Should the Arena League Change Its Rules?
John Hoh
Monday September 27, 2004
One such sport that comes up often is soccer, where I will hear the complaint that soccer scores are usually 1-0. There seems to be a redundancy to the typical soccer score. When a caller defending soccer states that baseball also has such scores, and that football also has defensive battles, the host responds that, sure, it happens but the next game could be an offensive explosion. Each game takes on a different nuance and subtlety and the match-ups often determine whether the games are low scoring, high scoring, or somewhere in between.
As such an argument was made I began to wonder if the Arena League suffered from the soccer syndrome. Now, I realize that Arena Football is high scoring and far from being boring. But it is also typical to expect a high scoring game. At one time the NBA also faced such criticism, with many wags claiming you only needed to see the last two minutes of a game to see who wins.
In the 18-year history of Arena Football there has only been one shutout. Let me repeat that. In the 18-year history of Arena Football there has only been one shutout. It is evident that defense is not high on the list of priorities in the Arena League. And in 18 years one would expect a defensive coach to implement schemes so that, at the very least, we could see a shutout at least once a year.
I did an informal poll of fellow Arena fans and found the following suggestions.
“Get rid of the box rule, and allow the Jill LB to drop back in pass defense. This would hurt passing, but it would allow teams to run since the defense is faced with two choices...either stack the line with both LB`s, and allow passes, or drop the Jill LB into coverage, and open up rushing holes (Instead of having five defensive players on the line to your FB and three linemen, it now becomes more even with four on four at the line, which is more in favor of the offense.”
“There would be lower scores if the offense only had three downs to gain 10 yards. That is the Canadian way. And what do they know? They get a point for a punt that goes out of the end zone.”
Certainly keeping the defense within a box for pressuring the quarterback gives an edge to the offense. How many safety blitzes do you see in the Arena League? The secondary neutral zone also makes it harder for the defense to react as quickly as their outdoor counterparts can.
But let’s go back to the original intent and rules. Yes, it was to be wide-open and high scoring. Remember, Jim Foster created the game on the back of an envelope after watching indoor soccer! But the penalties were also kept in relationship to the size of the field—three and eight yards. Some Arena fans would like to see a return to those yardages for penalties. I say let’s go further and have the offense gain a first down in three downs rather than four. You do start with a smaller field (roughly one-fourth the standard issue outdoor field in the United States). The three-down rule hasn’t inhibited Canadian teams from scoring. But it would give the defense one break in the rules as they are set up.
Yes, fans love scoring. And the die-hard, avid Arena fan loves the Arena scoring. But is the style of play marginalizing Arena Football? And can Arena Football afford this at this time? Whether a game is a hard-fought defensive struggle or a high-scoring offensive fireworks, both can be appreciated by the fan as a part of the game and the nuances that come with the game. It’s time for Arena ball to look into giving the defense a break. Who knows, maybe we can see another shutout in our lifetime!
John L. Hoh, Jr., is a free-lance writer from Milwaukee who grew up in Appleton, Wisconsin, as an avid Dolphins fan. He followed Arena Football since its inception, at one point watching tape-delayed games on low-powered WAV-TV in Waukesha. His happiest day was when Milwaukee was awarded the Mustangs franchise; his saddest when the Mustangs were contracted out of the league. John is married to his wife Maija (13+ years) and has a young son, Matthew. John pines for the return of the Arena Football League to Milwaukee.
