Long Live Indoor Football

On what was a comparatively slow day for football news, ESPN.com reported that former NFL standout wide receiver Terrell Owens has agreed to play this season for the Allen Wranglers of the Indoor Football League (IFL), "a 16-team league consisting of teams from various states, including franchises in Green Bay, Sioux Falls, Chicago, New Mexico, Wyoming and Nebraska."  Wranglers' co-owner Jon Frankel has openly revealed that "[Owens] has an ownership stake" in the team, and acknowledged that the decision was mostly based on business, not on a passion for playing indoor football.  It's this last part that's a shame, because indoor / arena football is an awesome game, and a motivated T.O. could bring big time publicity and media exposure to a sport badly in need of some positive press.

I've talked often about my how my fondness for the NHL's New York Islanders is largely motivated by the fact that the Isles are Long Island's only professional sports team.  When I was in high school, however, this wasn't technically the case.  At one point, the Islanders ownership purchased the Arena Football League's (AFL) Iowa Barnstormers (former team of NFL Super Bowl champion Kurt Warner), moved the team to Nassau Coliseum and called them the New York Dragons.  I used to go to Dragons games all the time - there was so much to love about the AFL.  Tickets were affordable and, unlike at other sporting events, the ushers didn't care if you moved down towards the field if there were empty seats (which there pretty much always were).  The games were incredibly high scoring (once I saw the Dragons put up 99 points in regulation) and filled with long pass plays, essentially cramming an entire week's worth of NFL passing highlights into one three hour period.  There were numerous opportunities to interact with the players before and after games, and you could even go onto the field after the final whistle and attempt a few field goals.  Dragons games were, in a word, fun.

Unfortunately, the Dragons are no more.  Over the last few years the AFL has had a bunch of financial problems and ended up taking a season off to restructure the league and alter the business model.  Part of that restructuring involved getting rid of a number of unprofitable franchises, and although the AFL is now once again operational, the New York Dragons were one of the victims.  Today, Nassau Coliseum is again home to the Isles and the Isles alone.  Luckily, the Dragons were able to leave one small-but-somewhat-permanent mark on Long Island sports history.  The Islanders' mascot, Sparky the Dragon (see below), was originally the mascot for the Dragons.  When the Islanders were looking for a new mascot a few years ago, fans overwhelmingly voted in favor of giving beloved Sparky the NHL gig, and he remains the face of the Islanders despite the disappearance of his AFL team.

Formerly an AFL mascot, Sparky now works for the NHL's Islanders.

In honor of the Dragons and Sparky, I'll be rooting for Owens to succeed as a player / owner for the IFL's Allen Wranglers.  Indoor football is an exciting, fan-friendly sport that more fans should get the opportunity to enjoy.  If Owens can motivate people to take in some more arena-style football, then potentially leagues like the AFL can solidify their footing and once again establish a presence in major media markets.  San Jose has an AFL team - the Sabercats - that I hope to see play at the HP Pavilion before the end of the school year.  After all, it's what the Dragons would have wanted.