It has been 250 years since Paul Revere rode through Lexington, Massachusetts, warning that ‘the British are coming!’ But if you listen carefully, there’s a similar rallying cry echoing across Pueblo and southern Colorado; the ‘Punishers are coming!’
The Punishers, the Pueblo Punishers, are the newest entrant to the National Arena Football League, a professional indoor football league that began in 2017. The league is made up of nine teams, including the Denver-based Colorado Spartans which plays its games at the Denver Coliseum.
At the team’s unveiling, Lisa Rohrich, the first majority female owner in the young league’s existence, spoke with a bold and certain confidence that Pueblo’s team has just a single goal. “We are going for the championship,” she announced at an August news conference. “We’re going for it.”
The team will play its home games at Pueblo’s Southwest Motors Event Center located on the fairgrounds of the Colorado State Fair. The Event Center seats approximately 8,500, a perfect size for the more compact playing Arena League teams.
The field is 85 feet wide and 50 yards wide. Each team fields eight players on either side of the ball. Touchdowns are similar to traditional football but there, most of the similarities to the NFL and conventional football diverge.
The game has dropkicks that count for two points. Dropkick field goals are worth four points. A ‘deuce’ is a two-point score if a kickoff passes through the uprights and an ‘uno’ is awarded if a kickoff is not returned out the end zone.
There is ‘Overtime’ that can last as long as fifteen minutes. Official rules in Arena football say that “if the score remains tied at the end of regulation, each team is given one possession from the opponent’s 20- yard line to score.
Tickets are modestly priced, certainly compared to the NFL or even topflight D1 football. To attend a Punisher game, the team’s website says tickets will range from $30 to suite-level seats priced at $63. The Punishers will play six home games with the season ending in June.
Arena League players are composed of recent college players as well as those trying to ‘get a look’ from the budding USFL, the Canadian Football League or, the ‘ultimate,’ the NFL. Each roster is set with 24 players. The Punisher roster lists two former CSU-Pueblo players.
Similar to other leagues, both professional and college, ownership says the team will involve itself in community activities and events. Says Rohrich, whose staff is majority female, an oddity in the professional game, “I’m going to make Pueblo proud because I want these stands full. I want everybody in this league and other leagues to say, ‘hey, they are doing it right.’”
For more information on the team, its schedule and activities, visit pueblopunishers.com /contact or call 719-881-1283.
