The National Indoor Football League (NIFL) was a professional indoor football league in the United States. For their first six years, the league had teams in markets not covered by the Arena Football League; however, that changed briefly with their expansion into AFL markets such as Atlanta, Denver, San Antonio, Miami and Los Angeles. Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur, Buffalo Bills running back Fred Jackson, New Orleans Saints quarterback John Fourcade, New York Giants DB Tito Wooten, St. Louis Rams Super Bowl champion Ron Carpenter, Pittsburgh Steelers Super Bowl running back Bam Morris and New Orleans Saints hall of famer Tyrone Hughes all played in the NIFL. Miami Dolphins and Pro Football hall of famer Larry Little, Houston Oilers head coach Ed Biles, Washington Redskins QB Heath Shuler and New York Giants Corey Miller were all head coaches in the NIFL. The league folded in 2008.
The NIFL, based in Lafayette, Louisiana, was founded by Carolyn Shiver. The league started operations in 2001, with many teams coming from Indoor Football League being bought the previous year and folding operations. In 2002, the league added in the teams from the Indoor Professional Football League. 2003 was the most successful year for the league as 24 teams played a mostly complete schedule, with few cancellations.
Before the 2005 season, nine teams left the league to form United Indoor Football. That same year, the Intense Football League ceased operations and four teams from there joined the league. Those teams, however, left the league before the 2006 season started.
For the 2005 season, the NIFL had an agreement with NFL to handle referee assignment and training.
The 2006 season was the most chaotic for the league to that point. Ten expansion teams were added to the league, but nine of them had problems that reflected badly on the league. The most notable situation was the owner of the Montgomery Maulers firing the entire team. None of the ten expansion teams returned to the league for the next season.
The 2007 season started with the addition of several league-owned expansion teams, primarily to supplement games with the returning teams. However, the teams were all poorly funded and had problems fielding competitive squads. The San Diego Shockwave were declared the official league champion. The league then officially folded prior to the 2008 season.