He’s back but in a different uniform and playing in a new league.

Nate Davis is beginning his 10th season of professional indoor football, with the majority of that time with the Amarillo Venom of the Lone Star Football League and the Champions Indoor Football League.

However, following the 2019 season Davis opted to take his talents even further west when he signed with the Duke City Gladiators, who were members of the CIF before joining the rapidly increasing Indoor Football League. The IFL is America’s longest continuously running indoor football league after a merger between the United Indoor Football League and the Intense Football League in 2009.

The global COVID-19 pandemic wiped out the 2020 campaign, but Davis is ready to get going this season.

“Very excited. Very,” he stressed in a recent telephone interview from New Mexico. “Like I’ve said before, ‘If you’re not playing for the rings, you’re playing for all the wrong reasons.'”

While complete statistics aren’t made available for most indoor football league teams, some research found Davis has passed for nearly 30,000 yards and almost 500 touchdowns in roughly 120 games.

A fifth-round draft choice of the NFL’s San Francisco 49ers in 2009 after three outstanding seasons at Ball State, Davis spent time with the team in training camp and saw limited action during the exhibition season before being released.

He has also spent time with the NFL’s Seattle Seahawks (2011 practice squad) and Indianapolis Colts (2011 practice squad); the Arena Football League’s Kansas City Command (2012) and Orlando Predators; the Venom (2012-2013 and 2015-2019); and the Rio Grande Valley Sol (2014).

“We’ve got a very solid team in Duke City,” the Bellaire native noted. “We’re in a new league and we’re going in with a chip on our shoulders. We are hungry and want to prove a point.”

The Gladiators, who won the CIF championship in 2018 and 2019, reported to camp last weekend and open the season on May 22 against the Iowa Barnstormers inside Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. Their home opener is May 29 when the Tucson Sugar Skulls visit Tingley Coliseum.

“I can’t wait to get this thing going,” Davis added. “Not being able to play last summer has made us all that much more hungry.”

While at Ball State, Davis was named the Mid-American Conference Offensive Player of the Year in 2008. He was a two-time Lone Star Bowl champion (2012, 2013) and the LSFL Co-Offensive MVP (2013). He was also first-team CIF Southern Conference (2017).

There are 18 teams currently in the IFL, with a dozen of those competing this season. Each team will play a 16-game schedule, with eight home and eight away.

In addition to Duke City, Iowa and Tucson, other teams include the Arizona Rattlers, Bismarck (N.D.) Bucks, Frisco (Tx.) Fighters, Green Bay Blizzard, Massachusetts Pirates, Northern Arizona Wranglers, Sioux Falls (S.D.) Storm, Louisville Extreme and Spokane (Wash.) Shock.

The Columbus Wild Dogs are expected to join the league in 2022 and will play their games at Nationwide Arena. Also added in 2022 will be the Las Vegas Valley, Cedar Rapids River Kings, Oakland Panthers and Quad City Steamwheelers.