It has been two years since the Mid-Missouri Outlaws football team took the field at the Mathewson Exhibition Center. There were very few times that I missed a game of theirs from the hey day of when they won the outdoor leagues in the CPFL to when they joined the American Professional Football League in 2010 and made it to the championships to their final year when the APFL disbanded and the Outlaws helped start the CPIFL in 2013.

Unfortunately the last few years the team could never regain the championship form that they had in the CPFL or the fantastic start that they had in the APFL, but they all brought heart to the field. I know that the last season the team finished 0-12 and couldn't get a break against the bigger city teams and in the CPFL, teams had bigger budgets, bigger players to recruit and a lot of the owners that was their job all year around.

I loved the competition and seeing the players that would show up from other teams that I enjoyed watching in college. Some of the players around here, played for the love of the game and played like champions hardly ever hanging their head low.

I loved watching Marcus 'Superman' James run with the ball, return kickbacks and always giving high fives to kids in the end zone. He may have been the fan favorite, but who could forget when the Outlaws made ESPN with a wild and crazy play in the championship with a pass from Kyle Middleton to Jerry Young, who are Sedalia natives. Then there are players I loved to talk with, such as Tony Vaka, Mark Tiernan, Ken Davis, Tenny Barber, Derek Doerfler, Ben Lyles, Jeff Clancy, James 'Flash' Cody, Micah and Seth Brimer just to name a few that I remember of the years.

Some of them have continued on in indoor football, with a handful of them on the Kansas Koyotes now.

I think what I most miss is the entertainment on the field. The Outlaw cheerleaders had some of the craziest games from Junk in the Trunk to kicking field goals at half time for prizes to throwing footballs out after every score to of course their terrific dance routines.

I mostly loved the fierce hitting on the walls to the constant running clock. I know that the Mid-Missouri Outlaws ran into being the smallest city in a big league and that did them in, but the competition alone was worth it. Getting to see SEC, Big 12, Big 10 players all around come together.

I do wish and hope that sometime down the line, maybe we can get another indoor team in to fill our arena. Some of you may have forgot that the Missouri Minutemen played at the Mathewson from 2004-2006, before Travis Jobe and Chad Jackson put the Outlaws into the APFL a few years later. It was that taste of the Minutemen that brought the Outlaws and maybe down the line another venture could take place of some sort.

I do thank Travis Jobe, Chad Jackson and Ethan Henson for taking the chance years ago. As we know arena football is a hard one to keep up, not even the APFL is around anymore or the CPIFL, it moved to the CIF and have spread all across the Midwest. Kansas City still doesn't have an indoor team, but sometime the chance will come up, but it's at this time of the year when the leagues start playing that I really miss indoor football in Sedalia.I hope if that chance comes we get out and support it.

For fun, here is the play that brought the Outlaws national attention.

 

 

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