Welcome to the Dollars & Turf, a podcast that interviews and discusses the history and creation of Indoor Football. The sport first kicked off in 1998, over a decade after the creation of Arena Football and saw a meteoric rise in the early 2000’s after the success of former Arena Football League quarterback Kurt Warner in the NFL and peaked in 2007 when over 80 teams existed across the US.With celebrity owners from Jim McMahon, Marques Colston, and Marshawn Lynch, indoor football has shaped the careers of future NFL players Michael Lewis and Fred Jackson and current coaches Matt LaFleur and Nick Sirianni. The sport also has seen the likes of Terrell Owens, Jared Lorenzen, and Quincy Carter.This podcast will serve as a place to record the history of the men and women who created the game from an idea into reality. Featuring team and league executives who share the ultimate playground for sports entrepreneurship that is indoor football. For a sport that has been played for decades across hundreds of arenas, it’s difficult for fans to experience the history of the game as teams moved from city to city. Dollars and Turf will record the memorable teams and players and share incredible stories from over two decades of play.
Chris Williams was the first coach of the Odessa Roughnecks of the Intense Football League, and would go on to lead the Roughnecks to a 50-22 record over eight seasons in the Intense Football League, National Indoor Football League, and Indoor Football League. Williams helped found the New Mexico Stars after his time in Odessa and wound up becoming the majority owner of the team, which played in the Lone Star Football League. After a stop with the Indoor Football League's Texas Revolution, Williams spent several seasons coaching the Green Bay Blizzard of the IFL.
Coach Heron O'Neal joins the show to talk about his career which started as a NFL player in the late 1990s. O'Neal played in the AFL and af2 for several years before joining the Wyoming Cavalry of the NIFL as Defensive Coordinator in 2005. From 2006-2010 O'Neal was the head coach of the Billings Outlaws (NIFL/UIF/IFL) and from 2011-2016 O'Neal was the head coach/defensive coordinator of the Colorado Ice (IFL). In 2017 he became the defensive coordinator of the Dodge City Law (CIF) before joining the Salina Liberty as head coach in 2018, where he remains today.Next Salina Liberty home game: 4/24/21 vs Sioux City Banditshttps://www.salinaliberty.com/ticketshttps://www.instagram.com/salina_liberty/https://facebook.com/Salinalibertyfootball
Chad Dittman joined the show to talk about his time as the founder of the Intense Football League and owner of the Corpus Christi Hammerheads. Chad brought indoor football to Alaska and was the co-owner of the Fairbanks Grizzlies. The Intense Football League went on to merge with the United Indoor Football league to create the Indoor Football League in 2008.
James Shiver Jr. has been involved with indoor football from the very beginning as a player for the Louisiana (Baton Rouge) Bayou Beast as a player in 1998 and as a coach for several seasons with the Lake Charles (LA) Land Sharks of the National Indoor Football League. Shiver's parents owned the Bayou Beast and his mother, Carolyn Shiver, was the founder and top executive of the National Indoor Football League. The NIFL was founded in 2001 after the collapse of the Indoor Football League (Episode 2 - IFL executive Tom Tomaszewski) and absorbed many former IFL cities. The league expanded to many cities throughout the United States and even partnered with the NFL at one point before its collapse in 2007. Among other topics discussed in episode three - Shiver shares what happened to the Castle Prop from Episode two and discussed NIFL plans to expand to Canada and Mexico.
Tom Tomaszewski was the General Manager of the Madison Mad Dogs in 1998 in the first season of indoor football. He then went on to start the Indoor Football League in 1999 as the league's top executive. The Indoor Foootball League grew to 21 teams in 2000 and was sold to the Arena Football League, where Tom joined in as an executive in arenafootball2. Tom later became the General Manager of the Peoria Pirates of the af2 and the Peoria Rough Riders, a founding member of the United Indoor Football league. The UIF would go on to merge with the Intense Football League (See Episode 1: Tommy Benizio) to create the Indoor Football League which exists today. In today's episode we talk about: How Tom gets his start in sports in pro basketball and purchases a prop castle used by AC/DC on one of their tours for the basketball and indoor football teams. The 1998 PIFL seasonPitching the Indoor Football League to venues in the midwest in direct competition with arenafootball2.Running the Indoor Football League and recruiting coaches, general managers, and cities.The sale of the IFL to the AFL and lawsuits with the AFLBringing aboard Kellen Winslow Sr. as Commissioner and pitching Budweiser for a leaguewide sponsorship.And many hilarious and heartwarming stories including a coach who leaves his kicker after an away game where the kicker misses a kick.
The first commissioner of the Indoor Football League, Tommy Benizio, joins the show to travel down memory lane. Benizio started the Intense Football League in 2003 and placed a franchise in Odessa, TX. In 2008 the Intense Football League merged with the United Indoor Football association and Benizio sold his Odessa franchise, the Roughnecks, and became the first commissioner in the Indoor Football League. Benizio operated as the commissioner of the IFL for several seasons before leaving to operate a team in Allen, TX, where he owned/operated a team until 2020. His players included Jen Welter, who became the first female coach in the NFL, and former Cowboys receiver Terrell Owens.Benizio is a member of the Indoor Football League Hall of Fame and currently runs a consulting practice for minor league Sports Marketing and Sales Trainings.BeniZio.net - BeniZio Sports
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