We were watching the Seattle/Vancouver minor league hockey game this evening, lamenting the multiple failures of minor league hockey in Tacoma when a repeated commercial caught our attention. Something called the "Tacoma Cobras" and "professional football" and "tryouts".
Wha-wha-wha?
Clearly, a little investigation is in order. And since we at No Rhubarb! are inherently lazy - witness the dearth of posting while we have such free time - a little investigation is all we'll get. Lucky for us we have teh Google.
The Tacoma Cobras are members of the Next Level Football League, a start-up semi-pro football league based in the northwest. Now, that in of itself isn't that big of news. The past two years Tacoma has played host to the Tacoma Invaders of the Cascade Football League. They are still around, but apparently renamed the Warriors.
No, the most interesting - and potentially important - thing about the Tacoma Cobras and the NLFL is that they will be on the television. According to the NLFL's still rather skeletal website, we will be seeing games on Comcast Sports Net, a digital channel that also features the Portland Trail Blazers and Vancouver Canucks among others. There really is no overstating the importance of television in sports. For a league the size of the NLFL, being on any channel is a huge deal. To contrast, the PCL Rainiers were on television twice last season.
The NLFL plans to open with eight teams. The Columbia division will feature the BC Spartans, Bellingham Blitz, Seattle Defenders and the hometown Cobras. The McMinneville Bombers, Roseboro Recon, Hillsboro Hellcatz (soon to be Pioneers, thank goodness) and the Eugene Extreme make up the Cascade Division. Feel free to mock that last name incessantly. Schedule starts in mid-May, and this will be something that No Rhubarb! pays close attention to.
And yes, before you ask: We WILL get a group together to attend a Cobra game and we will be shouting CO-BRA! when every time Tacoma does something even moderately cool.
Four words to excite you even more: Lady Cobra Dance Team!
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there are actually 8 Teams in the League. Im excited for it.
What constitutes an "ex-NFL player"? Try out? Training camp? Practice squad? An entire season on the active roster? Multi-year career? Semi-pro football in the Northwest has had all of the above at one time or another. Ken Stabler and Nuu Faaola among others. As far as future NFLers, both Mike Oliphant and Brian Pittman got their breaks in local semi-pro leagues.
The NLFL is a lot like President Obama. They're making such huge promises and creating such unrealistic expectations that it'll be impossible for them not to fall short.
www.cascadefootballleague.com (cfl),
www.nwfootball.net (nwfl),
some of these semi-pro teams are doing some great things and could use everyones support, some teams are involved in charity games and football camps for youth in their community's, among other events.