Circus maximus

Faithful readers of the Blob ("Don't you mean 'reader'?" you're saying) know the Blob loathes its inner skeptic. Inner Skeptic is a mean, shriveled soul who roots for old man Potter in "It's A Wonderful Life." He hopes Ray Kinsella builds it but no one comes in "Field of Dreams." And don't get him started on "Hoosiers."

Little school beats all the big schools with five guys and Ollie. Jimmy Chitwood scores every point except, like, six or seven.Yeah, right.

Anyway, Inner Skeptic is the worst. And God knows he's no fun at parties.

Except ...

Except sometimes he has a point.

Which brings us to indoor football, which is about to make its fifth appearance in Fort Wayne. The other four appearances (and disappearances) apparently taught the locals nothing about the spit-and-baling-wire nature of indoor football. It is, even at the top level, a niche sport. And at the level a market the size of Fort Wayne is going to be involved, it's a niche-niche-niche sport.

This means it is highly unlikely to attract, shall we say, the best people. You won't find any Rooneys on the ownership roster. You won't find any Kurt Warners -- the most famous indoor football player ever -- hiding out among the players, either.

You will, however, occasionally find a guy who claims to have played in the NFL but didn't.

And so let's go to the introductory news conference for the Indiana Blue Bombers of the National Gridiron League, and to an offensive lineman named Ricardo Agnant, who is on the Blue Bombers' roster. Apparently Agnant claims to be a former Miami Dolphin. Unfortunately, there's no record he ever actually was a Dolphin.

But at least there's only one of him. You can't say that for the Indiana Blue Bombers.

That's because there will be two teams named "Indiana" in the NGL, on account of people in Georgia would be confused if there weren't. No, really. This was the explanation the league president and owner, Joe McLendon III, gave at the introductory news conference.  The Blue Bombers will play in Fort Wayne, and Other Indiana will play in Evansville, but McLendon figured people in Georgia would more readily identify with "Indiana" than with "Fort Wayne" or "Evansville." So there'll be two teams with the same name.

Now, why anyone in Georgia would care about two teams in Indiana (and how naming them both "Indiana" won't be even more confusing) is a very good question. So is how you're supposed to establish a distinctive brand with the local fan bases in Fort Wayne and Evansville when, again, both teams are called Indiana.

("Now, the Blue Bombers. Is that the team in Fort Wayne, or the team in Evansville?" -- Random guy in Indiana.)

Anyway, things are certainly off to the usual bang-up indoor football start. The introductory news conference did not actually introduce much of anything; there was no team logo on display, and apparently there's no schedule for the Blue Bombers yet. There is, apparently, a roster, but no one knows who's on it except for the Fake Dolphin.

Oh, yeah. And the head coach, Kelvin Kinney?

He wasn't at the news conference because of a travel delay. He's also a felon.

The Journal Gazette reported today that Kinney pleaded guilty to workers' compensation fraud, a fifth-degree felony, in Ohio in 2014. He also pleaded guilty to a handful of misdemeanor charges in Ohio from 1999 to 2009.

On the other hand, Kinney is actually a former NFL player. Unlike Fake Dolphin.

So at least we got that goin' for us, Fort Wayne.