Post by riverhawkfan22 on May 10, 2007 12:42:38 GMT -5
NIFL's Gary: No changes to league
www.fayobserver.com/article?id=261948
By Brett Friedlander
Staff writer
The National Indoor Football League’s director of operations responded to an uprising by a group of team owners Wednesday by denying that it ever happened.
Former Los Angeles Rams running back Cleveland Gary instead painted a cheery picture of the NIFL’s future while insisting that no changes to the league’s schedule had been made or approved — despite published reports to the contrary.
The owners, led by the Fayetteville Guard’s Richard King, voted Monday to seize control of their struggling league by agreeing only to play games against one another.
Gary dismissed the news, however, by saying it had been blown out of proportion by the media and that King had been misquoted by The Fayetteville Observer.
“Richard and I spoke (Wednesday) morning and we laughed about it,” Gary said of King’s comments that the NIFL is in trouble. “Richard King told me he never said that.”
But when contacted in South Carolina while on business, King said that it’s Gary who is mistaken.
Not only did he confirm that he and the others were “going full speed ahead” with their plan to ensure the completion of the 2007 season, the Guard owner claimed that he never had the conversation to which Gary referred.
“That’s not true. It’s just not true,” he said. “I stand by everything I said. As far as I’m concerned, we are going to be playing all our games against existing teams. The (new) schedule we released (Tuesday) is the schedule the Fayetteville Guard is going to play.”
That schedule now has the Guard playing all eight of its remaining games against the other four members of their newly formed Atlantic Conference alliance — the Atlanta Thoroughbreds, the Columbia Stingers, Dayton Marshals and Greensboro Revolution.
A similar group of Pacific Conference teams was organized by the Wyoming Cavalry and its owner Argeri Layton.
“We decided to band together and build a schedule around the teams we knew were going play,” King said. “Cleveland knows that. We already talked about it. He knows that the season has got to go on and the teams have got to play.”
Twenty-six games have already been canceled or postponed by the NIFL this season.
That doesn’t include the Guard’s schedule game in Jacksonville, Fla., on Saturday, which was called off Monday, only a few hours before King and the other owners decided on their changes in a conference call.
Fayetteville’s scheduled opponent, the Green Cove Lions, apparently ceased operations last week when they refused to make the trip to Columbia because, according to numerous league sources, they have yet to be paid this season.
That, Gary acknowledged, is a common malady among the 17 expansion teams owned by the NIFL. But he downplayed the problem by saying its just part of the “growing pains” that come with establishing a new league.
“We are struggling,” he said. “Let’s not sit here and deny that. We’re under-funded. But those things can be salvaged. If we take care of a few things that I’m not at liberty to discuss, and we will take care of them, (success) is there for the taking.
“We have something here. We either let the media divide us and we go our separate ways and call it a day or we pull together.”
King, along with several other independent owners who have indicated a desire to play in a different league next season, thinks that the damage has already been done.
“I think Cleveland is coming to the realization that he’s losing control of the league.” King said. “He knows that the season has got to go on and the teams have got to play.”
www.fayobserver.com/article?id=261948
By Brett Friedlander
Staff writer
The National Indoor Football League’s director of operations responded to an uprising by a group of team owners Wednesday by denying that it ever happened.
Former Los Angeles Rams running back Cleveland Gary instead painted a cheery picture of the NIFL’s future while insisting that no changes to the league’s schedule had been made or approved — despite published reports to the contrary.
The owners, led by the Fayetteville Guard’s Richard King, voted Monday to seize control of their struggling league by agreeing only to play games against one another.
Gary dismissed the news, however, by saying it had been blown out of proportion by the media and that King had been misquoted by The Fayetteville Observer.
“Richard and I spoke (Wednesday) morning and we laughed about it,” Gary said of King’s comments that the NIFL is in trouble. “Richard King told me he never said that.”
But when contacted in South Carolina while on business, King said that it’s Gary who is mistaken.
Not only did he confirm that he and the others were “going full speed ahead” with their plan to ensure the completion of the 2007 season, the Guard owner claimed that he never had the conversation to which Gary referred.
“That’s not true. It’s just not true,” he said. “I stand by everything I said. As far as I’m concerned, we are going to be playing all our games against existing teams. The (new) schedule we released (Tuesday) is the schedule the Fayetteville Guard is going to play.”
That schedule now has the Guard playing all eight of its remaining games against the other four members of their newly formed Atlantic Conference alliance — the Atlanta Thoroughbreds, the Columbia Stingers, Dayton Marshals and Greensboro Revolution.
A similar group of Pacific Conference teams was organized by the Wyoming Cavalry and its owner Argeri Layton.
“We decided to band together and build a schedule around the teams we knew were going play,” King said. “Cleveland knows that. We already talked about it. He knows that the season has got to go on and the teams have got to play.”
Twenty-six games have already been canceled or postponed by the NIFL this season.
That doesn’t include the Guard’s schedule game in Jacksonville, Fla., on Saturday, which was called off Monday, only a few hours before King and the other owners decided on their changes in a conference call.
Fayetteville’s scheduled opponent, the Green Cove Lions, apparently ceased operations last week when they refused to make the trip to Columbia because, according to numerous league sources, they have yet to be paid this season.
That, Gary acknowledged, is a common malady among the 17 expansion teams owned by the NIFL. But he downplayed the problem by saying its just part of the “growing pains” that come with establishing a new league.
“We are struggling,” he said. “Let’s not sit here and deny that. We’re under-funded. But those things can be salvaged. If we take care of a few things that I’m not at liberty to discuss, and we will take care of them, (success) is there for the taking.
“We have something here. We either let the media divide us and we go our separate ways and call it a day or we pull together.”
King, along with several other independent owners who have indicated a desire to play in a different league next season, thinks that the damage has already been done.
“I think Cleveland is coming to the realization that he’s losing control of the league.” King said. “He knows that the season has got to go on and the teams have got to play.”
