The Columbus Lions are a professional indoor football team based in

Columbus, Georgia Columbus is a consolidated city-county located on the west-central border of the U.S. state of Georgia. Columbus lies on the Chattahoochee River directly across from Phenix City, Alabama. It is the county seat of Muscogee County, with which it ...

and are a member of the

American Indoor Football Alliance The American Indoor Football Alliance (AIFA) is a minor-professional American indoor football league based in the United States. Teams' typical operating budget is $500,000 with a $90,000 payroll budget per season. Players are paid up to $200 ...

. The were a founding member of the

National Arena League The National Arena League (NAL) is a professional indoor football league that began play in 2017. It consists of teams based on the East Coast of the United States. Teams' typical payroll budget is $600,000 per season, while players are paid $ ...

(NAL) for the 2017 season. The Lions were founded in 2006 as an

expansion team An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...

of the

World Indoor Football League The World Indoor Football League was an indoor football league that was to begin in 1988 to compete with the Arena Football League, which was playing its second season in 1988. Some of the teams in the league ran into financial trouble before th ...

(WIFL). After the WIFL went under in 2007, the Lions joined the

American Indoor Football Association American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

(AIFA) where they played for two seasons. When the AIFA broke apart, the Lions joined the

Southern Indoor Football League The Southern Indoor Football League (SIFL) was an indoor football league based in the Southern and Eastern United States. The most recent incarnation of the league was a consolidation of an earlier league of the same name that was formed by Thom H ...

(SIFL). The Lions joined the

Professional Indoor Football League The Professional Indoor Football League (PIFL) was a professional indoor football league that played four seasons from 2012 to 2015. Like the Lone Star Football League, the PIFL was mainly composed of teams formerly part of Southern Indoor Foo ...

(PIFL) in 2012 when the

(SIFL) teams split up into two new leagues. After the 2015 season, the PIFL broke apart, and the Lions joined

American Indoor Football American Indoor Football (AIF) was a professional indoor football league, one of the several regional professional indoor football leagues in North America. The AIFL began as a regional league with six franchises on the East Coast of the United ...

for 2016. In their first 12 seasons, the Lions have compiled a regular season record of 100–47 with division championships in 2009, 2011 and 2016. They have made six championship appearances: in the 2010 season where they defeated the

Louisiana Swashbucklers The Louisiana Swashbucklers were a professional indoor football team based in Lake Charles, Louisiana. They were formed in 2005 as an expansion member of the National Indoor Football League (NIFL) and were originally known as the Southwest Louis ...

in President's Cup II, in 2015 when they defeated the

Richmond Raiders The Richmond Raiders were a professional indoor football team located in Richmond, Virginia the Richmond Coliseum as their home arena. The Raiders began play in the 2010 as an expansion team of the American Indoor Football Association (AIFA). The ...

in PIFL Cup IV, in 2016 where they defeated the

West Michigan Ironmen The West Michigan Ironmen are a professional indoor football team based in Muskegon, Michigan (and representing the larger region which also includes Grand Rapids and Holland), the Ironmen play their home games at Mercy Health Arena. The team jo ...

in the AIF Championship game, in 2017 when the Lions lost to the

Jacksonville Sharks The Jacksonville Sharks are a professional indoor football team based in Jacksonville, Florida, playing their home games at VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena. Beginning in 2017, the Sharks began play as charter members of the National Arena Leag ...

21–27 in the inaugural NAL Championship, in 2018 with 66–8 loss to the

Carolina Cobras The Carolina Cobras were an expansion franchise in the Arena Football League. The team was formed prior to the 2000 season, which endured a player strike. The team was originally based in Raleigh, North Carolina, but moved to Charlotte followin ...

and a 79-62 loss to the Albany Empire in 2021.

History

Beginnings & Championships

The Lions were founded in 2006. They began play in the short-lived

in 2007. The Lions' inaugural game on February 26, 2007, was marred by tragedy when opposing defensive back Javon Camon of the

Daytona Beach Thunder The Daytona Beach ThunderBirds were an arena football team based in Daytona Beach, Florida. They were founded in 2005 as the Daytona Beach Hawgs playing in the National Indoor Football League. In 2006, they changed their name to the Daytona Thu ...

was killed after a hard but clean hit by Lions fullback Cedric Ware during the fourth quarter. For the Lions' impressive inaugural season, head coach Jason Gibson won the league's inaugural Coach of the Year Award. The WIFL collapsed after the season and the Lions moved to the

where they played two seasons in 2008 and 2009. They would then join the

and play from 2010 to 2011 before the SIFL split into two separate league with the Lions going to the

in 2012. Following the Lions' 2015 PIFL Cup IV Championship, the Lions moved back to

. The Lions move to the AIF proved to be fruitful for the Lions, and they completed the regular season 8-0 and won the 2016 AIF Championship with a perfect record. One week after winning the championship, the Lions announced they were leaving the AIF for the 2017 season.

National Arena League

In July 2016, Lions' owners Skip Seda and his father, Keke Seda, announced the formation of a new league called the Arena Developmental League to begin play in spring 2017. They named former

Canadian Football League The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ci ...

Arena Football League The Arena Football League (AFL) was a professional arena football league in the United States. It was founded in 1986, but played its first official games in the 1987 season, making it the third longest-running professional football league in ...

, and

AF2 The AF2 (often styled as af2, and short for arenafootball2) was the Arena Football League's developmental league; it was founded in 1999 and played its first season in 2000. Like its parent AFL, the AF2 played using the same arena football ru ...

coach John Gregory as the league's commissioner. In November 2016, the

joined and the Sedas yielded control over the new league for it to become the

. The Lions would appear in the NAL playoffs in every season since the league's inception. They, and the NAL, would not play in 2020 due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

. They would make three appearances in the NAL Championship Game losing to the

27-21 in 2017, the

66-8 in 2018 and the Albany Empire 79–62 in 2021.

New Era

On August 30, 2022, the Lions announced new ownership led by Jeff Levack, who also has ownership stake in the

Orlando Predators The Orlando Predators were a professional arena football team based in Orlando, Florida and member of the Arena Football League (AFL). The team was most recently owned by Orlando Predators LLC, a company owned by David A. Siegel, and played its ...

and Albany Empire. He was a part of two staffs that helped the Empire win three championships in four years. On September 13, 2022, they introduced new branding for the team designed by former player and designer
Mike Jones
The new branding pays homage to the original branding that was around for the past 16 years. They also announced arena football veteran player and coach Chris McKinney as only the second head coach in team history. On December 22, the

had announced that the membership of the Lions had been discontinued. One day later the Lions announced they have joined the regional

Players

Current roster

Awards and honors

The following is a list of all Lions players who have won league awards:

Season-by-season results

References

External links

Official site

Lions' 2008 stats

Lions' 2009 stats

Lions' 2011 stats
{{AIF 2006 establishments in Georgia (U.S. state) National Arena League teams