R.I.P. A.F.L.
Adam J Locascio
Wednesday December 6, 2006
Hey John, you can’t get back there soon enough.
Elway’s news conference confirmed what every die-hard AFL fan has known all off-season: the art of Arena football is dying, and Elway is squeezing the pillow over its face.
It started with the influx of NFL alumni into the administrative ranks of the league. They’re termites and they’re just slowing chomping away at the wood frame of the league.
Elway and his minions didn’t even start small. They stuck their proverbial talons right into the chest of the AFL, wrapped their bony hands around the still-beating heart of the league and pulled the AFL’s soul through the chest in an Alien-like spray of blood and bile.
R.I.P Ironman.
Previously, AFL coaches were limited to one substitution per position per quarter. Beginning with the 2007 season, coaches will be permitted to substitute players at will. Also, coaches are no longer allowed on the field of play. Even Elway admits, "It was a challenge getting the coaches off the field. They liked it on the field."
Why do all this? Why completely change the landscape of the game, a game that lasted longer than the USFL and the XFL combined?
"We're trying to get the arena league game as close to the NFL as we can," Elway said. "We want to get this game as 'watchable' as we can."
Um, what was so "unwatchable" about it? Funny, I never heard someone say, "You know, the AFL’s okay, but I won’t watch it because of the lack of substitutions."
Elway said that the league lost its contract with NBC because of low ratings. People weren’t watching because of the Ironman rule? C’mon, John. Did you get THAT roughed up in your three Super Bowl losses?
The AFL on NBC failed because of a lack of commitment to the game, not because a lineman was tired. How many times were the games pre-empted for hockey (even though regular season AFL games had higher ratings than playoff hockey)? How many AFL halftimes showed nothing but Winter Olympics highlights? That’s just bad programming.
NBC didn’t care. They were just practicing for the NFL which came (shock!) the year after the AFL went bye-bye.
Elway and his cohorts will have you believe that free substitutions will make the game better for television because it will cut down on penalties, especially late in the game. Hey John, you want to cut down on penalties? Get better refs.
You want to make the league more like the NFL? Institute instant replay on any and all scoring plays. I watched the Week 1 game between the Soul and the Storm where Soul wide receiver Mike Brown caught a touchdown bounce-pass in the end zone. The only person more shocked than me that the pass was ruled a touchdown was Brown himself. He was so confused, he didn’t even celebrate.
Let’s be honest here: the only thing John Elway brings to the AFL is name recognition. You don’t believe me? Do you realize the Crush sells "Elway" jerseys? By the way, he and I are tied for "number of AFL games played."
He and the competition committee think that changing the rules of the game is going to bring people to the sport. I got news for you, John. The Grand Rapids Rampage aren’t going to start selling out home games because their coach isn’t on the field.
The AFL’s fans enjoy the game because it’s different from the NFL. It’s high-scoring and fast-paced. And if that’s not what fans want, why did the NFL change their rules to crack down on defensive contact between defensive backs and wide receivers? To open up scoring, of course. And scoring is the spinal column of the AFL.
So now that the Ironman is extinct, I suppose we can expect the NFL fans that used to mock the AFL are going to all sign up for season tickets? I’d rather put money on Ricky Williams passing a drug test.
But maybe making AFL and NFL players and rules interchangeable is exactly what Elway wants? Maybe then, the AFL can do away with the God-awful NFL Europe and turn the AFL into a development league that players don’t need a passport to participate in.
And since Elway is the architect of the NFL’s shiny new minor league, that could certainly pad his resume and grease the wheels with the other NFL owners when a franchise comes up for sale. And then Elway gets his wish… back to the NFL.
But then again, at that point, what will be the difference between the two?
Adam J. Locascio is a financial advisor in the Tampa Bay area and a Board Member of the Tampa Bay Storm Surge Fan Club. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Phoenix and is a six-year season ticket holder for the Tampa Bay Storm.