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KFL issues ban for Texas team

Many who are following the Kayak Fishing League (KFL) have heard at this point that the Lonestar Bandits have been banned from competition for the remainder of 2022 and for 2023. Although its a definite controversial topic, the severity of the situation warrants the action, at least in KFL founder and president Greg Nosar’s eyes.

The season did not start as the Bandits had hoped with a 1-3 record after week 5, with a 154.5 points deficit to improve on. Even with some good performances they had fallen short of a winning season. The current standings for the Southwest Division were showing a dominant team but the season was not a complete loss at this point with a few weeks left to mount a comeback. 

Before this controversy started, Jerod Brockelman of the Lonestar Bandits was able to pull off an MVP performance in Week 5. KFL honored that performance in good faith and Brockelman wins the $500 from RIP IT Energy.

Points as of Week 5

Team	Record	Points For	Points Against	+- Diff
Arkansas Hawgs	3-1	547	396.25	150.75
Louisiana Huricanes	2-2	574.25	529.25	45
Oklahoma Outlaws	2-2	551.5	592.25	-40.75
Lonestar Bandits	1-3	489.75	644.25	-154.5

Throwing in the towel

The Bandit’s were to travel and face the Oklahoma Outlaws in week 6 roughly 4-6 hours away from their home base in Texas. This past weekend Greg had received the message that the Bandits were going to forfeit the match which has only happened once before. In 2021 the Indianapolis Knights took a win after the Alabama Hammers had to forfeit due to Covid. The Knights had traveled to Alabama the week before and both teams had come down with Covid. Hammers opted to stay home with anglers still testing positive and not feeling 100 percent. The Knights played the match as if the opposing team was on the water taking the win.

This situation was far different in this case however, where the team at best had a financial hardship with covering travel costs versus Covid. The Bandits appeared to want to just forfeit this travel game and would play out the remaining games. Outward appearances and scuttlebutt being that they just felt they were out of playoff contention and cutting their losses. It came down to they refused to send anyone to Oklahoma to “fish for fun”.

As many may think that it isn’t a big deal and the Oklahoma just gets the win forgets that the league has investment in this format of broadcasting teams battling live. This makes having teams just forfeit a game problematic for both the opposing team and KFL’s sponsors who are funding the league based on this live dynamic. Could the opposing team fish anyway similar to the Knights Hammers matchup in 2021? Sure, but who wants to watch a battle against nobody? Even if one player fishes the game it can make for an exciting match with a 1 v. 4 scenario for a potential underdog upset.

A similar situation is in play for the 2-2 Carolina Casters verse the undefeated Coosa Kingfishers this weekend. Situations with players competing at the Hobie BOS event this weekend along other circumstances causing the Casters to only be able to send 2 players to the game. Seemingly big underdogs with a 43 point spread a Casters victory would make for an exciting upset story. 

Is this a written rule or not?

A lot of focus has been put on the fact that this isn’t a written rule, in which it is written for a player quitting or defecting in KBF rule 22. (See screenshot of Rule 22 below)

The splitting hairs of they didn’t “quit” or “defect” but forfeited the match is one that has caused most of the issues. Notice quit is in quotation marks. This is a distinction to point out that any action that could be considered “quitting” would fall under this rule. The leagues’ determination was a forfeit is the entire roster of players “quitting” for that game constituting the 1 year ban that puts them out until July of 2023. With no possibility to be a viable contender in the playoffs at that point, it made more sense to just ban for that entire season.

Greg Nosar stated to Basstrail “They just refused to show up at Oklahoma man. A 5 hour drive no one would go to “fun fish”. So that is quitting man. They quit. So we as a league made a decision to ban them from competition for this season and next.”

In the comments of KFL’s Hindsight 20/20 were the announcement was made publicly, Bandit player Caleb Helbig commented on a post  “I can’t speak for the exact correspondence between Bandits and KFL but it was my understanding we were told if we can not get a single person to Oklahoma the entire team and individual ban would happen” that caused an immediate negative response form the team for the perceived unjustified ultimatum in their eyes.

Jason Cambell also commented in the thread mentioning that he felt they did not quit or defect.

Robert Brown of the Norfolk Privateers comparing this to the NFL explained “That in my opinion is like if the 0-8 Detroit lions said we won’t make the playoffs so we aren’t playing any away games. I would assume hefty hefty fines and other disciplinary actions would be taken. Also what kind of precedence does that set for the rest of the teams?”

The Lonestar Bandits did not respond to Basstrail's request for comment.

The Replacements

With that unwanted void in the schedule, the plan was initially to just give the wins to the opposing teams who no longer had a rival for those matches. However there was a Southwest team on the waiting list for 2023 that was ready to go with a commitment to travel and play out the remainder os the season.

The Natural State Eagles were added in place of the Lonestar Bandits and will assume the Bandit’s record of 1 win and 3 losses. The new KFL players have a tough hill to climb but it would make an interesting story if they pull something off! The players for the Eagles are:

• Joel Spear
• Kyle Burns
• Larry Hollis
• Dwain Batey
• Michal Evans
• Jordan Coffey
• Glenn Jernigan
• Gary Cooper