskegon

Macon

Rochester

Richmond

Maryland

Intense Conference

West Division

Billings

Fairbanks

Colorado

Sioux City

Anchorage

Wasilla

Intense Conference

South Division

El Paso

Odessa

San Angelo

Amarillo

Abilene

Corpus Christi

Austin

Saginaw Sting officially suspend operations for 2010 season

According to The Saginaw News' Kyle Austin, the Saginaw Sting confirming a report last week that the team would not be playing next season.

From The Saginaw News article:

“We want to come back, we know we could come back and start the team next year,” co-owner Esteban Rivera said. “But we don’t know if we could finish the season."

I do feel the Sting made the right descision, knowing it was in the best interest for the orginization and the league to take 2010 off and hopefully make a return to - if not the IFL - indoor football. in general.

A team ceasing operations in the off-season is much better for a league's image than if they were to play five or six games and then be forced to fold...just my two cents!!!

Former Beef President accused of theft

According to KETV Newswatch 7 in Omaha, Jeff Sprowls has filed a police report accusing former team president and general manager Russ Francis of theft.

Francis was fired in late August, less than four months after being named to the post.

Russ Francis played 14 seasons in the National Football League during the 1970s and 1980s with the New England Patriots and San Francisco 49'ers. He was also a part of San Francisco's winning Super Bowl team 1985.

In an Omaha police report dated October 1st, Sprowls alleges the theft began sometime shortly after the three-time pro-bowler became president and around the time when Francis fired an employee of Gridiron Management, Sprowls company.

According to the report, Sprowls alleged Francis took an unactivated debit card from the employee's desk, and used it to conduct 66 transactions between late May and late August, amassing charges of more than $29,000.

Sprowls said Francis was fired in late August.

Francis, who has not been charged, no longer lives in an Omaha home once listed as his address, and has not commented on the allegations.

IFL runner-ups won't return for 2010 season

With the Indoor Football League setting today as the deadline for teams to apply for the 2010 season, River City Rage owner, Jeff Sprowls confirmed that the 2009 IFL runner-ups will not return to the field for 2010.

Sprowls, who also owns the Omaha Beef, confirmed Thursday afternoon that all of his efforts will turn to the Beef, who finished 11-4 and lost in the first round of the playoffs for the fifth consecutive season.

"We have no choice but to shut River City down," said Sprowls Thursday afternoon. "I would love to keep both of them but we have no other options."

Sprowls added that some recent issues in Omaha played a factor in the River City descision.

"We had a lot of stuff happen there (Omaha), alot of money stolen (more on that in a later post), and we need to just focus on one franchise."

WELCOME!!!!

Welcome to "This week in the Indoor Football League"....

I am Ryan Minch, a sports staffer at the Billings Gazette in Billings, Montana. And yes I do share the Billings Outlaws beat with Gazette Sports Editor Mike Zimmer, but for the sake of this blog I will be continue to provide an objective view of what is becoming the premier indoor football league in America, and beginning today I will be taking a weekly look at the IFL, that is if ownership and management in rival cities decide to speak up.

So please leave questions, comment, concerns, ideas for future blog features please let me know!!!!


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