That other football ... thing

Today is Big Game Sunday, which is what folks who are not paying the NFL goo-gobs of money to promote its Big Game are compelled to call it, because the NFL is so outlandishly greedy all you can do is laugh at it, and maybe poke it with a stick.

(Here's my poke: How hilarious is it that the term "Super Bowl," which the money-grubbing NFL will sue your pants off for using if it doesn't get to wet its beak, was actually a corporate ripoff itself? Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs, named it that after the Super Ball, a toy manufactured by Wham-O. So maybe Wham-O should sue the pants off the NFL every time it uses the term "Super Bowl.")

But I digress.

("You do that a lot," you're saying.)

No, what I'm really up to here on Big Game Sunday is to look in on another professional football entity, or quasi-entity, or, you know, complete and utter scam. That would, of course, be the National Gridiron League, supposedly scheduled to begin play in May after being originally scheduled to begin play (supposedly) last May.

The NGL is of local interest because there are supposedly two Indiana teams, both named "Indiana," one in Fort Wayne and one in Evansville. The Fort Wayne entry is named the Blue Bombers. No one knows if the Blue Bombers actually exist, but that's OK. You can buy tickets anyway!

At any rate, the league's sole owner, Joe McClendon, promised when he pulled the plug on the inaugural season last May that the real inaugural season would launch (really!) this May. The run-up would begin with voluntary mini-camp--

I'm sorry? What's that?

Oh.

OK, so, according to the Evansville Courier & Press, it seems the run-up will not begin with voluntary mini-camps. Last weekend McClendon abruptly canceled them, without explanation. In the process, supposedly contracted players who were promised hotel accommodations and food were left hanging. Some of the Evansville players had come from as far away as Florida.

One of them, KeAaris Ardley, was quoted as saying "nobody has heard from Joe since." The Courier & Press hasn't heard from him, either, having left messages at the league "offices" in Atlanta and having tried to leave messages on the cellphone listed for him. Turns out it's been deactivated.

Translation: Joe's in the wind.

Further translation: Having been around for four previous incarnations of minor league indoor football in Fort Wayne, this does not surprise the Blob at all.

Wonder if Joe and Jeremy Golden know each other?