Football lifers chase gridiron dreams indoors with Bay Area Panthers

San Francisco Chronicle​

a day ago

The cheapest single-game ticket to a Bay Area Panthers football game is $19. The seats aren't situated in nosebleed-nowhere, but behind the back of the end zone. Panthers team president David Eisenberg called it 'one of the most accessible live sports experiences' in the Bay.
Players are regularly made available for autographs and photos, so much so that fans might just realize they asked for the signature of the same person who sold them life insurance the other day.
Meet football lifer Justin Rankin.
In 2023, the running back rushed for the second-most yards (923) and touchdowns (45) in the Indoor Football League en route to the Panthers' first IFL championship, earned in just their second season after their COVID-delayed launch by co-owners Marshawn Lynch and Roy Choi. Rankin was also a part-time life insurance salesman who'd previously worked at FedEx, Amazon, DoorDash. The list goes on.
When you talk about pro football players, you might note their status as celebrities. Rankin, like most indoor football players, was anything but. He remembers his daily schedule as an IFL rookie out of Northwest Missouri State: practices for the Bismarck Bucks ran from 6 a.m. to noon before his subsequent shift alongside coworker Richard Stammetti (the Bucks' quarterback at the time) at Dick's Sporting Goods that took them to 8 p.m.
Rankin clung to his opportunities in the IFL when he realized how dull the 'real world' can be by comparison.
'At the end of the day, I've lived in the real world, I worked real jobs,' Rankin told the Chronicle. 'Football, I always tell people it's not reality … it's kind of like you're in this fantasy world, so to speak, and it feels good. You love working hard, you love being around a group of guys that are all trying to pursue one goal and one dream.
'I've worked a lot of jobs where people hate showing up every day, and that can make it miserable for you.'
Such desperation to succeed defines the Panthers, a young franchise that has brought indoor football back to a fan base rabid during the San Jose SaberCats' glory days in the Arena Football League. SaberCats legend Mark Grieb, who quarterbacked them to ArenaBowl Championship wins in 2002, 2004 and 2007, said he was disappointed upon finding out the organization had disbanded in 2015. He still went to the games as a fan following his retirement in 2012, if only to recapture a sense of the childlike joy the sport gave back to him over his 13-year career in the AFL.
'For that period of time in my life, I really never felt like I was working,' Grieb said.
The SaberCats drew more than 2 million fans in total attendance, averaging 12,364 at SAP Center across 19 seasons. Panthers home games have also been played at SAP Center since their inaugural AFL season in 2022. Grieb got himself a ticket that year. He said he believes there's still a market for indoor football in the Bay Area.
The IFL places emphasis on a more traditional football approach in the indoor setting, meaning scores are not quite as high as when Grieb threw for 100 touchdowns in a given AFL season. But the level of fan support during his playing days at least proved what may be possible for the Panthers, albeit in a different league with slightly different rules.
He still has vivid memories of his favorite hecklers. What may be a chirp in the distance at an outdoor football game becomes a one-on-one chat indoors, given the close proximity of fans to the 50-yard field. It was as if they were part of the game, and in another breath, more similar than not to the actual players on the field.
'There is a fan base of people that really loved — love that environment,' Grieb said. 'I think it's there if you can put out the product. Winning helps, of course, and having players that fans identify with.'
The Panthers win. Though they lost in the first round of the IFL playoffs last year, they were still tied for the best regular-season record in the league at 13-3 that earned them the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference. And a 6-2 record this season has them sitting comfortably at second place in the Western Conference standings.
The Panthers' two losses? A 53-48 nailbiter against the Arizona Rattlers, the lone IFL team with only one loss so far, and an uncharacteristically low-scoring 28-21 defeat to the San Antonio Gunslingers in their season opener at home. They avenged that loss last weekend on the road, romping to a 55-26 win. Bay Area newcomer Josh Jones proved to be the difference, tossing four of his 16 passes for touchdowns with zero turnovers.
'You have to basically learn a whole bunch of new guys within nine days, or whatever it is, and that's always a tougher challenge,' Jones said of the IFL's abbreviated training camp compared to other pro leagues.
'Most of the time, the first couple games of the IFL season, you're still learning your teammates, their tendencies on the field, obviously off the field.'
Among the Panthers' longest-tenured players is defensive end Tevaughn Grant. He has only known success in the team's black and gold, having contributed to the team's championship run in 2023 when he earned All-IFL second-team honors in his debut campaign. He had spent the previous two years with no roster spot in any league. Fast-forward to his third season in the Bay Area and he now has the better problem of playing for a coach whose goal isn't to retain him, albeit in the best way.
'He don't be wanting to see us again, and I'm the same way,' Grant said.
Rob Keefe has been in and around arena football for nearly two decades, first as a player and now as a coach. He understands the life associated with chasing the sport from opportunity to opportunity. Players make less than $40,000 per year on average. He has presided in 16 different places over the course of his career doing so.
'It's a league of one-year contracts so the goal for this league — in my personal opinion, for the players — is to continue your career but to get onto the best team that can give you the opportunity to perform at the highest level possible, to then get to the next level,' Keefe said. 'In the last two years, we've actually had 20 of our players signed to the NFL, the UFL and the CFL.'
Rankin closely kept track of how long he played in the IFL: three full seasons, plus five games in a fourth. Over time, he came to terms with the potential reality, that he could end up playing the rest of his football career indoors.
Quitting wasn't an option. He knew because he tried, sitting out the Bismarck Bucks' first playoff game in franchise history. Without getting into specifics, he expressed frustration with where he was in his career at that point; he longed to be on an NFL or CFL roster.
'I was over it,' Rankin said.
But regret followed. He wasn't ready to let football go, and ultimately decided to cherish the opportunity in front of him, having bounced from the Bucks to the Frisco Fighters, and then the Panthers in 2023.
That's when the Bay Area start-up, fresh off of a 1-15 inaugural IFL campaign, put themselves on the radar of former SaberCats fans with a championship run reminiscent of the team's 2000s heyday which obsessed that loyal cadre. And starring for the Panthers was Rankin, whose resilience ultimately earned him a chance to do the same for the Edmonton Elks a year later as part of a breakthrough CFL rookie campaign that landed him an extension with the Elks through the upcoming 2025 season.
'Nobody's playing indoor football to get rich,' Rankin said. 'It's the opportunity (to play).'