Despite low pay, long travel, Cavs players keep coming back
PETER HOCKADAY Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Saturday, May 14, 2005 12:00 am
Defensive lineman Andrae Rowe, quarterback Matt Strand and linebacker Cos Abercrombie form a sort of "judicial council" on the Wyoming Cavalry football team. If anybody on the team has a problem, he takes it to Rowe, Strand or Abercrombie.
And Rowe has heard it all.
"Why can't we fly this weekend?"
"Why can't we get a higher per diem?"
"Why can't we get paid more?"
It's all part of life in the National Indoor Football League.
Every NIFL player makes the league-mandated $200 per game. They take long bus trips and sometimes fly, but they're a long way off from the team jets, giant weight rooms and plush locker rooms of the NFL.
Some players, especially the ones with families, are forced to work second jobs to make enough money. So the team practices at night to accommodate those players.
The Cavs try to make life more comfortable for players by offering free hotel rooms and several meal vouchers per week, most of which are generated through advertising tradeouts with area businesses. The players bunk two to a room, take the free meals where they can get them, and the ones who don't work spend most of the day playing video games, watching movies or studying game film.
"It's a wild deal," Wyoming head coach Shannon Moore said. "I've been (in a hotel room) for two months. It's weird to me. But I kind of enjoy it. Somebody cleans my room every day, I get clean sheets. TV, shower. Give me a TV, and I'm set."
The players sometimes get frustrated with the small inconveniences of the NIFL. The league changed the schedule early in the season, so the Cavs' bye week was changed from late in the season to early in the season. That left some players stranded in Casper because they couldn't afford plane tickets so close to the departure date.
But for the most part, the players just take everything they're given.
Two days before a home game earlier this season, defensive back Joey Longoria was standing on the turf at the Casper Events Center. Half of the boards that normally surround the field were missing, because the Events Center was preparing for a business expo the day before the Cavs game.
"You're in the NIFL, not the NFL. If we were in the NFL we could bitch about it. That's what it comes down to," Longoria said. "You get guys complaining about oh, man, we don't get to fly. Listen, buddy, when you're playing for the Dallas Cowboys you can complain about not getting to fly. But you're playing for the Wyoming Cavalry.
"It doesn't bother me too much. Game day is game day. If you're not ready by game day, don't bother playing."
Some of the players on the team have been coming back for years. Wide receiver Chris Swift, who is in his third season with the Cavs, said he's never thought about moving up to another league and enjoys the camaraderie on the team.
"It's another family," Swift said.
Quarterback Matt Strand has been nicknamed "The Franchise" by teammates because he's been with the Cavs for four years. He works at a branch of Hilltop Bank and is getting married this summer.
"The benefits aren't the greatest," Strand said. "But Casper is a great environment to play in."
Strand noted the flip-side positives of the NIFL's minor-league mentality. The players stay on the field for almost a half-hour after home games, signing autographs and talking with fans. Consequently, fans build a relationship with players and can even get to know them on a personal level.
That's not happening with Jake Plummer and the Denver Broncos.
The fans repay the players with loyalty, coming back season after season even if the names on the backs of jerseys change.
The names on the backs of the jerseys change for various reasons. The players move up or move on, but sometimes they come back.
Defensive back Kuma Hatten retired after last season, then decided he didn't want to give up on the Cavs. So he came back this season, joining the team for last week's road game against the Tri-Cities Fever.
"I was missing it," Hatten said. "Being in the stands, it's different."
Sports reporter Peter Hockaday can be reached at (307) 266-0615 or peter.hockaday@casperstartribune.net