Even better AFL
Tim Ball
Thursday July 17, 2008
Change for the good
What have you done lately?
Football is a team sport, a game of power, expertise, finesse and man on man talent that determines victory or loss.
And it always comes down to players making plays.
Arena Football is football in its purest form. Despite the dimensions of the field and some aspects of the game designed for the indoor Arena format, Arena Football is just football.
And an exceptional form at that.
Since its inception, the AFL has adapted some of its rules and structure when improvements to the game were needed.
The game structure has been changed since its beginning and more changes are needed.
Bad bounces and luck are a part of the game, but they should not be written into the rules.
While Arena Football shouldn’t be a stripped down version of the outdoor game, there does need to be further alterations to the on-field experience that has the game determined by players and not by chance.
Foundation support
What makes Arena Football the game that it is starts with the nets and the frame around those nets.
Rules can be and will be argued forever in any sport, but the nets can never be gone from Arena Football.
It’s time to improve those nets. The bad bounce is cliché to football, but it happening is by luck and should never be by design.
Deaden the frames.
And paint them a dark color.
The only things that need color are the goal posts and cross bar. This would make for a floating like appearance.
The field would be impressive looking with this color scheme.
Chaos is not fun to watch. And it can’t possibly be fun to play.
This is the 21st century. There are products for stuff like this.
High density foam placed on the metal frames will eliminate a part of Arena Football that has no place being in it.
Also, angle those foam pads slightly to make sure the ball falls in the field of play after it strikes them.
Planning for a bad bounce already has a name: On-sides kick. And it has a “purpose.”
But notice, it is planned; hoping for luck has no place in the sport of football. It happens, but athletes do not do five-million sit ups, endless wind sprints and lift tons of weight hoping to win because of luck.
Kickers train to put points on the board to win a game. Happenstance should not be a professional endeavor.
“Chance favors the prepared mind.”
Football players do not work their whole lives to have a game decided by chaos. Do you know why they wear pads? Not because of luck, you can be sure of that.
The AFL has got to eliminate the careening chaos of a ball striking the metal frames and shooting off in any direction. Insanity is not fun to watch. It’s not fair to the players, to the fans, or to the sport of football.
Deadened foam applied to the metal net-frames will make Arena Football better.
It will allow coaches and players to decide the game not a gamble on the odds.
Slacking off
The slack net needs to be tightened up. Kickoff returns are incredibly exciting and watching a kickoff hit the nets and get hung up takes away possibly the most exciting aspect of Arena Football.
If need be, put a slack net up above the top of the nets between the goal posts so that high kicks can find a home. Pausing a kick return is not smart.
Mack and cheese
How many 80-point games were there this season?
More than one. More than two even.
So we can settle the issue of the Mack and Jack linebackers being able to move more freely did not hurt the arena game in the slightest.
OK, so the quarterbacks needed to re-adjust to football the way they learned it. It didn’t take long. Do you think the SaberCats are back in the ArenaBowl because Mark Grieb couldn’t adjust to a rule change? He threw 100 touchdowns this season.
You don’t need a Master’s Degree to be a quarterback. You just need to be an incredible athlete. So Grieb possesses both things, smarts and ability, but he still needs to play the game.
Did Terry Malley pick up his ball and go home when the linebackers could move more freely?
No. Both Malley and Grieb are “back” in the championship game.
FREE the linebackers.
No more boxes of any kind. Keeping the rule about one linebacker blitzing is good but let’s see the defenses actually be able to defend. All that will happen is that players will have to decide the game. Malley and the other offensive coordinators will adjust in a few weeks.
An interception for a touchdown only takes eight-seconds off the clock.
And then it’ll be back to business as usual.
I’m board
Why are there boards around the field if they are out of bounds?
The endzone boards should be live until a play is blown dead by the official or recovered by a player.
Again, let the players play the game. If a team wants to they can still hit the ball over the boards and out of bounds.
Keep the referees out of the game as much as possible. They already have a very hard job with the speed of the Arena game, they deserve a break and fans deserve players making plays on the field. It’s a win-win situation, literally.
The view
Where does the league office get its thinkers? Those people employed to build the sport.
Empty seats are the only enemy of Arena Football. Everything else depends on that.
The league office has got to focus every effort to keeping these seats filled. Other than a player getting injured, there is nothing worse for the league than an empty seat.
And during playoffs every at the game should be seated from the field level on up. Price the tickets to fill seats where they will be best for the players and the game.
Whether television or live, a game filled with fans is a better game. Getting a new sponsor will not grow Arena Football better than supportive fans.
And during broadcasts, there should be no mention of “the next level” for a player from this league. The outdoor game pays more money, but it is not a higher level of football.
We need announcers that are for this game and not trying to impress anyone except us. Once AFL players are spoken of as true stars of a true league, then the league as a whole will stand firm.
There should be only sporadic mention of anything else during an AFL broadcast other than our players. AFL players are stars in their own right. When the broadcast drives that point home, the league will benefit overall.
Maybe Ray Bentley can teach a class to his fellow AFL announcers in the off season.
A summons
Arena Football takes a step in the right direction every season. Some very small, but they are positive yards. Even in corporate football you only score going forward.
The league office needs to hear where they are lacking from perspectives that can see past the bright lights and celebrities.
Talking with Ron Jaworski and Jon Bon Jovi, John Elway and Bernie Kosar is not going to bring success to the AFL. The game, believe it or not, is bigger than they are. They make for great photo opportunities but unless the future is always in sight, it’ll fade away just like a digital photo printed on bad paper.
The AFL can improve still. Those seats are filling up and Cleveland, Philadelphia, Chicago and Dallas are nothing to take lightly. What about five years from now? Ten?
Every city is as important as the next. Grand Rapids should have league support 24/7.
Without franchises across the country and hopefully around the world, the AFL will be just another sports “thing” out there.
And has anyone noticed that “San Jose” has the most elite team in the AFL? The game has come of age and improved in every aspect, and the SaberCats are yet again in the ArenaBowl. And of course this could be their ninth straight trip.
Fortunately for San Jose, other teams take this game seriously as well. (Kind of hard to have a championship game against your practice squad.)
Once you think you have made it to the top, there is only one place to go from there.
So let the Arena Football League always be looking up.
And there are still places to find that path.
