Arena football
Full | |
Team members | 8 at a time |
---|---|
Type | Indoor pro football |
Arena football is a variety of
Three leagues have played under official arena football rules: the Arena Football League, which played 32 seasons in two separate runs from 1987 to 2008 and 2010 to 2019 and is planned to return for a third time in 2024; arenafootball2, the AFL's erstwhile developmental league, which played 10 seasons from 2000 through 2009; and the China Arena Football League, which began play in 2016 but was not directly affiliated with the now-defunct AFL. The CAFL, which operated on a heavily abbreviated schedule solely in China, was the most recent league in the world playing by arena rules.
Through the late 1990s, the Arena Football League was the only league playing any variant of the sport designed for indoor play. A clarification limiting the scope of its patent allowed for competing indoor football leagues to use the same size field and most other aspects of the game. Arena football is distinguished from the other indoor leagues by its use of large rebound nets attached to the side of each goalpost, which keep any missed field goal or overthrown ball in the field of play and allow the ball to remain live; the rebound nets were the only part of the patent that was upheld until it expired. As a result, some non-AFL indoor leagues that formed after the patent expired like the National Arena League have used rebound nets, while other leagues such as the Indoor Football League and American Indoor Football opt to not use them.
History
Early history
The first demonstration of football on a small field was actually played outdoors at the original open-air Madison Square Garden.[1] Using nine-man sides, Pennsylvania defeated Rutgers 10–0 at the annual meeting of the Amateur Athletic Union on January 16, 1889.[2]
The first documented indoor football game was an exhibition between the Springfield YMCA Training School and a Yale Senior Class team played on December 12, 1890, at Madison Square Garden II.[3] James Naismith scored a touchdown for Springfield, though Yale won the exhibition 16–10.[3] The following day a second exhibition game was played, with Pennsylvania defeating Rutgers 20–12.[4] The field at Madison Square Garden measured 260 feet (79 m) long and 100 feet (30 m) wide.[4]
The first documented indoor regulation football games were those played at the Chicago Coliseum in the late 1890s. The first such game matched Michigan against Chicago on Thanksgiving Day 1896. The match was "the first collegiate game of football played under a roof."[5][6] Adding to the novelty, as daylight turned to darkness, the field inside the Coliseum was lit with electric lighting.[7] With seven acres of floor space, the sprawling Coliseum is believed to have not needed any compromises to accommodate an American football field. According to a newspaper account, the field grew dark in the second half, and play was halted for ten minutes to discuss whether play should continue. Play was resumed, and the lights were finally turned on after Michigan scored a touchdown.[5] The press proclaimed the experiment in indoor football to be a success:
One thing at least was settled by the game, and that is, that indoor football is literally and figuratively speaking a howling success. The men had no trouble in catching punts, and football was played on its merits, without the handicaps of a wet field or a strong wind. Toward the end of the second half it got very dark, and the spectators were treated to a novelty in the shape of football by electric light."[7]
Although both critically and commercially successful, the Coliseum was destroyed in a fire less than two years after its opening, and its replacement could not accommodate an American football field.
Later, at
The
In 1930, the
Arena Football League
While several attempts to create a true indoor football game have been made since shortly after American football was developed, the first version to meet with relatively widespread success and acceptance was devised by
Foster had to adopt a field that would fit within the smaller playing surfaces found in most arenas and thus created a field that was identical in size to a standard North American ice hockey rink, 200 by 85 feet (61 m × 26 m). This resulted in the field being 50 yards long (half of the length of a standard American football field) with eight-yard end zones (which may, if necessary, be curved in the end zones as hockey rinks are), and the field being slightly over half as wide as a standard football field. Foster adopted short-pile artificial turfs (which were then standard) such as AstroTurf for the field because of its ability to be easily rolled up when the arena is being used for other sports.
Foster adopted a modified version of eight-man football. He also mandated a one-platoon system that required at least six players to play on both offensive and defensive downs. This had the added desirable effect of limiting team payrolls.
There were numerous other rules designed to help the offense and ensure high-scoring games:
- field goal.
- the placing of taut rebound nets at the ends of the playing surface alongside the goalposts. Kicked and passed balls bouncing off these nets remain in play. In the case of a pass, the ball is live only until it touches the ground, allowing for receptions and interceptions on the rebound. On an unsuccessful field goal attempt or kickoff, the ball remains in play unless it goes out of bounds or until the player recovering it is downed by contact or scores, so on kicking plays (except an extra point attempt) either team may attempt to gain possession of the ball and advance it, much as a blocked kick could be in the traditional outdoor game. Only kicked or passed balls touching the slack nets behind the goalposts are ruled dead at that point.
To further an offensive passing advantage over the defense, Foster also imposed strict restrictions on the defensive formation, mandating that all defenses were required to play a
Within a year of the AFL kicking off, its first challenger, the World Indoor Football League formed. The WIFL planned to play a schedule with six teams beginning in summer of 1988 with its own set of indoor-inspired rules, including an unusual system that would have eight men on offense and seven men on defense. Despite having backing from former NFL players, veteran coaches, and singer John Mellencamp, the league canceled its 1988 season, folded half of its franchises (including Mellencamp's), and made an unsuccessful bid for the remaining three teams to join the AFL; the WIFL never played a single game.
In 1990, Foster patented the rules of arena football, meaning that only persons authorized by him could use his rules and his name for the sport. While the AFL asserted throughout the 1990s that the patent covered virtually every aspect of the game (from the 50-yard field to the eight-man format), a 1998 lawsuit (Arena Football League v. Professional Indoor Football League) established that the patent specifically covered the rebound net feature, meaning that competitors could not use this aspect of the rules.[16] However, under provisions of U.S. patent law, Foster's patent expired on March 27, 2007, enabling competitors to use rebound nets (at least as originally envisioned, without other innovations that he may have patented).
The AFL signed a major network television broadcasting contract with
Shortly before the end of 2008, the Arena Football League announced that it would not be playing a 2009 spring season. During the previous few years, the league administrators and team owners had allowed player salaries and other costs to rise to the point where the league and many of the teams were losing a substantial amount of money. Late in the summer of 2009, with the team owners unable to agree on a plan for making the league viable again the AFL announced that it was folding, eventually putting its assets up in a
The developmental af2, however, played its 2009 season as scheduled. Most of the teams made a sustainable profit and the team owners were eager to see the league continue for another year. However, with the AFL owning 50.1% of the af2, it would fold if the AFL folded. At the end of the 2009 season, a gathering of af2 and remaining AFL team owners set out to form their own organization, originally known as Arena Football 1 (AF1). AF1 went on to purchase all assets of the original AFL and af2, except for a few team names and logos owned by outside parties, in a December 2009 bankruptcy auction. Shortly after the purchase, AF1 adopted the Arena Football League name, and the AFL relaunched in 2010. The "iron man" rule, requiring at least six of the eight players to play on both offense and defense, was dropped, but most other past AFL rules remained unchanged. The relaunched league saw franchises return and renewed interest, but by the end of the 2017 season, almost all of the league's teams had either folded or moved to other leagues, with only the Philadelphia Soul having existed prior to 2016. Five expansion teams, all in the Mid-Atlantic United States, were established over the next two years, before the league announced after the 2019 season that it was dissolving in a second Chapter 7 bankruptcy.
Other indoor leagues
Other indoor football leagues have been formed, without the use of the rebound nets at the ends of the field. Like the AFL, their playing seasons are entirely or primarily outside the traditional fall/early winter season of the outdoor sport so as not to be competing with it directly for fan support.
Since the first such league, the Professional Indoor Football League, began play in the 1998, there has often been a pattern of instability. Each off-season has seen teams jumping from league to league. In addition, leagues have annually merged, changed names, and separated. The organization that is most recently known as American Indoor Football (AIF) went through three names and two ownership changes in its first three seasons. Several other indoor leagues have been announced without ever actually commencing play, or operating only briefly with a handful of teams. Some were claimed attempts to form a second "major" league of indoor football while others were strictly efforts to form a new "minor" league.
A few leagues have achieved a certain level of stability, however. The
Fan Controlled Football launched in 2021 following an interactive format inspired by video games, with "power-ups" and fans voting on plays. It generally targeted a higher caliber of player than the typical indoor league, with outdoor football veterans such as Johnny Manziel, Robert Turbin, Quinton Flowers, Quinn Porter, Shawn Oakman and Josh Gordon playing in the league's inaugural season.
The best-known indoor
Arena Football League rules
The field
As its name implies, arena football is played exclusively indoors, in arenas usually designed for either basketball or ice hockey teams. The field is the same width 85 feet (26 m) and length 200 feet (61 m) as a standard NHL hockey rink, making it approximately 30% of the dimensions of a regular American gridiron football field, and 19% of a Canadian gridiron football field (the total playing area, including the end zones of an Arena football field is 17,000 square feet (1,600 m2)). The scrimmage area is 50 yards (46 m) long (unlike the field in NFL which is 100 yards (91 m) long), and each end zone is approximately 8 yards deep, two yards less than the standard 10 yards. Depending on the venue in which a game is being played, the end zones may be rectangular (like a basketball court) or, where necessary because of the building design, rounded (like a hockey rink; this is much like some Canadian football fields where the end zones can be cut off by a track). Each sideline has a heavily padded barrier, with the padding placed over the hockey dasher boards.
The goalpost uprights are 9 feet (2.7 m) wide, and the crossbar is 15 feet (4.6 m) above the playing surface. Taut rebound nets on either side of the posts bounce any missed field goals back into the field of play. The ball is "live" when rebounding off these nets or their support apparatus. The entire goalframe and goalside rebound net system is suspended on cables from the rafters. The bottom of the two goalside rebound nets are 8 feet (2.4 m) off the playing surface. Each netframe is 32 feet (9.8 m) high by 30 feet (9.1 m) wide.
A player is not counted as out of bounds on the sidelines unless he is pushed into or falls over the sideline barrier. This rule was put in place before the 2006 season. Before that time, a sideline with only a small amount of space (typically 6" to 12") existed between the sideline stripe and the barrier which would provide the space for a ball carrier to step out of bounds before hitting the sideline barrier.
The players
Each team fields 8 players at a time from a 21-man active roster. Before 2007, players played both
Substitution rules
Rules before 2007 season
If a player enters and leaves, from the moment he leaves the player is considered "dead" and cannot return to play until the designated time is served.
- For two-way players "dead" time is one quarter.
- For specialists "dead" time is one half.
Exception: a "dead" player may participate on kickoffs, or as long snapper or holder. In 2006, the AFL changed its substitution rules such that free substitutions were allowed on all kickoffs.
New rules for 2007 season
The most significant change was the introduction of
The rationale was that free substitution would improve the overall quality of football in the league by giving coaches the freedom to put their best players on the field for every play of the game, and that teams would be able to select from a wider player talent pool when building their rosters. Traditionalists, however, believed the rule changes were the beginning of the removal of the "Ironman" (two-way offense and defense) style of play of arena football that the league had actively promoted for 20 seasons, and that the change took away a key component of what made arena football a distinctive sport.
Formations
Four offensive players must be on the
Ball movement
The ball is kicked off from the goal line, to start the halves and odd overtimes, or after any score. The team with the ball is given four
Scoring
The scoring is the same as in the NFL with the addition of a drop kick field goal worth four points during normal play or two points as a post-touchdown conversion. Blocked extra points and turnovers on two-point conversion attempts may be returned by the defensive team for two points.
Coaching challenges
Coaches are given 2 (two) challenges per game, as in the NFL; to do so, they must throw the red flag before the next play. If the play stands as called after the play is reviewed they lose a timeout; however, if the play is reversed they keep their timeouts. If a team wins two straight challenges they are granted a third. All challenges are automatic in the final half-minute of regulation and all overtime periods, as they are on all scoring plays and turnovers.
Timing
Current timing rules
A game has four 15-minute quarters with a 15-minute halftime (ArenaBowl has a 30-minute interval). Teams are allowed three timeouts per half, and two per overtime period if regulation ends tied. Teams must use a timeout if there's an injury inside a half-minute left in regulation or overtime; exception applies to when team has no timeouts, and this occurs, they're granted an extra timeout.
The clock stops for out-of-bounds plays, incomplete passes, or
Prior to the 2018 season, during the final minute of the fourth quarter, the clock stopped if the offensive team had the lead and did not advance the ball past the line of scrimmage. This prevented the "victory formation" (the offensive team merely kneeling down), or running other plays that are designed solely to exhaust the remaining time rather than to advance the ball downfield. This rule was eliminated in the interest of player safety.
In the first overtime, each team gets one possession to score. Whoever is ahead after one possession wins. If the teams are tied after each has had a possession, true sudden death rules apply thereafter. Each overtime period is 15 minutes, and continues from the ending of the previous overtime period until the tie is broken. All overtimes thereafter are true sudden death; no games can be tied. This includes both games of all semifinal series.
Previous timing rule changes
Before the 2007 season, there was one 15-minute overtime period, and if it expired with the teams still tied, the game was recorded as a tie. There were two ties in AFL history before the 2007 rule change (although a cancelled game in 2015 was simply ruled a tie):
- July 14, 1988: Chicago Bruisers 37, Los Angeles Cobras 37 (when this game was played, the overtime period was 7:30 long)
- April 8, 2005: Nashville Kats 41, Dallas Desperados 41
- July 25, 2015: New Orleans VooDoo0 (game was cancelled)
Before 2007, the play clock was 25 seconds, and it began on the signal from the referee.
Compensation
All current indoor football teams play at a
Connection to the NFL
Some AFL players have gone on to have successful careers in the NFL, most notably Kurt Warner. Warner played college football at University of Northern Iowa and then quarterbacked the AFL's Iowa Barnstormers to ArenaBowl X in 1996 and ArenaBowl XI in 1997, before earning two NFL MVP Awards, a Super Bowl MVP Award and quarterbacking the St. Louis Rams and the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl, winning Super Bowl XXXIV with the Rams. Warner was later inducted into the Pro Football Hall of Fame, the only person to play a substantial portion of his professional career (as opposed to a short publicity stunt, as was the case with Joe DeLamielleure's brief tenure in the sport) playing arena football.
Another, probably the second most notable behind Warner, could be Fred Jackson. Jackson played indoor football with the Sioux City Bandits in 2004 when they played in the NIFL (2004) and the UIF in 2005 before finally moving on to NFL Europa's Rhein Fire in 2006, then to the NFL after Rhein.
Following an initial undistinguished NFL career, being released or unsigned for four seasons out of eight, quarterback Tommy Maddox would revitalize himself with the AFL's New Jersey Red Dogs for one season before going on to quarterback the Los Angeles Xtreme to the XFL championship win and eventually return to the NFL for five seasons, retiring with a Super Bowl ring after the Pittsburgh Steelers won Super Bowl XL.
Other AFL to NFL graduates include Anthony Armstrong, Oronde Gadsden, Lincoln Coleman, Adrian McPherson, Rashied Davis, Jay Feely, David Patten, Rob Bironas, Antonio Chatman, Mike Vanderjagt, and Paul Justin. Former Arena Football League MVP Jay Gruden (brother of Jon Gruden) went on to coach the Orlando Predators of the AFL, Florida Tuskers of the United Football League, and then the head coach for the Washington Redskins in the NFL. Eddie Brown, voted in 2006 as the greatest player in AFL history,[5][6] never played in the NFL, but his son Antonio Brown joined the Pittsburgh Steelers in 2010 and was voted to the Pro Bowl in 2011 and in every season from 2013 to 2018. Matt Nagy was a quarterback in the AFL from 2002 to 2008 and became the head coach of the Chicago Bears in 2018.
Two players and one owner with substantial contributions (at least the majority of one season) have reached the Pro Football Hall of Fame: 2017 inductee Kurt Warner played the first three seasons of his professional career in the AFL, 2018 inductee Terrell Owens played his last professional season with the Indoor Football League in 2012, and the aforementioned Pat Bowlen was inducted into the Hall in 2019.
Green Bay Packers head coach Matt LaFleur was a quarterback for the Omaha Beef and the Billings Outlaws in the National Indoor Football League (NIFL). Running back Fred Jackson rushed for over 1,000 yards as the starting running back for the 2009 Buffalo Bills, and his high quality play earned him a spot on USA Today's "All-Joe" Team. Jackson played the early part of his professional football career for the Sioux City Bandits (now of Champions Indoor Football) and Michael Lewis played for the Louisiana Bayou Beast in 1999 and then with the New Orleans Saints.
The National Football League removed a ban[
Several NFL owners owned Arena Football League teams in their own cities prior to the league's bankruptcy. At the end of the 2008 season,
Dozens of former and current professional outdoor football players also have invested money into indoor football franchises.
Leagues
The following is a list of professional arena and indoor football leagues:
Current leagues
- Arena Football League (III), 2024–present
- Indoor Football League; 2008–present
- National Arena League; 2017–present
- American Indoor Football; 2007–2010, 2012–2016, 2024–present
- The Arena League, 2024–present
- X League, 2009–present
- American Arena League, 2024–present
Defunct leagues
- arenafootball2; 2000–2009
- Atlantic Indoor Football League; 2005–2006
- American Professional Football League; 2003–2012
- Arena Football League (I); 1987–2008
- Arena Football League (II); 2010–2019
- Arena Pro Football; 2017 — Merged with Can-Am to form AAL in 2018
- Can-Am Indoor Football League; 2017 — Merged with APF to form AAL in 2018
- Champions Professional Indoor Football League; 2013–2014 — Merged with LSFL to form CIF in 2015
- Continental Indoor Football League; 2006–2014
- Independent Indoor Football Alliance; 2007–2011
- Indoor Football League; 1999–2000
- Indoor Professional Football League; 1999–2001
- Intense Football League; 2004, 2006–2008 — Merged with United Indoor Football to become IFL
- Legends Football League:
- Canada: 2012
- Australia: 2013–2014
- Lone Star Football League; 2012–2014 — Merged with CPIFL to form CIF in 2015
- National Indoor Football League; 2001–2007
- North American Indoor Football League; 2005
- Professional Indoor Football League; 1998
- Professional Indoor Football League; 2012–2015
- Southern Indoor Football League; 2008–2011
- Supreme Indoor Football; 2017 — Professional teams joined AAL; league announced to become a development league
- Ultimate Indoor Football League; 2011–2014
- United Indoor Football; 2005–2008 — Merged with Intense Football League to become IFL
- World Indoor Football League; 1988 — Never played
- World Indoor Football League; 2007
- X-League Indoor Football; 2014–2015 — Merged into North American Indoor Football
- Xtreme Football League; 1999 — Never played, merged with af2
- American Arena League; 2018–present (5–6 years)
- American West Football Conference; 2019–present (4–5 years)
- Fan Controlled Football, 2021–2023 (2–3 years)
- American Indoor Football Alliance, 2021–2023 (2–3 years)
- Arena Football Association, 2021–present (2–3 years)
- Champions Indoor Football; 2015–2023 (8–9 years)Merged with Arena Football League (III)
Other media
Several arena football video games and trading card sets have been released.
Even though arena football is a relatively young sport, it has appeared in various forms of
References
- ^ "The Big Amateur Union Meeting, The Sun (New York)". Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers, Lib. of Congress. January 16, 1889.
- ^ "College Notes, The Pennsylvanian". The Daily Pennsylvanian Digital Archives. January 23, 1889.
- ^ a b "Foot-ball at the S.I.A.C. Games, Yale Daily News". Yale Daily News Historical Archive. December 13, 1890.
- ^ a b "Pennsylvania, 20; Rutgers, 12, The Pennsylvanian". The Daily Pennsylvanian Digital Archives. December 18, 1890.
- ^ a b "CHICAGO WINS BY A POINT: University Team Defeats Michigan for the First Time; INDOOR PLAY PROVES A SUCCESS; Coliseum Utilized and Twenty Thousand In Attendance—Herschberger of the Home Eleven Kicks His Way Into Fame". Nebraska State Journal. November 27, 1896.
- ^ "Football Played Indoors". The New York Times. November 27, 1896.
- ^ a b "THE FOOTBALL GAMES: Results on the Gridiron From Ocean to Ocean; INDOOR GAME AT CHICAGO; The University of Chicago Defeats the University of Michigan In a Hard Contest — Games Played at Other Points". Delphos Daily Herald. November 27, 1896.
- ^ Carroll, Bob (1980). "The First Football World Series" (PDF). Coffin Corner. 2 (Annual). Professional Football Researchers Association: 1–8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-12-18.
- ^ a b "Bears vs. Spartans". Milwaukee Journal. United Press. December 18, 1932. p. 1B.
- ^ Smith, Wilfrid (December 16, 1932). "Bears battle with Spartans moved indoors". Chicago Tribune. p. 25.
- ^ "Bears, Spartans to play indoors". Milwaukee Journal. Associated Press. December 16, 1932. p. 7, part 2.
- ^ "Pro gridders meet tonight in Windy City". St. Petersburg Times. Associated Press. December 18, 1932. p. 2, section 2.
- ^ Dunkley, Charles W. (December 19, 1932). "Bears beat Spartans, 9–0; win pro title". Milwaukee Sentinel. Associated Press. p. 13.
- ^ Williams, Marty (January 15, 1978). "Today's game not first indoors". Daily News. Bowling Green, Ohio. (Dayton Daily News). p. 12.
- ^ Mayer, Larry (March 1, 2014). "Bears played NFL's first indoor game". Chicago Bears. Archived from the original on November 13, 2017. Retrieved March 1, 2014.
- ^ U.S. patent 4,911,443 (filed September 30, 1987; parent application filed December 4, 1985; issued March 27, 1990)
- ^ Dallas Desperados - News Archived 2009-07-15 at the Wayback Machine
- Trib Total Media. Retrieved 2014-03-18.
- ^ "Podyum Recruit | The Pro Football Recruiting Platform". recruit.thepodyum.com. Archived from the original on 2023-01-05. Retrieved 2019-11-30.
- ^ "Another new league, Fan Controlled Football, starts Saturday with totally different rules". USA Today.
- ^ Hahn, John (2009-08-11). Who Really Killed the AFL?. OurSportsCentral.
- ^ "2005 Upper Deck AFL". tcdb.com. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
- ^ "2006 Upper Deck AFL". tcdb.com. Retrieved November 27, 2023.
- ^ Mike Ayers (2014-08-05). "Gene Simmons on '4th and Loud,' the Redskins Name Controversy and Donald Sterling". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2014-08-08.
External links
- Indoor Football Stats at Curlie
- US Patent No. 6045466 Football game for reduced size playing areas, especially indoor playing areas