Sports Notebook, Friday
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Monsters hire line coach
Arena football league expansion teams make a hundred decisions on their way to opening day — logos, uniforms, venues, marketing, travel — but only a handful shape the identity of their team. The Minnesota Monsters made one of those decisions today, announcing the hiring of veteran line architect Derrizett Croop as offensive
Obit: Peter Niss
Peter Niss died November 13, 2025 at his home in Mt. Royal Manor Apartments in Duluth. He was born in Minneapolis on October 19, 1946, and grew up in Duluth and at Timber Bay Lodge on Birch Lake near Ely. After attending Duluth East High School and Lawrence University in
Howie: Why arena football struggles with public perception -- and how leagues try to fix it
Stability is the real product. If teams stay in their markets, if players get paid on time, if the community sees the league year after year, the perception changes. But you can’t fix 30 years of history overnight.
Obit: Dean Gagne
It is with deep sorrow that we announce the passing of Dean Lee Gagne. He died on November 17, 2025 at the age of 62 years old. Dean was a smart and loving man, but his life was marked by illness. Overcoming Hodgkin's disease, and a ruptured hernia,