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The time of the year that most people refer to as “football season” is right around the corner, but the Indoor Football League is currently nearing the conclusion of its current one. However, the ongoing playoffs were marred by a questionable call that led to one coach going on a rant for the ages after his team got robbed by the refs.
There have been a number of different football leagues that have attempted to fill the dreaded void that greets fans of the sport in the wake of the Super Bowl each year, and the Indoor Football League has been attempting to do exactly that since kicking off its inaugural season in 2009.
The Arizona Rattlers headed into the 2025 campaign as the reigning champions, and they earned the opportunity to defend the crown as one of the eight teams in a league comprised of 14 franchises to punch their ticket to the playoffs.
It initially looked like they had avoided a last-second scare on Monday to advance to the conference championship, but things took a pretty unexpected turn thanks to an atrocious call that led to their head coach unleashing one of the most vitriolic postgame rants you’ll ever encounter.
Arizona Rattlers coach Kevin Guy tore into IFL refs over a botch call that led to the league issuing a lackluster apology
The first round of the IFL playoffs got underway over the weekend, and it wrapped up when the Rattlers faced off against the San Diego Strike Force on Monday.
Arizona had a 48-42 lead in the closing seconds of a contest where the opposing team had to scramble to get to the line of scrimmage following a play where the clock continued to run after the ball was advanced a couple of yards outside of the end zone.
The Strike Force seemingly snapped the ball right before time expired, and QB Arthur Jackson III tossed a touchdown pass to Nate Davis to tie things up. That sparked a lengthy review to determine if San Diego had gotten the play off in time, but the referees ultimately confirmed they had before Ernesto Lacayo converted the extra point to seal the 49-48 victory.
Rattlers skipper Kevin Guy was clearly not pleased with what transpired, as he did not mince words while going on a profane tirade in the wake of the showdown that ended his team’s season.
Absolutely legendary tirade delivered by Arizona Rattlers head coach Kevin Guy tonight in Glendale…
After his team, the defending IFL champs, saw their season end on a chaotic last second touchdown that was reviewed for what felt like about 10 minutes. https://t.co/lGx9TqPHSE pic.twitter.com/iFi3n5cbbm
— Nick King (@NickKingSports) August 5, 2025
Here’s some of what he had to say:
“Our operations was bulls—t. Clock guy, the replay guy, everybody—they’re fired. They won’t work with me again. I tell you that right now. I got to have that information so we can make a decision.
The flag was thrown for a false start, and then they went and reviewed it and picked it up. I mean, the whole thing was a cluster f—k. It just seems like we always get screwed at home at the end, all right?
Don’t really give a s—t if the league fines me or not. Don’t care. I’m so tired of the referees being a part of the game. I’m so freaking tired. He threw a flag for a false start, then they go over there and pick it up.
At the end of the day, we thought the clock ran out. I’ll go watch the game, see the film, whatever. But I am so tired of these kinds of games at our place. We’ll get into the meetings in the offseason and we need to put the whole referee system under review. I’m just fed up with it.”
Guy also went after the refs for failing to police the defenders who were overly physical with his receivers over the course of the game and took particular umbrage with an officiating crew he claimed had a history of questionable calls.
To make matters even worse, the IFL issued a statement after the Rattlers filed a formal protest and acknowledged Arizona should have won, saying “game officials committed a judgment error” while acknowledging “a false start occurred, as three or more players were not set at the time of the snap.”
However, that didn’t serve as any real consolation, as it simply noted the league “will acknowledge the error but will not overturn the outcome of the game.”