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The Amarillo Venom were a professional indoor football team based in Amarillo, Texas. They played their home games at the Amarillo Civic Center. The Venom began play as the Amarillo Dusters in 2004 as a charter member of the Intense Football League, a small indoor football league based in Texas. They won the championship in their first and only season with the Intense Football League.
In 2005, the Dusters became the first team to leave the Intense Football League and join the AF2, the minor league of the Arena Football League, where they played for four seasons until the AF2's folding in 2009. At that point, the team held a fan vote as to whether to join some of their AF2 brethren in the new Arena Football 1 (later gaining rights to the name as Arena Football League) or enjoy numerous Texas rivalries in the Indoor Football League. In 2009, it was announced that the Dusters would be moving to the Indoor Football League for the 2010 season. It was then announced that the Dusters would have to be renamed because the Arena Football League owned the rights to the Dusters name and logo and the team became the Amarillo Venom.
The Venom then joined the Lone Star Football League for the 2012 season, which eventually merged into Champions Indoor Football (CIF) prior to the 2015 season. Prior to the 2021 season, the Venom withdrew from the CIF and later formed the Arena Football Association for the 2022 season. However, the team suspended operations in February 2022.
The team was featured on an episode of Only in America, a show that aired on the Discovery Times channel.
The Venom were relaunched for the 2024 season as members of the revived American Indoor Football league, but did not complete the season and went silent on May 30, 2024.
On July 26, 2024, it was announced that the team will be rebranded back to the Dusters for the 2025 season. On August 20, 2024, it was announced that the Dusters had joined the National Arena League for that season. However, their membership was terminated on February 2, 2025. The team eventually folded for good in 2025 following the announcement of the return of and relocation of the West Texas Warbirds to Amarillo.
The Dusters tried to build on the moderate success they had in 2005. However, in 2006, the team suffered many injuries and failed to make it to the AF2 playoffs. Quarterback Steve Panella was injured early in the season, forcing numerous backups to take the job. They ended the season with a 4β12 record. Carthel left to take the head coaching job at West Texas A&M two games into the Dusters first AF2 season.
For 2005, Steve Perdue took over the head coaching job and lead the team playoffs and a first round victory over the Oklahoma City Yard Dawgs. Looking to rebound after the previous losing season, injuries plagued the Dusters' offense. After a win against the Lubbock Renegades the Dusters struggled for the remainder of the year but were still able end the Quincy Carter-led Bossier-Shreveport Battle Wings' perfect season with a 51β49 upset.
On July 5, 2008, Dusters running back Donte Newsome was shot to death outside of a nightclub in Huntington, West Virginia, home of his alma mater Marshall University. Dusters remember fallen teammate
In 2008, under the leadership of head coach Chris MacKeown and quarterback Julian Reese, the Amarillo Dusters went 10β9 and played for the AF2 National Conference ArenaCup Finals. Following the Dusters most successful season in their AF2 history, MacKeown moved up to the Arena Football League as the offensive coordinator for John Elway's Colorado Crush.
On December 21, 2008, the Dusters introduced a new color scheme for the team with crimson, grey, and black.
On July 13, 2013, they faced the Laredo Rattlesnakes, where they won 70β69, winning back-to-back championships in the LSFL. Davis won the MVP of the Game.
Amarillo and West Texas officially left the CIF and turned their Lone Star Series from the previous season into the Arena Football Association (AFA) in November 2021. The new league also announced its initial membership consisting of former Lone Star Series member Texas Jets, former American Arena League champions North Texas Bulls, the dormant Rio Grande Valley Dorados, and the Texas Crude.
On February 17, 2022, team co-owner Stephanie Tucker announced the team had withdrawn from participating in the AFA for the 2022 season and that the team was for sale.
On August 20, 2024, the National Arena League announced that the Dusters were joining the league for the 2025 season. And on that same day, the team announced that Duane Bailey would become a new minority owner. However, on February 2, the Dusters were terminated as a member of the league, ostensibly due to not meeting league obligations. The owner of the Corpus Christi Tritons, another NAL member that had been dropped from the league on similar pretenses, stated that the Tritons, Dusters, and several other teams had been expelled from the league solely because the NAL could not assemble a schedule and book all of the necessary arenas for each date, and falsely blamed the teams for noncompliance when they had in fact complied with the NAL's requests.
Indoor football is scheduled to return to Amarillo in 2026 with an announced relocation and reactivation of the West Texas Warbirds.
| League champions | Conference champions | Division champions | Playoff berth | League leader |
| All-time postseason record |
| Amarillo Dusters roster | ||||||
| Quarterbacks
Running backs Wide receivers | Offensive linemen
Defensive linemen | Linebackers
Defensive backs Special teams
| Reserve lists
| |||
| LSFL Championship MVP |
| Don Carthel | 2004β2005 | 14 | 4 | 2 | 0 | ||
| Steve Perdue | 2005β2007 | 14 | 32 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Chris MacKeown | 2008 | 8 | 8 | 2 | 1 | ||
| Ben Bennett | 2009 | 3 | 13 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Jon Lyles | 2010 | 11 | 3 | 1 | 1 | ||
| Rodney Blackshear | 2011 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Julian Reese | 2011β2021 | 69 | 39 | 8 | 6 | ||
| Rick Kranz | 2024 | 1 | 4 | 0 | 0 | ||
| Trae Ivory | 2025βfuture | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 |
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