I noticed this didnt even get a mention in here. New indoor league coming to Chicago and Steve McMichael will be the head coach. Fridge is playing a front office role.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-0701100046jan10,1,5530022.story?coll=chi-news-hed&ctrack=1&cset=true

Upon being introduced Tuesday as head coach of the Chicago Slaughter, an indoor football team that will begin playing in Hoffman Estates in March, Steve "Mongo" McMichael told a story about having his celebratory lunch at a telling location: Mike Ditka's restaurant.

Ditka was not only McMichael's coach on the Bears, but he's also part owner of the Chicago Rush, the Arena Football League team just down Interstate Highway 90 that will play a nearly concurrent schedule.

As McMichael recounted, the coach was stunned--but not angered--to learn that his former player was about to become a competitor.

"The only thing he said before he walked away was, `Remember what I taught you,'" McMichael said. "So I don't think there's any animosity."

That could be because the Slaughter, a member of the 2-year-old Continental Indoor Football League, is a bigger underdog than the New England Patriots were in the 1986 Super Bowl against the Bears.

Unlike the AFL, which will play its games on ESPN and have its share of recognizable athletes, the Slaughter doesn't have a TV contract, and its players will be men willing to take the field for as little as $100 a game.

But with rules that encourage high scores, a slew of marketing gimmicks and a princely home field in the new $62 million Sears Centre, team officials said they would be able to claim a piece of the market.

"I think there are enough football fans in this town to fill up every stadium," said team owner Eric Margenau, a New York sports psychologist and veteran minor-league operator who also owns the Chicago Hounds hockey team.

The Slaughter will play seven-on-seven football--one fewer player per side than the AFL game--but many of the rules are similar to arena ball. The field is 50 yards long, punting is not allowed and one receiver can gain momentum by dashing toward the line of scrimmage before the snap.

But league spokesman Josh Stein said that unlike the AFL, there will be no nets that keep the ball in play, which makes the CIFL game closer to the traditional version of football.

The CIFL has 14 teams, up from six in its inaugural 2006 season, and Chicago is by far its largest market: The Slaughter's rivals come from such towns as Kalamazoo, Mich., Rochester, N.Y., and Troy, Ohio. Last year's champion was the Port Huron (Mich.) Pirates.

The season will begin March 23 with a game against the Springfield (Illinois) Stallions and go through late June. Individual tickets to the games will cost $15 to $35.

The team's players won't be household names--tryouts are still going on--so McMichael and former Bears teammate William "The Refrigerator" Perry, the Slaughter's director of football operations, promise to be the faces of the franchise.

McMichael said he plans to lead the team onto the field atop a roaring Harley-Davidson motorcycle. He will let local youth teams romp around the field before the action starts and allow a fan to call a play each game, he said.

Most of all, he said, he will give the fans a squad created in his own image.

"Coach Mongo will have a soft spot in his heart for a vicious predator," he said. "So give us a call--we might be able to give you a job."