In the second part of our conversation with Louisiana Voodoo Head Coach James Shiver, he discusses the apparent conflict with league officials and Lee Hutton III regarding the arena in Lafayette. Shiver also opened up about his team not receiving pay and not having adequate housing, and allowing his players to begin speaking with other teams.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:05):
So to be clear, and aswe are going into our third week,
because I know you touched on alot of points, but I want to
focus on one of them. Andyou mentioned the player pay, the hotel
as well having a place to stay. So the league is responsible for all
that. So three weeks and havethe players been paid, coach has been
(00:25):
paid? How's that going? Andhas there been any type of communication as
far as that with the league?Oh, Anthony, of course there's communication,
right, Like the whole story goes, Hey, the checks in the
mail, right are Oh hey,man, look at tomorrow. You know
what I'm saying. It's almost likeif you had a rent house and you
wanted to collect rent, right,Oh, hey, can you give me
one more day? Man, Look, just give me one more day.
(00:46):
I'm pay you tomorrow. I payyou to more, I pay you to
more. Well, we did that. It's always a fairy tale with the
Arena Football League. You know,the checks in the mail, it's coming
tomorrow, man. We were thereto send it to you, but it
was right after four and it wouldgo through until tomorrow. It's gonna come
first thing in the morning. Youknow, I haven't been paid since February.
But in March when they were gonnapay us. To be fair to
(01:07):
them, there was an ownership groupthat was trying to buy the team and
try and take over. Okay,So so it was like, hey,
you know that got messed up.Whenever the ownership group backed out. You
know, you're gonna get paid nextweek. And it just went so on
and so on and listen, Ihave a real job. I mean,
I'm a high school coach. SoI never thought about it. I just
thought, hey, look, don'tworry about it's gonna come. You know,
(01:30):
when the game, first game isgetting here, they're gonna start sending
money, which they did, justnot to us, not to the staff.
Almost feel like the league is maybea part Navy Seal because they can
definitely hold their radio silence for along time. I mean they're the worst
communicators known to man. You know, they never give us a direction.
And so it was it was basicallythe checking the mail, checking the mail,
(01:52):
checking the mail. Well, soTuesday, we were always supposed to
get paid on Tuesday. After thefirst game. Tuesday came and went.
No paychecks had I had already started. I told the players, you know,
Anthony, players don't come to acoach. They don't come to an
area, right, they come toa certain certain kind of coach. They
have to trust the guy that theywant to work for. Okay, And
(02:15):
so when I talked to all myguys, I sold them on the fact
clip I did this in the nineties, and I did this in the late
early two thousands, and I justwant one more chance to win a championship
before I'm done with Arena football.Okay. And my word is my bond.
Check me out online, ask aroundabout me. I'm that guy who's
going to tell you how it is. All right, Every player that has
(02:36):
come to me unbelievable professional, superThe professionalism level is through the roofs,
you know. And they have basically, you know, done everything I've asked
them to do. When the checksdidn't come, you know, Philadelphia erupted,
exploded. You know, the lineonline it was all like, oh,
they're ripping us off. I meansome of the players did videos of
(02:57):
missing the plane at the airport,you know what I mean. I mean,
come on, dude, did yousee any of my players say anything
about not getting paid. No,we kept it in because we all kept
thinking, Hey, they're gonna payus, because it's the Arena Football League.
It's gonna happen. You know whatI mean, It's gonna happen.
I mean, it's just too bigof a deal for it not to happen.
Okay, And then we had ameeting as a group as a resumed
(03:20):
it, and I just said,hey, guys, give me some time.
I know some ownership groups. We'llfind local owners that will pick up
everything and hopefully they can estalbash theteam and you know, we could definitely
make the year. Well I did. I found a couple of ownership groups
that would take over the teams.All right. The problem is, uh,
you know, so Travell was batwith one of them and signed off
on it. He was gonna takeover the team. It's just it never
(03:43):
came to for tuition truition because asit was getting to that point, they
wanted hutting out. They could seethat Hutton was the problem. So hey,
the owners got together, they havethese meetings. Well, whenever these
owners have these meetings, they're tooworried about rules of football instead of worrying
about their partners and who could makeit and can't make it throughout the year.
I mean, so I just kindof feel like, you know,
(04:06):
there's been some great ownership groups.Trevor and Iowa was really good. You
know, He's been really good tous. Whenever they first folded. I
thought to Trevor, he was gonnasell me the net system. I was
gonna bring the net system to Lafyetteif I had to get some people to
buy it for us and just movewith the Lafayette for us, you know,
you know, go find a sponsoror something, you know, because
the league didn't take care of us. Uh, you know, West in
(04:28):
Rapid City, West has been amazing. Steve Titus and Billings has been great,
you know. Jeff Fisher in Nashville. Jeff Fishers, the old NFL
coach, has been great. Spoketo my investor on the phone for a
long time, an awesome communicator.I begged him at the point when we
talked to said please take over hiscommissioner of this league. This league needs
(04:49):
you. I said, if youwould take over as commissioner, things would
change, you know what I mean. I just don't know what to do.
Is if maybe they can't maybe theycan't do it, maybe it's a
legal issue. I don't know whatthe deal is. I just feel like
the leadership at the top is horrible. You know, people, if you
ask me, there's high school league, there's Little League, the little leagues
(05:09):
that I ran better than the thanAFL is. You know, anytime my
fans are having asked me if we'rehaving a game, there's no pressure release,
there's nothing. Yeah, I justdon't understand. You're gonna love this
story. It's one of my favoritestories. This is how I decided that
that it was it was, itwas doomed. Okay, on Tuesday,
the phone call comes through. Now, keep in mind, Anthony, that
(05:30):
earlier I was telling you the storyabout on Sunday, when we were talking
about going to Minnesota, I helpedthem invent the story that Arena was unsaved
and that we were gonna we weregonna go to Minnesota the next weekend.
That was supposed to be a pressrelease. They were gonna let me know.
Okay, Well, when we finishedour game on Saturday, the referees
we're leaving. I shake all thereferees hands I was always do for,
(05:51):
you know, even a high schoolevent, tell them thank you for coming
and everything, and as the coachwill be back next weekend to see y'all
you know next weekend? No rightthere and there. That tells you that
they were fine with everything that happenedin the arena. You know this,
that and the other. Before thegame, all we had talked about was
the net system that needed to bereplaced. But the referees were fine.
It was functional and it worked.Okay. So Tuesday comes around. There
(06:13):
was no pressure release from the AFLhow the schedule was gonna change. Nothing
was released yet. All right,I get a phone call from Lee Hunting
and he says, Coach Shiver justwanted to tell you that I was just
on the phone with the head ofofficials and they just don't feel that your
arena is safe. And you know, we're gonna probably give you guys a
(06:34):
bye week this week now. NotAnthony, I'm the one that made up
the lie. I'm the one thatmade that story up. That was never
anybody else's story. Okay, that'snot true. The officials were fine with
our building. I had spoke tothem the night of. Everything was one
hundred percent fine. The net systemwas all we needed. There was no
safety concerns. So instead of usplaying that game, he takes Georgia and
(06:59):
sends them to Oregon, who's usingRodeo Arena Fencing as their dasherboard system.
So right then and there I knew. And so I said, I said,
Lee, this is Shiver you're talkingto and he goes, yeah,
I know. I said, Lee, I'm the one that made that lie
up that you just used on me, and you didn't know what to say,
(07:21):
man. And the thing was,I called him. I finally called
him. You know how it iswhenever you got but you have an idea
that somebody might be full of crap, right, but you don't want to
say it, you know, andmaybe just then it ends up working out
where it always liked. The dudeends up like a rose every time that
there's a something happens, okay.And and so I'm just like, wait
(07:44):
a minute, I called him.He lied to me using my lie.
All right, Sure enough, nopaychecks came that night. Guys didn't have
apartments, you know, so thatwhole week nothing happened. I had to
go back to tell the guys,guys, they're giving us a buy we
have a buye okay, and theywere all like, the guys were so
(08:05):
upset because you know, you onlyhave a ten week season, some of
the younger guys doing this for filmto try to get to the next level,
you know, and so you know, I was just really man,
I was so upset with it.So that's whenever we found the ownership groups,
we did. We went out there. We worked our tail off,
man. We reached out to allthe owners or emails, we did everything
we could. Well, you know, all of a sudden, when I
(08:28):
reached out to the owners, Iget another phone call from the Hut.
But at this point I'm not answeringit because I already know. So I
just didn' him a text, justput it in writing. You know what
I'm saying, Text me or emailme, let me know what direction you
want me to go in. Okay, But basically as I wasn't answering the
phone, okay, Well, hecalls one of the front office people,
which we never had a front officebefore it, but we had one for
the when we you know, thegame for Louisiana. We had Bentley Turner
(08:50):
who was supposedly like Gained the Operationsor whatever. He's a real title was
I'm not Harpers, Sure, Okay. Bentley calls me and tells me that
Lee's so mad that I'm doing criminaliztivityby reaching out to the other teams.
I don't understand when reaching out toother teams would be criminal, right,
I'm married to a lawyer. I'mmarried to a whole family of lawyers.
That's not criminal. I'm not crazy, Okay. So I did what I
(09:11):
did was best for my team.You know, to this date, I
have a three year contract. Youknow, if they want to fire me,
that's fine. I have a threeyear contract, so they're welcome to
pay for it. Uh. Ijust I'm tired of, you know,
them always turning and moving and changingthe story man, you know what I
mean. Like it's always been aconstant change. And now that people at
(09:33):
LAFEA have experienced the game, they'vetold their friends about it. People are
dying to come to the next game. Okay, I can't even tell them
if we're going to have a gameor not, because for instance, today
today is Monday. Okay, We'resupposed to play on Thursday. Finally,
Lee Hunton Travall reaches out yesterday andsays, we want to have a conference
(09:54):
call with Trevelle Lee, Corey Diaz, which is our special peace coordinator,
and myself and I said, yes, no problem. Eight thirty in the
morning, Okay, eight thirty comesand goes, no phone, no phone
call. Okay, I knew hewasn't gonna call, all right. Uh,
Travelston's a text message, which,like I've said before, travel has
been great to me. You know, I don't know he's been with other
(10:15):
people. He's always been up frontand as for me. Okay, So
Travelston's a text message that says Leeis in court today. Uh, he
won't be able to be on thephone call. But uh, you guys
are getting paid today or tomorrow.It depends what time all that happens.
I'm not. I don't. I'veresigned from my position of the league.
He said. But you'a are gettingpaid today or tomorrow. And and there's
(10:39):
no way we're gonna play the restof this season, maybe in the month
of June. There's just too muchto be done to the arena. Now,
listen, Anthony, there's nothing needsto be done except for a net
system. And I Will already toldme we could use theirs, you know
what I mean. So that's notthat's not true. No, that's true.
Okay, but that's okay. Istill played along Okay, no worries,
I guess. Around an hour later, one of my players reached out
(11:01):
to me because I had given myplayers Lee Hutton's cell phone number and said,
y'all keep calling him until he answersy'all and tells y'all what's going on.
Okay, Well he did. Heanswered them, He answered their phone
call and starts sending a whole differentstory to them. So the coach,
they know that he lies, soof course they call me and they start
telling me what he said. Theyput it all on the voice tat,
on the double chat, on thegroup text. Okay, So then I
(11:24):
copy and paste and I said,hey, Trevall, I know why you
can't get Lee. It's not thathe's in court. He's too busy talking
to my players and the topic ofconversation is how much you've done wrong.
He's basically throwing Trevill the bust andrun over him four or five times.
For everything that's wrong with the Voodoois Traville's fault, you know what I
mean. And it's like, that'sso not true because he knew everything.
(11:48):
I was on conference calls with himthe whole time. No net system,
no dashaboard pass, none of thisother stuff he knew the whole time because
we were in constant communication. Okay, none of that's true. Whenever,
whenever Philadelphia wasn't gonna come at first, I was on the car. I
was on the phone call with thepeople from Dallas. Whenever they were offering
that guy that hey coaching job totake over. Okay, Like I was
(12:09):
on the calls. I know everything. I was there, Okay, And
so you know, and that's whatkills me. If you if you're gonna
lie to me, don't let meat least be there and hear the truth,
you know, I mean, soyeah, I do feel like you
know, I've been lied to.My players have been ripped off. They
don't have housing, but still didnot. They did not come out all
(12:33):
over media. They're professional, tooprofessional to come out over media. And
if this hurts my appeal to theindoor arena or professional ranks for football,
I don't care, guys. I'malmost fifty years old, Okay, I
don't have to have these jobs.I like doing this. This is a
passion of mine. I love coachingfootball. I love coaching grown men,
and I love being around the sport. Okay, but I don't have to
(12:56):
do it again. This won't bethe end all be all for me.
Okay, it's time for somebody totell the story. The story is the
league ripped off my team and andthere's nothing else we can do about it.
You know, we we've tried everythingwe can. You know, we've
we've fought it out. Uh wewe found ownership groups, but we couldn't
(13:18):
get through to them with the league. You know, we've we've done it
all. We've got kicked out ofthe hotels night for the game. The
guys didn't even get the shower.One of my top players, Tory Boyd,
he says, coach, I don'tneed a hotel room. I didn't
need money for a ticket on abus to go meet my brother in Houston.
I mean, how ridiculous is thatthat a grown man, a professional
football player, had to get aticket to go to Houston to meet his
(13:41):
brother in the middle of the nightand wait for a bus till two o'clock
in the morning to bring him there. No, but that's what the Arena
Football League did to Tory Boyd,who was the center for the New Orleans
Breakers in the USFL last year.Okay, I mean who treats their people
that way. Who treats their peoplethat way, and don't expect to be
called on it. You know,I'm not. I told our guys this
(14:03):
exact thing. I said, don'tquit, guys, We'll just hire a
lawyer and will suit. Nobody's gonnaquit because if we quit, then they
can stop paying us. I said, don't quit, keep being part of
the team. You know, ifanother team picks you up, go,
I told him, I said,I'll sign your release right now until they
fire me. I'm gonna do whateverit takes for my guys to get what
they need to do, because there'sno way I get those guys like the
(14:24):
roster I had if I don't standby my word. I sold them on
the whole sale of family. AndI can't just be about to talk.
I gotta be about to walk.What would Nick Saban do in this situation?
That's what I keep thinking, rightAnd I just feel like we've done
everything possible as a coach of staff, as a as an organization on my
end to make sure that my guyswere taken care of. But I can't
(14:46):
pay them because I don't have themoney. The leg gos them and I
don't have the stuff that they're owedto get them back home. Some of
them can't afford to get home.And in saying that, as it's coming
out right now on the internet,there's fans that are saying, hey,
let's op in that Black Coliseum Sundayand we'll just go and donate our money
and buy tickets to that, justto help the fans, that just to
help the players. Now what otherteam has that kind of loyal fans and
(15:09):
only one week of playing nobody?Man, I mean South South Louisiana has
really taken a love until the Voodooand it's sad that they're about to get
robbed. You know. You knowthe worst thing is we could have done
it really bad. Let me tellyou there was after the game, there
was twenty to thirty sponsors that cameon the field and we're like, we
want our signs up, we wantto advertise with the team, we want
(15:31):
to do this. I'm from here, Anthony. You think I was gonna
take their money? It wouldn't havebeen enough to cover maybe two weeks,
you know what I'm saying. Sodo you think I was going to take
their money? No? I wasn't. I told those all of them,
Look, we'll get with you allnext week. And then I told Corey,
Corey, don't even go after himuntil we know a direction to go
in, you know, because I'mnot for taking those moneys from sponsors and
(15:54):
sending that into the league office.And then what what would they do still
do the same thing they're doing tous right now. Not pay us and
do the same thing they're doing rightnow. I didn't do it, and
I wouldn't do it, man,you know, I just I mean,
I'm not going to rip off mycommunity, you know, because the college
called me tonight and they were thinking, Coach, that's fifteen thousand dollars still
old on the bill for the restof the season, to be paid up
(16:15):
till June. What do you wantto do? Look, man, I
want you to you want you allto rent it to somebody else, I
said, because I don't know what'sgoing to happen tomorrow. You know,
I told my players, I said, I'm going to tell you guys the
same thing I tell my own son. Sign with another team. Don't make
your money while you can. Theclock is ticking. There's only so many
football games you have left in theamount of time. You can play the
(16:36):
man, all right, don't worryabout me. You're loyalty to me has
been seen. I know that youare loyal me. And I said,
okay, you're a man of yourword. I told him. But here's
the deal. The word has nobonding to it. They're not paying us,
there's no guarantees. Go to anotherteam. And you other teams out
there if you don't sign my guys, you're crazy. What other teams that
(16:56):
wouldn't have got paid, wouldn't havebeen out there blab and put it all
over Facebook? Right, So myguys, they took it like this,
you know you don't You don't thatguy? I told them that. I
said, you know, you don'thave marital problems and put it all over
Facebook and then take your wife back, you know what I'm saying, Like
it just looks bad, right andso and so my guys they understood that.
(17:18):
They took it for that. Andso that's what we've done. We've
we've we've seriously, you know,held our water. We've been quiet about
it to this point. And I'mstill I'm not saying it now to slam
the league, because it could happento any league. It can happen to
any owner, but this was intentional, not after one week. This is
not something that just should have happened. Okay, there's other teams out there
(17:40):
that could have been folded. Imean, you have a marquee team with
probably the best best uniforms, thebest name, the best everything in the
league. But instead of sending usout to other teams, you would rather
send the semi pro teams that y'allcould beat up on fifty to twelve.
Okay, do that. That's greatthat we've done. Wouldn't fans want to
see a better game? I mean, you know, I'm telling you right
now, the Voodoo were the championsof the AFL and to proven different,
(18:03):
which nobody's going to ever prove usdifferent. I mean, I tell you
right now, we would have beatAll Bennie. I watched it. I'm
not I'm a coach, this iswhat I do for a living. We
would have beat All Bennie, wouldhave beat Nashville. We would have beat
them all. I mean, andthere's no chance of us ever getting that
opportunity. And that's what my guyswanted work. Even this weekend. My
guys were willing not to get paidagain and playing against Orlando just to prove
(18:26):
a point, just to prove apoint. You know, That's what kind
of professionals I have on my team. And it's just it's sad, Anthony
and I you know, I mean, I'm fed up with it. That's
why I'm on your show tonight todispeil the rumors, to put the truth,
to put the icing on the cake, the real truth. How do
you kind of reassure the fans andyour players that may have doubt about the
(18:51):
rest of the season. And ontop of that, do you think this
AFL season will last? I thinkthe AFL s pieceon is gonna last because
I believe Nashville, Orlando and allBenny can make it last. I think
Buildings a Goyne be in that listtoo, possibly Selina, Kansas. Maybe.
I think there's five or six teamsthat could that couldn't make it last.
(19:11):
Okay, they probably have the rightstability, right ownership group, right
right things to place to make itlast. You know, you know,
I think I think that that wouldbe uh, it could happen. I
think it. I think it doesfinish the year with those teams, only
somehow I know it's gonna contract.I believe it's gonna contract. I wish
we would have been in the contraction. You know, I'm not. I'm
(19:34):
not. This is this is theterm they're gonna use because there are unbelievable
spinners. They're gonna say, well, he's just mad that it failed in
his city and he's not there nomore, right, absolutely not. Man.
I'm gonna go on vacation with myfamily. I'm gonna go to the
beach this summer. You know whatI'm saying. All the fun things that
I was gonna miss out on,the coach Arena football, I'm not gonna
miss out on. I mean,summer in South Louisiana is pretty fun.
(19:56):
Okay, So I'm not upset aboutit. You know, I'm upset for
my community. I'm upset for thebills that are unpaid in my community.
You know all those things that I'mupset about that. Yeah, I'm definitely
upset about it, and I'm not. I'm not gonna quit fighting until that's
done, right, if I haveto hire lawyers to make that happen,
you know, anytime. I liketo say this a lot too, Anthony,
(20:18):
I'm an administrator in school I've beenan administrator for a while. I
know that anytime two kids fight,there's two stories, right, and somewhere
in the middle there's a gray area, which is probably the truth, and
it's hard to find out. Right. I haven't nearly went to the extreme
side of the stories. I couldtell you for the horrors of the Arena
(20:40):
Football League. This year, I'mtrying to stay real close to the gray
area because you know, I don'twant to get fired. But if I
do, I mean, honestly,they've already broken my contract by not paying
me. But but but it wouldn'thurt my feelings if I do get fired,
you know what I'm saying, Becauseyou I accomplished what I wanted to
do this year. We want toknow, like we can get some rings
right now if we want, youknow what I mean, Like, there's
(21:03):
doesn't matter who they would have puton in front of us. I can
tell you forever if anything, wenever play another game. We finished undefeated.
We are undefeated, you know whatI mean. When Steve Spurrier did
that with the AF the Alliance ofAmerican Football, Uh, he got a
championship, right, I kind offeel like, hey, we need a
championship. So yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't care what
they what they say tomorrow. There'sa gray area. I'm in it right
(21:26):
now, Guys, I'm not.I'm not nearly touching on the extremes.
Are being as ugly as I canbe about what the stories are, are
nearly going in depth telling you howbad it really is. Yeah, it's
it's terrible the fact that my guysdidn't even get the shower after a game
and had no place to live.But I'm not going into depth about what
all we had to do to makegood make that right for the guys,
(21:48):
and it's still not completely right,you know. And the league didn't do
that our coaching staff did we haveBesides the money they owe us, they
owe us another ten thousand dollars inin bills that we've spent out to make
the players right in the time thatthey've been been mistreated. So, Anthony's
just so you know, I guesswhat I'm telling you is the fans out
(22:08):
there who love drama and love tofind something wrong with the story are spending
Listen to me, Well, thestory is the story. I'm telling.
What I am telling you, I'mtelling you as one hundred percent accurate.
You know, I have no reasonfinancially. It's not gonna help me or
hurt me for telling you this story. You know, if anything, I'm
(22:29):
doing this because there's there's twenty fiveguys that that I was in charge of,
and I'm riding that ship for them. Okay, James Shiver is not
gonna die if he doesn't get hismoney that the Arena Football League goes in,
because James Shaver has got a greatjob at St. Evan High School
and he's gonna be successful no matterwhat. Okay, But my other guys
(22:49):
who moved here left their family athome and have don't have a dollar to
get back home from Louisiana. That'sthe real wrong. That's the real time
travesty. That's the real problem.Okay, they were done wrong, man,
and that's why I'm on this showtonight. Whenever you reach out to
me, Anthony, I was.I was excited. You know, there
(23:10):
was other people that went through thatwanted me to tell my story, and
I was kind of holding it allin, man, but then I said,
you know what, the public justdeserves it. They deserve to hear
the truth. What's going on becauseif you're waiting on the Arena Football League
to tell you the truth, guys, you're gonna wait for a long time,
and the truth is gonna be I'mtelling you, there'll be some made
up story where Shiver did it.It's Shiver's fault. He he didn't do
(23:32):
the arena correctly. It was unsafeand uh and we were just so worried
about other people getting hurt. Now, Anthony, do you think that's true?
Because if so, why are weplaying in Oregon still? Why are
the teams still playing in Oregon?I mean they're not. Are there are
the players becoming like a rodeo starsbecause that's what they're playing inside of a
rodeo arena and the fencing is onthe outside. There's no dashboards there.
(23:56):
That's the safety issue. That's theproblem. Okay. I mean it's just
you know, every story that hasbeen told to me, it's just not
true and it's time for people toknow it. Coach James Shiver, thank
you so much for joining us andthe luck the rest of the season.
Thank you, anth I appreciate it.
So to be clear, and aswe are going into our third week,
because I know you touched on alot of points, but I want to
focus on one of them. Andyou mentioned the player pay, the hotel
as well having a place to stay. So the league is responsible for all
that. So three weeks and havethe players been paid, coach has been
(00:25):
paid? How's that going? Andhas there been any type of communication as
far as that with the league?Oh, Anthony, of course there's communication,
right, Like the whole story goes, Hey, the checks in the
mail, right are Oh hey,man, look at tomorrow. You know
what I'm saying. It's almost likeif you had a rent house and you
wanted to collect rent, right,Oh, hey, can you give me
one more day? Man, Look, just give me one more day.
(00:46):
I'm pay you tomorrow. I payyou to more, I pay you to
more. Well, we did that. It's always a fairy tale with the
Arena Football League. You know,the checks in the mail, it's coming
tomorrow, man. We were thereto send it to you, but it
was right after four and it wouldgo through until tomorrow. It's gonna come
first thing in the morning. Youknow, I haven't been paid since February.
But in March when they were gonnapay us. To be fair to
(01:07):
them, there was an ownership groupthat was trying to buy the team and
try and take over. Okay,So so it was like, hey,
you know that got messed up.Whenever the ownership group backed out. You
know, you're gonna get paid nextweek. And it just went so on
and so on and listen, Ihave a real job. I mean,
I'm a high school coach. SoI never thought about it. I just
thought, hey, look, don'tworry about it's gonna come. You know,
(01:30):
when the game, first game isgetting here, they're gonna start sending
money, which they did, justnot to us, not to the staff.
Almost feel like the league is maybea part Navy Seal because they can
definitely hold their radio silence for along time. I mean they're the worst
communicators known to man. You know, they never give us a direction.
And so it was it was basicallythe checking the mail, checking the mail,
(01:52):
checking the mail. Well, soTuesday, we were always supposed to
get paid on Tuesday. After thefirst game. Tuesday came and went.
No paychecks had I had already started. I told the players, you know,
Anthony, players don't come to acoach. They don't come to an
area, right, they come toa certain certain kind of coach. They
have to trust the guy that theywant to work for. Okay, And
(02:15):
so when I talked to all myguys, I sold them on the fact
clip I did this in the nineties, and I did this in the late
early two thousands, and I justwant one more chance to win a championship
before I'm done with Arena football.Okay. And my word is my bond.
Check me out online, ask aroundabout me. I'm that guy who's
going to tell you how it is. All right, Every player that has
(02:36):
come to me unbelievable professional, superThe professionalism level is through the roofs,
you know. And they have basically, you know, done everything I've asked
them to do. When the checksdidn't come, you know, Philadelphia erupted,
exploded. You know, the lineonline it was all like, oh,
they're ripping us off. I meansome of the players did videos of
(02:57):
missing the plane at the airport,you know what I mean. I mean,
come on, dude, did yousee any of my players say anything
about not getting paid. No,we kept it in because we all kept
thinking, Hey, they're gonna payus, because it's the Arena Football League.
It's gonna happen. You know whatI mean, It's gonna happen.
I mean, it's just too bigof a deal for it not to happen.
Okay, And then we had ameeting as a group as a resumed
(03:20):
it, and I just said,hey, guys, give me some time.
I know some ownership groups. We'llfind local owners that will pick up
everything and hopefully they can estalbash theteam and you know, we could definitely
make the year. Well I did. I found a couple of ownership groups
that would take over the teams.All right. The problem is, uh,
you know, so Travell was batwith one of them and signed off
on it. He was gonna takeover the team. It's just it never
(03:43):
came to for tuition truition because asit was getting to that point, they
wanted hutting out. They could seethat Hutton was the problem. So hey,
the owners got together, they havethese meetings. Well, whenever these
owners have these meetings, they're tooworried about rules of football instead of worrying
about their partners and who could makeit and can't make it throughout the year.
I mean, so I just kindof feel like, you know,
(04:06):
there's been some great ownership groups.Trevor and Iowa was really good. You
know, He's been really good tous. Whenever they first folded. I
thought to Trevor, he was gonnasell me the net system. I was
gonna bring the net system to Lafyetteif I had to get some people to
buy it for us and just movewith the Lafayette for us, you know,
you know, go find a sponsoror something, you know, because
the league didn't take care of us. Uh, you know, West in
(04:28):
Rapid City, West has been amazing. Steve Titus and Billings has been great,
you know. Jeff Fisher in Nashville. Jeff Fishers, the old NFL
coach, has been great. Spoketo my investor on the phone for a
long time, an awesome communicator.I begged him at the point when we
talked to said please take over hiscommissioner of this league. This league needs
(04:49):
you. I said, if youwould take over as commissioner, things would
change, you know what I mean. I just don't know what to do.
Is if maybe they can't maybe theycan't do it, maybe it's a
legal issue. I don't know whatthe deal is. I just feel like
the leadership at the top is horrible. You know, people, if you
ask me, there's high school league, there's Little League, the little leagues
(05:09):
that I ran better than the thanAFL is. You know, anytime my
fans are having asked me if we'rehaving a game, there's no pressure release,
there's nothing. Yeah, I justdon't understand. You're gonna love this
story. It's one of my favoritestories. This is how I decided that
that it was it was, itwas doomed. Okay, on Tuesday,
the phone call comes through. Now, keep in mind, Anthony, that
(05:30):
earlier I was telling you the storyabout on Sunday, when we were talking
about going to Minnesota, I helpedthem invent the story that Arena was unsaved
and that we were gonna we weregonna go to Minnesota the next weekend.
That was supposed to be a pressrelease. They were gonna let me know.
Okay, Well, when we finishedour game on Saturday, the referees
we're leaving. I shake all thereferees hands I was always do for,
(05:51):
you know, even a high schoolevent, tell them thank you for coming
and everything, and as the coachwill be back next weekend to see y'all
you know next weekend? No rightthere and there. That tells you that
they were fine with everything that happenedin the arena. You know this,
that and the other. Before thegame, all we had talked about was
the net system that needed to bereplaced. But the referees were fine.
It was functional and it worked.Okay. So Tuesday comes around. There
(06:13):
was no pressure release from the AFLhow the schedule was gonna change. Nothing
was released yet. All right,I get a phone call from Lee Hunting
and he says, Coach Shiver justwanted to tell you that I was just
on the phone with the head ofofficials and they just don't feel that your
arena is safe. And you know, we're gonna probably give you guys a
(06:34):
bye week this week now. NotAnthony, I'm the one that made up
the lie. I'm the one thatmade that story up. That was never
anybody else's story. Okay, that'snot true. The officials were fine with
our building. I had spoke tothem the night of. Everything was one
hundred percent fine. The net systemwas all we needed. There was no
safety concerns. So instead of usplaying that game, he takes Georgia and
(06:59):
sends them to Oregon, who's usingRodeo Arena Fencing as their dasherboard system.
So right then and there I knew. And so I said, I said,
Lee, this is Shiver you're talkingto and he goes, yeah,
I know. I said, Lee, I'm the one that made that lie
up that you just used on me, and you didn't know what to say,
(07:21):
man. And the thing was,I called him. I finally called
him. You know how it iswhenever you got but you have an idea
that somebody might be full of crap, right, but you don't want to
say it, you know, andmaybe just then it ends up working out
where it always liked. The dudeends up like a rose every time that
there's a something happens, okay.And and so I'm just like, wait
(07:44):
a minute, I called him.He lied to me using my lie.
All right, Sure enough, nopaychecks came that night. Guys didn't have
apartments, you know, so thatwhole week nothing happened. I had to
go back to tell the guys,guys, they're giving us a buy we
have a buye okay, and theywere all like, the guys were so
(08:05):
upset because you know, you onlyhave a ten week season, some of
the younger guys doing this for filmto try to get to the next level,
you know, and so you know, I was just really man,
I was so upset with it.So that's whenever we found the ownership groups,
we did. We went out there. We worked our tail off,
man. We reached out to allthe owners or emails, we did everything
we could. Well, you know, all of a sudden, when I
(08:28):
reached out to the owners, Iget another phone call from the Hut.
But at this point I'm not answeringit because I already know. So I
just didn' him a text, justput it in writing. You know what
I'm saying, Text me or emailme, let me know what direction you
want me to go in. Okay, But basically as I wasn't answering the
phone, okay, Well, hecalls one of the front office people,
which we never had a front officebefore it, but we had one for
the when we you know, thegame for Louisiana. We had Bentley Turner
(08:50):
who was supposedly like Gained the Operationsor whatever. He's a real title was
I'm not Harpers, Sure, Okay. Bentley calls me and tells me that
Lee's so mad that I'm doing criminaliztivityby reaching out to the other teams.
I don't understand when reaching out toother teams would be criminal, right,
I'm married to a lawyer. I'mmarried to a whole family of lawyers.
That's not criminal. I'm not crazy, Okay. So I did what I
(09:11):
did was best for my team.You know, to this date, I
have a three year contract. Youknow, if they want to fire me,
that's fine. I have a threeyear contract, so they're welcome to
pay for it. Uh. Ijust I'm tired of, you know,
them always turning and moving and changingthe story man, you know what I
mean. Like it's always been aconstant change. And now that people at
(09:33):
LAFEA have experienced the game, they'vetold their friends about it. People are
dying to come to the next game. Okay, I can't even tell them
if we're going to have a gameor not, because for instance, today
today is Monday. Okay, We'resupposed to play on Thursday. Finally,
Lee Hunton Travall reaches out yesterday andsays, we want to have a conference
(09:54):
call with Trevelle Lee, Corey Diaz, which is our special peace coordinator,
and myself and I said, yes, no problem. Eight thirty in the
morning, Okay, eight thirty comesand goes, no phone, no phone
call. Okay, I knew hewasn't gonna call, all right. Uh,
Travelston's a text message, which,like I've said before, travel has
been great to me. You know, I don't know he's been with other
(10:15):
people. He's always been up frontand as for me. Okay, So
Travelston's a text message that says Leeis in court today. Uh, he
won't be able to be on thephone call. But uh, you guys
are getting paid today or tomorrow.It depends what time all that happens.
I'm not. I don't. I'veresigned from my position of the league.
He said. But you'a are gettingpaid today or tomorrow. And and there's
(10:39):
no way we're gonna play the restof this season, maybe in the month
of June. There's just too muchto be done to the arena. Now,
listen, Anthony, there's nothing needsto be done except for a net
system. And I Will already toldme we could use theirs, you know
what I mean. So that's notthat's not true. No, that's true.
Okay, but that's okay. Istill played along Okay, no worries,
I guess. Around an hour later, one of my players reached out
(11:01):
to me because I had given myplayers Lee Hutton's cell phone number and said,
y'all keep calling him until he answersy'all and tells y'all what's going on.
Okay, Well he did. Heanswered them, He answered their phone
call and starts sending a whole differentstory to them. So the coach,
they know that he lies, soof course they call me and they start
telling me what he said. Theyput it all on the voice tat,
on the double chat, on thegroup text. Okay, So then I
(11:24):
copy and paste and I said,hey, Trevall, I know why you
can't get Lee. It's not thathe's in court. He's too busy talking
to my players and the topic ofconversation is how much you've done wrong.
He's basically throwing Trevill the bust andrun over him four or five times.
For everything that's wrong with the Voodoois Traville's fault, you know what I
mean. And it's like, that'sso not true because he knew everything.
(11:48):
I was on conference calls with himthe whole time. No net system,
no dashaboard pass, none of thisother stuff he knew the whole time because
we were in constant communication. Okay, none of that's true. Whenever,
whenever Philadelphia wasn't gonna come at first, I was on the car. I
was on the phone call with thepeople from Dallas. Whenever they were offering
that guy that hey coaching job totake over. Okay, Like I was
(12:09):
on the calls. I know everything. I was there, Okay, And
so you know, and that's whatkills me. If you if you're gonna
lie to me, don't let meat least be there and hear the truth,
you know, I mean, soyeah, I do feel like you
know, I've been lied to.My players have been ripped off. They
don't have housing, but still didnot. They did not come out all
(12:33):
over media. They're professional, tooprofessional to come out over media. And
if this hurts my appeal to theindoor arena or professional ranks for football,
I don't care, guys. I'malmost fifty years old, Okay, I
don't have to have these jobs.I like doing this. This is a
passion of mine. I love coachingfootball. I love coaching grown men,
and I love being around the sport. Okay, but I don't have to
(12:56):
do it again. This won't bethe end all be all for me.
Okay, it's time for somebody totell the story. The story is the
league ripped off my team and andthere's nothing else we can do about it.
You know, we we've tried everythingwe can. You know, we've
we've fought it out. Uh wewe found ownership groups, but we couldn't
(13:18):
get through to them with the league. You know, we've we've done it
all. We've got kicked out ofthe hotels night for the game. The
guys didn't even get the shower.One of my top players, Tory Boyd,
he says, coach, I don'tneed a hotel room. I didn't
need money for a ticket on abus to go meet my brother in Houston.
I mean, how ridiculous is thatthat a grown man, a professional
football player, had to get aticket to go to Houston to meet his
(13:41):
brother in the middle of the nightand wait for a bus till two o'clock
in the morning to bring him there. No, but that's what the Arena
Football League did to Tory Boyd,who was the center for the New Orleans
Breakers in the USFL last year.Okay, I mean who treats their people
that way. Who treats their peoplethat way, and don't expect to be
called on it. You know,I'm not. I told our guys this
(14:03):
exact thing. I said, don'tquit, guys, We'll just hire a
lawyer and will suit. Nobody's gonnaquit because if we quit, then they
can stop paying us. I said, don't quit, keep being part of
the team. You know, ifanother team picks you up, go,
I told him, I said,I'll sign your release right now until they
fire me. I'm gonna do whateverit takes for my guys to get what
they need to do, because there'sno way I get those guys like the
(14:24):
roster I had if I don't standby my word. I sold them on
the whole sale of family. AndI can't just be about to talk.
I gotta be about to walk.What would Nick Saban do in this situation?
That's what I keep thinking, rightAnd I just feel like we've done
everything possible as a coach of staff, as a as an organization on my
end to make sure that my guyswere taken care of. But I can't
(14:46):
pay them because I don't have themoney. The leg gos them and I
don't have the stuff that they're owedto get them back home. Some of
them can't afford to get home.And in saying that, as it's coming
out right now on the internet,there's fans that are saying, hey,
let's op in that Black Coliseum Sundayand we'll just go and donate our money
and buy tickets to that, justto help the fans, that just to
help the players. Now what otherteam has that kind of loyal fans and
(15:09):
only one week of playing nobody?Man, I mean South South Louisiana has
really taken a love until the Voodooand it's sad that they're about to get
robbed. You know. You knowthe worst thing is we could have done
it really bad. Let me tellyou there was after the game, there
was twenty to thirty sponsors that cameon the field and we're like, we
want our signs up, we wantto advertise with the team, we want
(15:31):
to do this. I'm from here, Anthony. You think I was gonna
take their money? It wouldn't havebeen enough to cover maybe two weeks,
you know what I'm saying. Sodo you think I was going to take
their money? No? I wasn't. I told those all of them,
Look, we'll get with you allnext week. And then I told Corey,
Corey, don't even go after himuntil we know a direction to go
in, you know, because I'mnot for taking those moneys from sponsors and
(15:54):
sending that into the league office.And then what what would they do still
do the same thing they're doing tous right now. Not pay us and
do the same thing they're doing rightnow. I didn't do it, and
I wouldn't do it, man,you know, I just I mean,
I'm not going to rip off mycommunity, you know, because the college
called me tonight and they were thinking, Coach, that's fifteen thousand dollars still
old on the bill for the restof the season, to be paid up
(16:15):
till June. What do you wantto do? Look, man, I
want you to you want you allto rent it to somebody else, I
said, because I don't know what'sgoing to happen tomorrow. You know,
I told my players, I said, I'm going to tell you guys the
same thing I tell my own son. Sign with another team. Don't make
your money while you can. Theclock is ticking. There's only so many
football games you have left in theamount of time. You can play the
(16:36):
man, all right, don't worryabout me. You're loyalty to me has
been seen. I know that youare loyal me. And I said,
okay, you're a man of yourword. I told him. But here's
the deal. The word has nobonding to it. They're not paying us,
there's no guarantees. Go to anotherteam. And you other teams out
there if you don't sign my guys, you're crazy. What other teams that
(16:56):
wouldn't have got paid, wouldn't havebeen out there blab and put it all
over Facebook? Right, So myguys, they took it like this,
you know you don't You don't thatguy? I told them that. I
said, you know, you don'thave marital problems and put it all over
Facebook and then take your wife back, you know what I'm saying, Like
it just looks bad, right andso and so my guys they understood that.
(17:18):
They took it for that. Andso that's what we've done. We've
we've we've seriously, you know,held our water. We've been quiet about
it to this point. And I'mstill I'm not saying it now to slam
the league, because it could happento any league. It can happen to
any owner, but this was intentional, not after one week. This is
not something that just should have happened. Okay, there's other teams out there
(17:40):
that could have been folded. Imean, you have a marquee team with
probably the best best uniforms, thebest name, the best everything in the
league. But instead of sending usout to other teams, you would rather
send the semi pro teams that y'allcould beat up on fifty to twelve.
Okay, do that. That's greatthat we've done. Wouldn't fans want to
see a better game? I mean, you know, I'm telling you right
now, the Voodoo were the championsof the AFL and to proven different,
(18:03):
which nobody's going to ever prove usdifferent. I mean, I tell you
right now, we would have beatAll Bennie. I watched it. I'm
not I'm a coach, this iswhat I do for a living. We
would have beat All Bennie, wouldhave beat Nashville. We would have beat
them all. I mean, andthere's no chance of us ever getting that
opportunity. And that's what my guyswanted work. Even this weekend. My
guys were willing not to get paidagain and playing against Orlando just to prove
(18:26):
a point, just to prove apoint. You know, That's what kind
of professionals I have on my team. And it's just it's sad, Anthony
and I you know, I mean, I'm fed up with it. That's
why I'm on your show tonight todispeil the rumors, to put the truth,
to put the icing on the cake, the real truth. How do
you kind of reassure the fans andyour players that may have doubt about the
(18:51):
rest of the season. And ontop of that, do you think this
AFL season will last? I thinkthe AFL s pieceon is gonna last because
I believe Nashville, Orlando and allBenny can make it last. I think
Buildings a Goyne be in that listtoo, possibly Selina, Kansas. Maybe.
I think there's five or six teamsthat could that couldn't make it last.
(19:11):
Okay, they probably have the rightstability, right ownership group, right
right things to place to make itlast. You know, you know,
I think I think that that wouldbe uh, it could happen. I
think it. I think it doesfinish the year with those teams, only
somehow I know it's gonna contract.I believe it's gonna contract. I wish
we would have been in the contraction. You know, I'm not. I'm
(19:34):
not. This is this is theterm they're gonna use because there are unbelievable
spinners. They're gonna say, well, he's just mad that it failed in
his city and he's not there nomore, right, absolutely not. Man.
I'm gonna go on vacation with myfamily. I'm gonna go to the
beach this summer. You know whatI'm saying. All the fun things that
I was gonna miss out on,the coach Arena football, I'm not gonna
miss out on. I mean,summer in South Louisiana is pretty fun.
(19:56):
Okay, So I'm not upset aboutit. You know, I'm upset for
my community. I'm upset for thebills that are unpaid in my community.
You know all those things that I'mupset about that. Yeah, I'm definitely
upset about it, and I'm not. I'm not gonna quit fighting until that's
done, right, if I haveto hire lawyers to make that happen,
you know, anytime. I liketo say this a lot too, Anthony,
(20:18):
I'm an administrator in school I've beenan administrator for a while. I
know that anytime two kids fight,there's two stories, right, and somewhere
in the middle there's a gray area, which is probably the truth, and
it's hard to find out. Right. I haven't nearly went to the extreme
side of the stories. I couldtell you for the horrors of the Arena
(20:40):
Football League. This year, I'mtrying to stay real close to the gray
area because you know, I don'twant to get fired. But if I
do, I mean, honestly,they've already broken my contract by not paying
me. But but but it wouldn'thurt my feelings if I do get fired,
you know what I'm saying, Becauseyou I accomplished what I wanted to
do this year. We want toknow, like we can get some rings
right now if we want, youknow what I mean, Like, there's
(21:03):
doesn't matter who they would have puton in front of us. I can
tell you forever if anything, wenever play another game. We finished undefeated.
We are undefeated, you know whatI mean. When Steve Spurrier did
that with the AF the Alliance ofAmerican Football, Uh, he got a
championship, right, I kind offeel like, hey, we need a
championship. So yeah, I don't. I don't. I don't care what
they what they say tomorrow. There'sa gray area. I'm in it right
(21:26):
now, Guys, I'm not.I'm not nearly touching on the extremes.
Are being as ugly as I canbe about what the stories are, are
nearly going in depth telling you howbad it really is. Yeah, it's
it's terrible the fact that my guysdidn't even get the shower after a game
and had no place to live.But I'm not going into depth about what
all we had to do to makegood make that right for the guys,
(21:48):
and it's still not completely right,you know. And the league didn't do
that our coaching staff did we haveBesides the money they owe us, they
owe us another ten thousand dollars inin bills that we've spent out to make
the players right in the time thatthey've been been mistreated. So, Anthony's
just so you know, I guesswhat I'm telling you is the fans out
(22:08):
there who love drama and love tofind something wrong with the story are spending
Listen to me, Well, thestory is the story. I'm telling.
What I am telling you, I'mtelling you as one hundred percent accurate.
You know, I have no reasonfinancially. It's not gonna help me or
hurt me for telling you this story. You know, if anything, I'm
(22:29):
doing this because there's there's twenty fiveguys that that I was in charge of,
and I'm riding that ship for them. Okay, James Shiver is not
gonna die if he doesn't get hismoney that the Arena Football League goes in,
because James Shaver has got a greatjob at St. Evan High School
and he's gonna be successful no matterwhat. Okay, But my other guys
(22:49):
who moved here left their family athome and have don't have a dollar to
get back home from Louisiana. That'sthe real wrong. That's the real time
travesty. That's the real problem.Okay, they were done wrong, man,
and that's why I'm on this showtonight. Whenever you reach out to
me, Anthony, I was.I was excited. You know, there
(23:10):
was other people that went through thatwanted me to tell my story, and
I was kind of holding it allin, man, but then I said,
you know what, the public justdeserves it. They deserve to hear
the truth. What's going on becauseif you're waiting on the Arena Football League
to tell you the truth, guys, you're gonna wait for a long time,
and the truth is gonna be I'mtelling you, there'll be some made
up story where Shiver did it.It's Shiver's fault. He he didn't do
(23:32):
the arena correctly. It was unsafeand uh and we were just so worried
about other people getting hurt. Now, Anthony, do you think that's true?
Because if so, why are weplaying in Oregon still? Why are
the teams still playing in Oregon?I mean they're not. Are there are
the players becoming like a rodeo starsbecause that's what they're playing inside of a
rodeo arena and the fencing is onthe outside. There's no dashboards there.
(23:56):
That's the safety issue. That's theproblem. Okay. I mean it's just
you know, every story that hasbeen told to me, it's just not
true and it's time for people toknow it. Coach James Shiver, thank
you so much for joining us andthe luck the rest of the season.
Thank you, anth I appreciate it.
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