NAL non-league games are a tough look for the sport.. and they gotta go.
- Trey
- 8 minutes ago
- 3 min read
Arena & indoor football season is upon us! We made it through a long offseason and we made it to March -- where we have multiple leagues kicking off their regular seasons and before you know we will have so much arena football going on it will make our eyeballs bleed.
The National Arena League is the first of the 'Big 4 leagues' (NAL, IFL, AF1, TAL) to kick off, which they did this past weekend with 2 league games and 3 "non-league" games against local teams in their area. Essentially, treating these teams like true preseason games.
But when you look at how the games played out, you start to wonder if these non-league games do more harm than good for the sport as whole.
Let me explain.
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In college football, you see teams typically schedule "tune up" games against smaller schools to get right for the season (i.e. Minnesota scheduling FCS-level Eastern Illinois, Georgia scheduling FCS-level Tennessee State, Tulsa scheduling Oklahoma State, etc).
But there comes a time when the 'tune up' game line blurs with "WWE Superstar vs a Jobber" squash matches.
Don't get me wrong, I love a good "WWE Superstar vs a Jobber" match as much as the next guy (in small doses): Let the superstar get his moves off, pop the crowd, bury the jobber, get out of town
Omaha vs Saint Joes in a nutshell
A tale as old as time itself. And that is essentially what the NAL did with some of these games in Week 0 & 1.
Week 0:
Pueblo Punishers def. NOCO Nightmare - 51-6
Louisiana Rouxgaroux def. Pharr Phantoms - 64-24
Week 1:
Omaha Beef def. Saint Joes Bucks - 72-28
Dallas Bulls def. Team Mexico - 101-0
Sioux City Bandits def. Northwest Iowa Lightning - 62-19
The Saint Joes Bucks are an outdoor team that played 8-man for the first time this week.
"Team Mexico" looked like they never played organized football before, let along 8-man.
Northwest Iowa Lightning are an outdoor team that was playing indoor rules.
Now, I understand the argument for "tune up" games to an extent, but this is ridiculous.
The NAL prides itself on being professional arena football. Can you name another pro sport that does preseason games against semi-pro / non-professional non-league opponents?
The NFL doesn't do pre-season games against the local U37 teams.
The NHL doesn't do pre-season games against the local beer league team.
The NBA doesn't do pre-season games against the fellas down at the Y. The MLB doesn't do Spring Training against the local 16-inch softball league.
And I'm here to say that the NAL should follow suit. Figure out the logistics in the offseason and make it happen for 2027. "But Trey, why are you standing on a soapbox about this, it's not a big deal"
This.
This is why.
This is a problem.
The reputation of the sport of arena & indoor football has taken an absolute beating over the past decade, often becoming a punchline for poorly crafted jokes and resulting in a lot of fans not even giving it a chance because of the stigma around it.
Now, you have a 101-0 scoreline that goes viral and it's reinforcing some of those same negative non-competitive stereotypes about the sport yet again.
"But it was against a non-league opponent!"
The common sports fan that doesn't know that the sport or league exists (ya know, the ones that these leagues and teams are trying to reach) does not know the difference.
If I had never really watched basketball before and was looking for a new league to get into and I saw a final score of 108-20.. I would not bother watching. The competition of this sport is what makes it entertainment, and having a Hulk Hogan vs the Brooklyn Brawler as 3/5 of your Week 1 slate is a tough look for the NAL.
This final score does more harm to the sport as a whole than it does good as a "tune up" game for the Dallas Bulls.
It's a shame because there were two NAL league games (played between NAL teams) that were played this weekend -- and they were both good games to watch. Those games should be the story that is getting the most attention on NAL socials right now.
Or maybe even the former NFL First Round pick QB that looked good in his NAL could be the story of the league right now.
But instead, this scorecard has 100x more views than anything else on the NAL X timeline at the time of this blog being posted.
To me, it's time to ditch the jobber matches and have everyone start the season at the same time with league opponents.