The IFL was a professional American football league that existed from 1981-1982 before merging with the NAFL in 1983. The league featured 4 teams in its inaugural season and 8 teams plus a league-owned practice squad in 1982. The stated goals of the IFL were:

• International - Spread American Football outside of the US.
• Innovative - Fast paced games with new rules, formations, and strategies.
• Iron - Hard hitting action.

According to memos featured in the Kenneth McMillan's book, The I in Team, a 4th 'I' appeared on earlier drafts, Invigorate. The Invigorate goal was a hodgepodge of ideas intended to engage fans with the IFL during the season and outside of it. Activities included barbecues with players, coaches, and other staff, a prototype of what is now called a “T-Shirt Canon”, a lottery for Iron Bowl tickets, and interactive halftime shows. Although these ideas were incorporated by individual teams, Invigorate was dropped from the league's first press release in 1980.

Tim Edwards and other wealthy individuals connected with Greg Frye along with staff from the former WLF (World League of Football, the WoLF, 1973-1975) mulled the creation of another professional football league. The NAFL, despite talking privately about expansion since the merger with the AFA in 1970, would not license expansion franchises except for Tampa Bay and Seattle in 1976. According to The I in Team, the owners of these two teams were well connected with NAFL Commissioner. Officially, the NAFL stated that the original agreement of the AFA merger included provisions for a 28 team league and that further expansion though desirable, wasn't financially feasible and could risk anti-trust investigation by Congress.(Also from the book)

The AFA-NAFL merger effectively cemented the NAFL as the de facto professional league. Since the merger, the three major networks televised most of the games to local and national audiences. If not for the emergence of cable television and a nascent all-sports network, the IFL may not have existed at all.

The 1981 Season began with four teams playing a nine week schedule, a playoff week, and a championship game. The inaugural IFL teams were:

• Birmingham Destroyers
• Montreal Mayhem
• Orlando Storm
• Tulsa Tornadoes

The first two games were played on August 30, 1981. SEBC broadcast the games live and rebroadcast them on Wednesday Night Replay three days later. Birmingham lost at home to Montreal 28 to 24. Orlando outgunned the Tornadoes 51 to 42.

SEBC reported a 12.1 rating for the Birmingham - Montreal game and an astounding 15.4 rating for Orlando - Tulsa. The three major networks were shocked as the Birmingham game played at the same time as the NAFL's last preseason games. The game in Orlando had no NAFL competition as it was shown in prime time.

Success of the IFL in 1981 was dramatic and unexpected. Fueled by endless replays on SEBC, fans streamed to lower cost tickets of IFL games.

Unable to afford the costs of televising NAFL games, the Sports & Entertainment Broadcasting Company agreed to show all IFL games. In two moves that benefited the league and SEBC, Sunday Night Football was introduced to avoid overlap with the NAFL and replays of the best two games were shown on Wednesday nights. These two programs proved instrumental in allowing fans to follow both leagues.

The WoLF games were televised through Frye's TV stations, but the other owners opted for SEBC instead. Upset, the Tamp Bay franchise was nearly sold, though Frye later changed his mind. Instead he used the connections with the fledgling cable network to transform his own Canadian sports networks.