What kind of Mickey Mouse organization is the CIFL, anyway?

We got a little inkling of the craziness that is the Continental Indoor Football League a month or so ago when the owner of the local entry, the New England Surge, fired the head coach and hired himself.

Well, it looks like the Surge might be one of the best-run teams in the league. Last night they played former division leader Steubenville, and beat them 86-0. Only the team that lined up apparently isn't the same Steubenville team that took the field earlier in the season:

In a telephone interview during last night’s game, CIFL owner and president Jeff Spitaleri said Steubenville played its practice squad players who “haven’t played as much, if at all” because its regulars were injured or had left the team to try out for Arena Football League squads. Spitaleri said he wasn’t aware the Stampede had only 13 players.

According to Spitaleri, the Stampede’s regular quarterback, Ryan Maiuri, separated his shoulder last week and his replacement, Ali Grose, served as player-coach last night.

Asked how playing an entire team of practice squad players reflected on the league’s image, Spitaleri said, “It would have been worse not to play the game.”

This isn't the first time this season a team of replacement players has taken the field in the CIFL. On May 12 a team from Springfield, Mo. refused to travel to Stebenville for their game, so a team of replacements was fielded there:

"[Springfield co-owner] D’Lo [Brown] also needed new players, and we had a list of guys who had either played last year in this league or had been at tryouts for teams in this league,” said Spitaleri. “One of those players has a team’s worth of equipment, so he ended up taking the lead and helping us organize the new team.”

Ali Grose, who played with Marion last year and had been with Steubenville and Summit County this year, stepped up with his own equipment and jerseys....

Whoa! So Steubenville's quarterback, player-coach Ali Grose, was a Springfield Stallion just two weeks ago? What's really odd, is that the CIFL Commissioner stated two weeks ago that Grose and his then-Springfield teammates were permanent members of that team:

“People might call them impostors or replacement players, but that’s not true at all,” said CIFL Commissioner Jim Ballard. “Every one of those guys was listed on the roster and was under contract for the Stallions.”

Brown admits they weren’t the guys you saw last week or the week before, but they are the new Springfield Stallions....

So two weeks ago, Grose was a "new Springfield Stallion" and now he's a new Steubenville Stampeder. He's not the only one. The Telegram reported that Steubenville, which only brought 13 players to Worcester, "dropped to 12 when receiver Alonzo Grose limped off on the game’s third play." According to the May 13 article on the CIFL website, "the Stallions had their high point when Ali Grose connected with Alonzo Grose for a touchdown in the second half" of the Stallions' 66-8 loss at Steubenville.

So are the Groses the CIFL's resident traveling team? Need someone to show up to ensure that the game goes on and the home team gets their gate? Call the Grose family. CIFL founder Spitaleri may think that “It would have been worse not to play the game,” but the fans who shelled out up to $30.50 for a ticket to last night's game or $165 for a season ticket deserved better.

And the sports fans of Worcester who have seen one failed minor league after another deserve better.

Tags: Massachusetts Worcester Surge CIFL Football

Worcester's Football Follies

Following in the storied tradition of the Mass. Marauders (perhaps the only sports team in history to be banned from a league because the owner punched out the league commissioner), Worcester's new indoor football league team is having it's own owner problems. Surge owner Roy Lucas, Jr. has decided to do the Ted Turner thing after just four games, firing the coach and appointing himself successor:

WORCESTER— Disappointed with his team’s 1-3 record, New England Surge owner Roy Lucas Jr. fired coach Rick Buffington yesterday and appointed himself as the replacement.

“We feel very strongly that we should be at the top of our division,” Lucas said.

Worcester’s expansion team in the Continental Indoor Football League is fifth in the six-team Atlantic Division. The Steubenville Stampede leads the division with a 4-0 record.

I'd be disappointed too. You're three games behind a team that plays in a high school gym in Steubenville, Ohio? That would like being three games behind Clinton!

Obviously, a man of Lucas's football pedigree is needed to right the ship:

Lucas, 44, has never been a head football coach before, and his experience as an assistant coach is limited. While attending Bethel College in Minnesota in the 1980s, he was an intern for a year on the football staff at nearby Centennial High School. In 1996, he was strength and conditioning coach at Assumption College, and the following year he coached quarterbacks and running backs at Curry College....

Lucas was an all-purpose back for Burncoat High and a wide receiver for Bethel, a Division 3 school. After a brief free agent tryout with the Dallas Cowboys, Lucas played one season of semipro football in Colorado. Lucas owned his own sports conditioning business in Shrewsbury before founding the Surge.

And what of former coach Buffington?

Buffington said he contacted a lawyer about his firing and would remain in Worcester for a while instead of returning to his home in Somerset. “I’m not leaving here, not until things are taken care of,” Buffington said.

Of course, because it's a three-day coach ride along the post road to Somerset. You're less than an hour and a half away from home, Buff. I can't imagine why you'd want to stay back in Worcester. It's like a baby Steubenville, after all.

Tags: Massachusetts Worcester Surge CIFL Football