Lincoln Capitols

Lincoln Capitols
Lincoln Capitols
	Established 1998; Folded 2006; Played in Lincoln, Nebraska; at the Pershing Center
League/conference affiliations
	Indoor Football League (1999–2000); af2 (2001); National Indoor Football League (2002–2006)
	Current uniform
Team colors	Red, White, Blue;
Personnel
Owner(s)	Bruce Bailey
Head coach	Chris Simpson, Mike Dixon, Nate Jacks (Jack Jax), Ty Goode
Team history
	Lincoln Lightning (1999–2001); Lincoln Capitols (2002–2006);
Championships
	League championships (0);
	Conference championships (2); 1999 (IFL), 2002 (NIFL)
	Division championships (0);
Playoff appearances (3)
	1999 (IFL), 2000 (IFL), 2002 (NIFL)
Home arena(s)
	Pershing Center (1999–2006);

The Lincoln Capitols were a professional indoor football team that played their home games at Pershing Auditorium in Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. They originally planned on becoming the Nebraska Knockout, but the name was scrapped. From 1999 to 2000, they were the Lincoln Lightning of the original Indoor Football League before the IFL was bought out. The Lightning then played in the Arena Football's farm league during the 2001 season,^[1] before leaving the league^[2] and joining the National Indoor Football League as the Capitols.

Lincoln had minimal success for most of the team's history, despite being successful in the regular season. They are the only team to lose in two shutouts, a rarity in the NIFL.^{[citation needed]}

During their 2001-2005 run, the franchise's most prominent player was a former Nebraska Cornhusker running back named Damon Benning and the franchise's owner was Andrew Cheesman. In 2006 the Capitols hired EX-NFL player Chris Simpson, who assembled a promising roster. He signed standout players Nate Jacks from Atlanta, Mike Carrawell from St. Louis, Abdul Rasheed (All American Triple Jumper from TCU), Brian Guthrie from National City (San Jose State) and James Easterling (Texas Tech). Coach Chris Simpson brought these key players in to play many roles. Brian Guthrie came in as a DB/LB/RB and later played for the IFL Wyoming Cavalry (2007–2008). Rasheed came in as a DB/WR. Easterling came in as a candidate for the starting RB/KR position. Mike was an All-American slot receiver from Quincy University and Nate was a shutdown corner back from KU.^{[citation needed]}

During the 2006 season, The NIFL, hoping to kill off their APFL competition and make the Capitols better, talked with the St. Joseph Explorers of the APFL and interested them in merging with the Lincoln Capitols and becoming the St. Joseph Storm. The team was still declined and was later bought by the league and made a traveling team. The end result was prospective owners saw NIFL as a league to avoid which was a major factor in the league's problems in 2007.

Season-By-Season

Season records
Season	W	L	T	Finish	Playoff results
Lincoln Lightning (IFL)
1999	7	5	0	1st Southern	Lost Semifinal (Green Bay)
2000	10	4	0	2nd Southern	Lost Round 1 (Sioux City)
Lincoln Lightning (af2)
2001	6	10	0	7th NC Midwestern	--
Lincoln Capitols (NIFL)
2002	10	4	0	1st Pacific Northern	Lost Round 1 (Billings 54, Lincoln 51)
2003	9	5	0	2nd Pacific Northern	--
2004	3	11	0	4th Pacific Northern	--
2005	1	13	0	5th Pacific Western	--
Lincoln Capitols/St. Joseph Explorers
2006	0	14	0	3rd Pacific Western	--
Totals	46	69	0	(including playoffs)

References

^ "af2 adds six expansion teams". www.oursportscentral.com. OurSports Central. October 30, 2000. Retrieved July 19, 2017.
^ "Lightning will not play in '02". www.oursportscentral.com. OurSports Central. February 8, 2002. Retrieved July 20, 2017.