View Full Version : Ways arena football could be improved
redbuck
08-06-2006, 10:57 PM
I am a very casual fan of arena football. Just looked up the standings (http://www.arenafootball.com/schedules/Standings.dbml?DB_OEM_ID=3500), and I think it's great to see a sort of minor league for football, especially good for cities like Columbus OH that are football crazy and don't have a great baseball setup for the spring (although they will with the opening of a new ballpark in 2008, but that's a different story)
Anyway, there are some things I would do differently in arena football:
1) Make the walls in play. I don't like the touch and out rule. Players should have to go down to be down.
2) Allow players to be more creative with uniform numbers and names - it's a small thing but would lighten the game up a bit, "He hate me"
3) Adopt some of the XFL practices like the race to the ball for possession.
4) Create more team-college ties. It was fun in the old International Basketball Association to see hometown college stars play on the pro teams. Would like to see even more of that in the AFL.
football junkie
08-12-2006, 01:28 PM
It could be improved by not existing. That's not football. It's the equivalent of major league baseball players using a little league diamond and calling that baseball.
redbuck
08-16-2006, 10:21 AM
Football can be very interesting on a smaller field, or on a larger field - Canada.
As for baseball on little league diamonds, that might be interesting but dangerous and very high scoring.
But baseball originated on small diamonds. SABR has traced baseball's origins to the Duchy of Golgatha just before the start of the 19th century. Players would stand just a few feet apart. An actual diamond was used and baseball did not really appear much in the states until a description of it in a sports rule book in 1828. Alexander Cartwright in 1845 made the bases 115 feet apart and changed what had evolved into a square diamond back into a diamond-shaped diamond. His field has since been reshaped and made smaller. We are playing on a much smaller field today, but baseball is no less interesting.
12th man seahawks fan
08-17-2006, 03:38 PM
It could be improved by not existing. That's not football. It's the equivalent of major league baseball players using a little league diamond and calling that baseball.
High scores in the 70's is pretty exciting if you ask me.
redbuck
08-17-2006, 06:40 PM
High scores in the 70's is pretty exciting if you ask me.
As an Ohio State fan I've learned to love great defense. I love the 13-6 game far more than the 38-24 game. For some reason many friends think 38-24 is more dominating than 13-6. But I've never come out of a high scoring game "happy" with my team's performance. But I almost always am happy with a 13-7 win because it means there was great defense and probably one play that meant the game. The close games are more exciting in the sense that defesne really matters. Each play is more important because it could be the one essential play to a victory. That's when you get the fun, tension-filled timeouts and bands playing "Night on Bald Mountain" and really really loud crowds. Defense is energizing and refreshing. Offense can be fun but it is tiring to see touchdowns and touchdowns and back and forth offense all game.
But in a semi-pro league you aren't going to get the great crowds and the crushing defenses won't be there. The XFL was designed for defense and it crumbled. In a less-than-NFL league you need offense and lots of it.
Argonaut Fan
08-17-2006, 09:02 PM
I definitly agree with #1. The walls should be in play (more like hockey). However, I don't think that #2 is a great idea. If you allow players to put nicknames on the backs of their jerseys, it might become more like "Slamball". Evidently the AFL isn't a sports league that's big on tradition or doing things the regular way. However, I think that it should retain the standard of putting the player's real name on the back of the jersey.
tdk1984
08-20-2006, 02:44 PM
It could be improved by not existing. That's not football. It's the equivalent of major league baseball players using a little league diamond and calling that baseball.
It exists as a family-friendly and cost-friendly option for things to go to on the weekend. It's also very exciting.
redbuck
08-20-2006, 04:58 PM
Keep in mind that football itself is essentially evolved rugby. The game started being played on a checkerboard-like grid, with basically a big pile of guys pushing each other to try to gain ground with a ball somewhere at the bottom of the pile. It evolved and adopted the pass. But current football doesn't match its origins. Indoor football doesn't have to match its origins.
football junkie
08-22-2006, 04:29 PM
It exists as a family-friendly and cost-friendly option for things to go to on the weekend. It's also very exciting.
I'm just saying it's not football. Call it ArenaNerf Ball or something. :)
brady_branch
08-23-2006, 11:46 AM
I'm just saying it's not football. Call it ArenaNerf Ball or something. :)
Hey! That's a good idea! I'm gonna go out now and start an indoor Nerf Ball league! :D
redbuck
08-24-2006, 05:00 PM
I've never understood it in baseball either. There's a notion of how the game "should be" or "was meant to be" played. It wasn't meant to be played any one way. There wasn't some church council that decided there is a way football is to be played and any deviation isn't football and should be banned from existing or taking the name "football." Arena football is a hell of a lot more like football than soccer, which in Europe unfortunately is "football american."
sorry to sound so angry, no anger meant.
efin98
08-25-2006, 11:45 PM
As much as I am excited about the sport I am angered that they haven't put a team in Massachusetts yet. When an exhibition was played in Boston a decade ago it was a huge success but nothing else has come of it...
Come on- 6th largest media market and one of the largest metropolitan areas and they can't seem to get their act together to set up a team here???
I've never understood it in baseball either. There's a notion of how the game "should be" or "was meant to be" played. It wasn't meant to be played any one way. There wasn't some church council that decided there is a way football is to be played and any deviation isn't football and should be banned from existing or taking the name "football." Arena football is a hell of a lot more like football than soccer, which in Europe unfortunately is "football american."
Agreed. Games change all the time both in minor and major ways, so saying a game is/was supposed to be played this way is generally ignoring the changes that occured to make it "the way it was supposed to be"...By creating the game of Arena Football it took nothing away from outdoor football (same as indoor or beach soccer take nothing away from soccer) it just gave it another platform for the game to be enjoyed at.
efin98
08-26-2006, 04:15 AM
Agreed. Games change all the time both in minor and major ways, so saying a game is/was supposed to be played this way is generally ignoring the changes that occured to make it "the way it was supposed to be"...By creating the game of Arena Football it took nothing away from outdoor football (same as indoor or beach soccer take nothing away from soccer) it just gave it another platform for the game to be enjoyed at.
It's actually based on a real NFL game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_Playoff_Game%2C_1932).
It's not like the NFL. It's not like the CFL. It's not like high school or college football- it's its own sport. Sports are meant to be adapted, that's how we got football in the first place. There's nothing wrong with adapting a sport to fill a want, and that's what the AFL does.
Argonaut Fan
08-26-2006, 11:00 PM
Agreed. I don't know, but it seems like this sort of thing may have happened with lacrosse. When someone decided to move it indoors (box lacrosse), I'm sure lots of people disapproved. But look at Box Lacrosse now...
brady_branch
08-27-2006, 07:32 PM
I hate lacrosse either way. But it's better indoors. Soccer is also more exciting indoors, though I wouldn't go so far as to say it's better.
BTW, my INBL got shut down. My mom wouldn't let us play in the living room, and the basement ceiling is too low.
redbuck
09-02-2006, 08:42 PM
Don't want to start any fights, but frankly I don't find lacrosse or soccer interesting. But I'd rather watch soccer. For either I'd rather be outside.
Argonaut Fan
09-04-2006, 09:46 AM
I enjoy Field Lacrosse over Box. But that's just me.
Bedard, what were your rules for indoor INBL? I haven't played since I broke a porcelain slipper that was on the mantle in my living room when I was 7.
brady_branch
09-04-2006, 02:04 PM
Bedard, what were your rules for indoor INBL? I haven't played since I broke a porcelain slipper that was on the mantle in my living room when I was 7.
Indoor INBL is repetitive, INBL stand for Indoor Nerf Ball League. I basically invited a bunch of people over and we played football in the living room with a nerf ball... basic playground rules, two completions=first down, but you only get four downs to score, no kickoffs, field goals, punts, etc. due to lack of space. It was really fun.
Galloping Ghost
03-20-2008, 02:46 PM
It's actually based on a real NFL game (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NFL_Playoff_Game%2C_1932).
It's not like the NFL. It's not like the CFL. It's not like high school or college football- it's its own sport. Sports are meant to be adapted, that's how we got football in the first place. There's nothing wrong with adapting a sport to fill a want, and that's what the AFL does.
Great info on the 1932 NFL Championship game! I never knew the NFL played an indoor game so long ago.