Obscure Sports Dude

This week there have been three stories about football leagues that are planning to start.  There are two outdoor leagues and one indoor league.  Let's take a look at the new leagues: CONTINENTAL FOOTBALL LEAGUE League commissioner Mike Kelly is hoping to revive a new version of the Continental Football League which played in the 1960s.  Kelly has more than 45 years of experience in the NCAA, CFL, NFL and XFL.  He is hoping to bring a community-based, small town feel to the league.  The plan is to have an eight-team league with four teams each in the North and South.  Kelly hopes to be the "AA" minor league for the National Football League (NFL).  I'm not sure why the goal is to be "AA", but several semi-pro/minor leagues have desired this in the past and failed.  The original namesake played from 1965-1969 with 22 teams during its existence.   EUROPEAN FOOTBALL ALLIANCE Several teams from the European League of Football (ELF) have defec...

The Huntsville Rockets won their sixth league title in team history last weekend defeating the Tennessee Vikings 20-8 in Huntsville. The Rockets jumped on top early with scores from Ron Watkins on an 8-yard run, Jermarious Chandler scoring from seven yards out and quarterback Chris Briscoe connecting with Rishard Goode on a 67-yard strike to convert on a Vikings' turnover. It was 20-0 at halftime. The Rockets' defense took over in the second half and clamped down on the Vikings. Goode led the Rockets with 110 yards receiving with one touchdown and also had two interceptions on defense along with nine tackles. Here's recap of the 2025 GDFL season: Impact South Division Tennessee Vikings (4-3) Arkansas Punishers (5-1) Mississippi Dawgz (0-6) Xtreme North Division Tri-City Outlaws (5-2) Huntsville Rockets (4-2) Missouri Silverbacks (1-5) Division Finals Tennessee 24, Arkansas 12 Huntsville 12, Tri-City 6 Gridiron Bowl XVI Huntsville 20, Tennessee 8 For more information on the ...

The Stuttgart Surge won their first European League of American Football (ELF) championship over the Vienna Vikings 24-17 in front of 36,000 fans at MHP Arena in Stuttgart, Germany. From American Football International: The Vienna Vikings, determined to avenge their 2024 championship loss, dominated the opening quarter. Quarterback Ben Holmes orchestrated a 10-play drive capped by a 4th-and-10 touchdown pass to Reece Horn, followed by a 45-yard Dennis Tasic field goal after Nikolaus Huszar intercepted Reilly Hennessey. Trailing 10-0, the Surge responded with Hennessey threading a 14-yard scoring strike to Louis Geyer, but Vienna’s Karri Pajarinen countered with a physical 12-yard touchdown run to extend the lead to 17-7. Stuttgart’s defense then ignited, sacking Holmes twice to force a punt. A meticulous 10-play drive before halftime culminated in Hennessey’s second TD connection with Geyer, narrowing the gap to 17-14. The third quarter became a tactical stalemate until Stuttgart runni...

The San Antonio  Soldados are this year’s champions of Major League Quadball (MLQ). Quadball - which is related to the fictional Harry Potter game Quidditch - crowned their fourth franchise to win the Benepe Cup. Benepe Cup is awarded to the champions. Game report from https://www.mlquadball.com/news/san-antonio-tops-new-york-becomes-fourth-franchise-to-claim-benepe-cup The Soldados knocked off the defending champion New York Titans by a score of 155-100 in game one and 155-70 in game two. The Soldados, who joined the league as an expansion team in 2019, were making their first-ever finals appearance. In game one, w ith a 135-70 advantage, the Soldados weathered a mini-run from New York, led by two goals from Titans chaser Lindsay Marella. San Antonio needed only two goals of its own to win and eventually secured them, taking a one-game lead in the series and keeping its undefeated season alive.    In game two, the teams traded blows. Jon Jackson and Leo Fried notc...

Pickleball seems to be the rage right now and this weekend the Columbus Sliders pickleball team won the Major League Pickleball (MLP) championship by defeating the New Jersey 5s in a thrilling final. Central Park in New York was the site of the championship weekend. Columbus entered the tournament as the underdogs as the #5 seed. In the final, both New Jersey and Columbus brought great energy. New Jersey took a 2-1 lead and had their dominant mixed pair of Anna Leigh Waters and Will Howells for the last game. But Andrei Daescu and Parris Todd played one of their best great games winning 11-2 to send match #1 to a DreamBreaker.  A Dreambreaker is a singles-based pickleball tiebreaker when team match scores are tied 2-2 after the four initial games. In this format, each team's four players rotate to play singles for four points at a time, with rally scoring used to reach a target score of 21, win by two. The twist is the tactical lineup strategy: the first team to present its lineu...

The Boston Glory won their first Ultimate Frisbee Association (UFA) championship this weekend defeating the Minnesota Wind Chill 17-15 at Stevens Field in Madison, Wisconsin. You can watch the game here: https://www.youtube.com/live/86OLQnbstFo?si=5JCyFnTSQ9L1Zob4 Boston has been in the league since 2019. They finished the regular season with a 12-3 record and dethroned the New York Empire as the division champion. Tobe Decraene won Championship Weekend MVP honors for his offensive performances, and finished the weekend with 16 assists and nearly 900 total yards over two games. Boston allowed only 32 goals total and committed just 23 turnovers combined across their two games at Championship Weekend, with possession, discipline, and patience once again being the hallmarks of their success. But the keystone piece of the Glory’s championship run was the ruthless efficiency of their D-line, who converted on an astonishing 16-of-18 (89 percent!) on break chances over the weekend; Bost...