CPIFL Suspends Eight Players and a Coach Following On-Field Brawl in Omaha

The Champions Professional Indoor Football League (CPIFL) made a ruling in regards to an incident that happened in the Omaha Beef versus Lincoln Haymakers game on Saturday night (May 11). The Beef defeated the Haymakers 27-23, but there was a brawl that took place at the end of the game on the field.  Eight players and one coach have been disciplined with suspensions ranging from 2-12 games. Names are being withheld in order to comply with employment privacy laws and confidentiality. All players and teams have the right to appeal the suspensions.

The CPIFL issued the ruling on the fight and hopefully sends the message that this kind of activity will not be tolerated.

After careful consideration and viewing numerous sources of video, the Champions Professional Indoor Football League is prepared to announce the penalties levied against players and coaches for their actions in Omaha on Saturday night. Players and coaches were suspended for their roles in a fight with punches thrown and actions detrimental to the league.

 

The Omaha Beef issued a statement this afternoon about the incident.

"The Omaha Beef were notified last night by the Champions Professional Indoor Football League of suspensions regarding four Omaha players after Saturday night’s 27-23 victory over the Lincoln Haymakers. The Omaha Beef do not condone any of the actions that occurred by either team during the fourth quarter incident on Saturday night.

The Omaha Beef will immediately appeal all suspensions that have been issued, but have also been notified by the league office that regardless, suspensions will be enforced during the appeals process. The Omaha Beef do not necessarily disagree with the issuing of sanctions, but we strongly disagree with the gravity of sanctions leveled.

The Omaha Beef will make individual appeals on behalf of all parties suspended. We believe that each player’s case is unique, and the event that triggered the entire situation is nearly unprecedented. The Omaha Beef throughout this process has been fully cooperative with the CPIFL and even voluntarily provided a large amount of additional video evidence from the arena to the league for a thorough and fair evaluation. The Omaha Beef are committed to handling this in a professional matter, and believe that the overwhelming video evidence tells the story."

The CPIFL Fanatics and CPIFL Fans [RAW] released one of the videos that is said to exist of the incident. Here is the video they released on the fan page.

The games this weekend will go on as planned with the Omaha Beef taking on the Bloomington Edge on Friday, May 17 at 7:05 p.m.; The Kansas Koyotes will travel to to play the Salina Bombers on Saturday, May 18 at 7:05 p.m.; the Kansas City Renegades will travel to play the Oklahoma Defenders on Saturday, May 18 at 7:05 p.m.; and the Lincoln Haymakers will travel to take on the Sioux City Bandits on Saturday, May 18 at 7:05 p.m. The Mid-Missouri Outlaws and Wichita Wild have a bye week.