Goodbye, Miami Caliente

The Miami Caliente, South Florida's own lingerie football team, is no more. One of the ten inaugural teams in the league formed two years ago, the Caliente made it to the playoffs in 2010 with one of the best offenses in the league, losing in the conference finals to the...

By Michael J. Mooney

April 26, 2011

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The Miami Caliente, South Florida's own lingerie football team, is no more. One of the ten inaugural teams in the league formed two years ago, the Caliente made it to the playoffs in 2010 with one of the best offenses in the league, losing in the conference finals to the Chicago Bliss. The second season, however, was not as successful.

Now the team's league-hosted website is gone, several of the team's best players are now on other teams, and the word Caliente is nowhere to be found on the recently released 2011-12 schedule.

Star quarterback Anonka Dixon, who led the league in touchdowns in her first season in the LFL, recently confirmed that she will play next season with the Orlando Fantasy. Of course, New Times featured Dixon in a March 2010 cover story chronicling the team's first season. There was some subsequent controversy.

The team met a bit of controversy (and additional media coverage) last year, when several players were involved in a bench-clearing brawl with the Tampa Bay Breeze. Several players were suspended, and one coach was dismissed.

A team source said the franchise was folding mostly because the local market did not support the team. Even when the team essentially hosted the playoffs, the crowd was only a couple of hundred people.

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