Arena Football, RIP

[mbyron]

Arena Football is Dead

[KWH]

So will Arena2 (aka:AF2) be renamed???

[Welpe]

Wow that's a shame. I wonder if the NFL will be drawing new officials almost exclusively from NCAA Divison I? Maybe they do already, I'm not really sure.

[Opie]

Bye, bye. Wasn't real football anyway.

[bisonlj]

Originally Posted by Welpe

Wow that's a shame. I wonder if the NFL will be drawing new officials almost exclusively from NCAA Divison I? Maybe they do already, I'm not really sure.

They do draw officials from D1 already. They just placed them in AFL if they were high on the candidate list. I don't think there were too many officials working AFL that weren't also working D1 or some level of college.

[Welpe]

That I knew but I know they were also using AFL as a training and evaluation ground for prospective NFL officials. Same as they used to with NFL Europe.

I am wondering if the NFL will almost exlusively be promoting officials directly from DI conferences.

[JRutledge]

Originally Posted by Welpe

That I knew but I know they were also using AFL as a training and evaluation ground for prospective NFL officials. Same as they used to with NFL Europe.

I am wondering if the NFL will almost exlusively be promoting officials directly from DI conferences.

The NFL already picked guys up from the D1 level, but with the AFL and NFL Europe, they used these as training grounds for current and prospective NFL officials. The NFL will just have to use D1 as the only place to evaluate officials or pick guys form high school or lower level college ball.

Peace

[jaybird]

The NFL still has officials working in af2 as a training and evaluation step.

[HLin NC]

I really tried to watch it but ended up hating it. Its a shame NFL Europe was shut down.

[JugglingReferee]

I attended many games in Grand Rapids and loved the game! Sad to see it go.

[Texas Aggie]

Frankly, it wasn't missed this past year and won't be missed by many. Sorry for you guys that liked it.

[Robert Goodman]

I liked the concept, but not so much the execution, although I followed it a lot early, went to a couple of NY Knights games.

[Texas Aggie]

I would change it with the following:

-- actual sidelines; padding several yards back and coaches on the bench
-- essentially eliminate the kicking game, as the area is too small (don't know what to do about after a score and on 4th down, however)
-- make everyone eligible
-- I wouldn't allow the offensive player to get a 5 yard running start, but I would eliminate false start and motion rules for those outside the "tackle" (actually guard) box
-- all shifting legal

[bgates1970]

If Arena football is dead... what's with the UFL? Is it supposed to be like a Developmental League for Football?

[Robert Goodman]

Originally Posted by Texas Aggie

I would change it with the following:

-- actual sidelines; padding several yards back

That's how it was at the start. I thought they moved at least closer over time to the right idea, i.e. the opposite of yours, which is to have those walls in play, as in the indoor soccer it was modeled on.

-- essentially eliminate the kicking game, as the area is too small (don't know what to do about after a score and on 4th down, however)

That would take away most of the raison d'etre of the patented feature of the game, the rebounding screens. However, the patent had expired by the time they ceased operations.

-- make everyone eligible

Well, yeah, if they didn't play 8 a side, which was a compromise they undertook to make the game resemble outdoor football more -- and resulted in their having to restrict the defenses to give the offense a chance in that crowded a space.

IIRC, the Indoor Football League is 6 a side. So are women's "Sixxes".

Robert