Nullary Sources

Reno has a new football team that began playing this year: the Reno Barons. It’s an independent, professional, indoor football team which has so far played… any other team they can schedule. Which has resulted in routs of semi-pro teams and routs by the only other pro team they’ve played this season, the Stockton Wolves.

I haven’t seen them play, and based on this column by the Reno Gazette-Journal’s Dan Hinxman describing their feud with Reno’s semi-pro team, the Silverbacks, I’m not sure I want to:

The war of words with the Silverbacks escalated last week. The Barons were scheduled to play Tucson in Reno last Saturday. When Tucson backed out early last week, the Barons asked the Silverbacks to step in. The Silverbacks declined because they had a game Saturday against the Sacramento Warriors in Herlong, Calif. By week’s end, the Warriors had backed out of their game with the Silverbacks so they could play the Barons.

The Silverbacks believe the Barons went after the Warriors after the Silverbacks turned them down. Barons spokesman Steve Matson said they put out a request to teams all over the Sacramento valley and the Warriors were the ones who contacted the Barons.

“The silverbacks (sic) are men of our word and we did the right thing,” Silverbacks spokesperson Veronica Ruiz wrote on the Silverbacks’ Facebook page. “Unfortunatley (sic) not everyone does the right thing in this world.”

The Barons then mocked the Silverbacks on their website.

“Hey Reno Silverbacks get your weight up…wait get your website up…lol we are offering you the money to help you,” the post read (and if you’ve seen the Barons’ website you know they have no room to poke fun at someone else’s).

The post was followed by a link to a Barons Facebook page that added this grammar-challenged nugget:

“… Reno Silverbacks, You call yourself Reno’s Team. How many home games have you play? How much money and time have you put into this community? Your team is a joke. … We made an open invite to you last night and Reno wants to see it. Let’s do this. Put your money where your mouth is. Per GM Tim Pierce and Owner Chez Jennings. We will have a suitcase with 3000.00 in it. The suitcase will sit on the announcers table the whole game. Come play us and if you beat us its yours. If you don’t beat us (which you won’t) you drop out of existence Reno Silverbacks. Put up or shut up. No one even knows who you are. …”

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah.

Oh, and there’s also this tidbit at the very end:

Last week, the Barons hired a coach, Jim Terry, who has a criminal record, and tried to tell the RGJ that his name was Jim Michaels.