Update on the latest word from the team at the bottom of the blog When it was leaked over the weekend that Arizona is likely to be announced as the next AF1 expansion franchise, I began to do some deep diving on the Arizona Bandits existence up to this point and BOY OH BOY did I fall down a rabbit hole.
Now the Bandits have been unofficially around since late 2023 with their social accounts and making a few public appearance promoting the former AFL and the fact that the Bandits were slated to join the league in 2025 -- including this interesting interview with Owner & President Matthew Mason from April 2024 (But that is an entirely separate can of worms we can crack open at a later date and really dissect).
To start, I type in “Arizona Bandits” on Google. Pretty standard stuff, nothing too crazy.
Wikipedia page, website, X/Twitter &Facebook in the top 4 searches. Cool! Again, nothing out of the ordinary so far! Great start!!
Let's click through the website and take a look: https://arizonabanditsafl.com/
Uhhhhhh. A little dated and empty and no apparent activity since February, but maybe they haven't done anything to it yet because of the AF1 announcement that is coming! Let's stay positive here. There's enough negativity in the world, let's be a beam of light and inspiration.
Let's click into the About Us section! See how the organization is introducing themselves to the world. First impressions are everything, you know!
Oh no. No god. No god please no. No no noooooo. This is clearly an outdated website, but there's still a lot to unpack here: The Bandits are owned by a consortium of local businessmen and celebrities, including former Arizona Cardinals quarterback Kurt Warner, former Phoenix Suns star Steve Nash, and rapper DMX.
This would be awesome if it was true. But we haven't heard ANYTHING about this from anybody at any point. If this was true, wouldn't this have been screamed from the mountain tops a long time ago? I feel like the league (whether it be AFL or AF1) would be leaning into this ownership group BIG TIME and probably would be championing this group.
Also, rapper DMX died in 2021! How the hell is he in the ownership group?! Something ain't right here.
The team’s head coach is Kevin Guy, who previously coached the Arizona Rattlers to four ArenaBowl championships in the Indoor Football League.
Okay, are we being trolled? Kevin Guy, current head coach of the IFL's Arizona Rattlers who just won the IFL National Championship is listed as the head coach of the Arizona Bandits? Huh?
Also, four ArenaBowl championships in the Indoor Football League? What in the ChatGPT is going on here??
Let's keep going.
The Bandits are expected to be one of the contenders for the ArenaBowl title in 2025, as they have a balanced offense and a stingy defense. The team’s main rivals are the Denver Force, the Orlando Predators, and the Philadelphia Soul.
Okay. TIME OUT. What the hell is this? "They have a balanced offense & a stingy defense" -- THEY DON'T HAVE A TEAM YET! HOW SWAY?!
So that got me thinking, is this a fake website that somebody is trolling with? Have we been hoodwinked, bamboozled, lead astray, run amok and flat out deceived?
Let's go to the Contact Us / Find Us section of the site. Let's see if we can get some clarity and any more information here.
They are offering partnership packages on the site, have another website listed (which we'll look at in a sec) and even have a phone number to call!
Let's Google that phone number and fall further down the rabbit hole here.
So that number appears to belong to the previously mentioned Matthew Mason, Owner & President of the Arizona Bandits. It's posted on the website, he posted it on his personal LinkedIn & it's posted on the the Arizona Roadrunners Professional Developmental Football Organization Facebook page -- which Matthew was a part of.
That adds a littttttle legitimacy to the site, but still some red flags and still a chance that this website isn't really real and not even linked to the team AT ALL. Let's check their social pages and see what they say.
A different website is listed! Were we getting trolled the entire time? If you go to that new website on their socials (https://azbanditsafl.com/), you are met with the following page:
Huh. So the site listed in their social bios is "Launching Soon", but that doesn't explain the original website. There's a couple theories at this point. Hear me out:
Theory A:
What we see on that About Us page is true. Maybe Kurt Warner & Steve Nash are involved, maybe Kevin Guy does jump ship, maybe DMX faked his death and has been hiding out in Tempe ready to say "surprise I'm still alive, Go Bandits!"
But the rest of the about us page is ChatGPT is just mumbo jumbo.
Theory B:
That original website had a dummy template with that information that was never meant to go live and see the light of day, but somehow did.
With how the AFL was operating around the time that the website went live, this wouldn't surprise me at all.
Theory C:
They created the original website (https://arizonabanditsafl.com) in February when things were (publicly) looking optimistic.
They lost access to the original site for whatever reason and started a new site (https://azbanditsafl.com/). (side note: putting a single league name in your website name in today's age of arena football is wild but that's a separate topic)
We've seen the previous regime be extremely petty with holding certain social accounts and websites hostage, which could explain why that About Us page is looking as crazy as it is. Very real possibility here.
Theory D:
The original website was NEVER theirs and the only one the organization will claim to have ever had is the new one that is 'Launching Soon'
That would mean that the original website was fake news and trolling the entire time and was never, ever associated with the official team....right?
I mean, if that were the case the social accounts -- which are clearly run by Matthew Mason -- would never, ever post that original link, right?
Embedding from IG isn't working at the moment but here's the direct link to the post.
Oh boy, so they posted the original website on BOTH their X/Twitter & Instagram. Idk what to think at this point. This is quite the mess the Bandits organization find themselves in before they have even been officially announced or even taken the field.
We had some relatively drama-free expansion team announcements in the AF1 so far with Wilkes-Barre, Stockton & Monterrey, but if what Albany's owner accidentally leaked is indeed true and the Arizona Bandits are the next team to be announced, they've got some explaining to do.
What are your thoughts? What do you think is happening here? Let me know on X!
UPDATE: The Arizona Bandits indirectly put out a statement via X/Twitter regarding the confusion on the above website debacle:
While I appreciate them coming out and clarifying that AZBanditsAFL.com is their 'only' website, to say "Not sure who is responsible but it is not our website" is a crazy thing to say when they have CLEARLY posted it as their website on multiple social channels in the past.
I'm okay with the team coming out and saying "This is our new website. The old website was run by the former regime and we no longer have control of that site." But they didn't say that.
They instead tried to gaslight the people who are actually paying attention - which is a CRAZY thing to do. Arena football fans have dealt with enough lies and attempts cover ones tracks in 2024. Just be truthful and transparent -- that's all we ask.
UPDATE: The Arizona Bandits have since deleted the tweet that they posted showing the original website as their own. Tweets can be deleted, screenshots live forever.
Let's see how long it takes them to realize they also posted it on their IG as well.
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