CFL Swashbucklers Start to Sink

July 6, 1994 - The Canadian Football League's expansion team in Shreveport, Louisiana (Pirates), loses its game against the Ottawa Rough Riders.

The Shreveport Pirates were a short-lived but memorable franchise in the Canadian Football League's ill-fated American expansion experiment of the mid-1990s. Established in 1994, the Pirates called Independence Stadium in Shreveport, Louisiana, home. Their formation came about when the CFL allowed owners Bernard and Lonnie Glieberman to sell their struggling Ottawa Rough Riders franchise and acquire a new expansion team in the U.S.

The Pirates' two seasons were marked by on-field struggles and off-field controversies. In their inaugural 1994 season, led by head coach Forrest Gregg after an early coaching change, they finished last in the CFL East Division with a 3-15 record, enduring a 14-game losing streak before securing their first victory. Despite the dismal record, they garnered respectable fan support for a small market.

In 1995, the Pirates moved to the newly formed South Division and improved slightly to a 5-13 record, though still missing the playoffs. Key players like running back Martin Patton and kicker Björn Nittmo were fan favorites. However, ongoing financial issues and an attempt to relocate the team to Norfolk, Virginia, which ultimately failed, sealed their fate. After the 1995 season, the CFL ended its American expansion, and the Shreveport Pirates, like most of their U.S. counterparts, ceased operations. They remain a curious footnote in professional football history, remembered for their loyal fan base despite their brief, tumultuous existence.

The franchise folded in 1995.