One Football. Two Games. - Arena Football (AFL) Comes Out from Under the NFL's Long Shadow

 

MAJOR BLOGS - www.majorblogs.net - 01.23.07 -  What’s the difference between an AFL quarterback and an NFL quarterback?  About 1” and 13 million dollars. 

It was a joke that a media guy shared with me several years ago when I went to interview Tampa Storm quarterback John Kaleo (See "John Kaleo Scores in Tampa", SZ. 07.01.01).  Kaleo put up monster numbers, but at 6’3”, he was considered too short to play QB in the NFL.

That has always been the problem for the Arena Football League.  No matter what they do, they have always been an inch short in the eyes of those who believe that the NFL is the be-all, end-all of football.

I remember seeing my first live AFL game that night.  I’d watched a whole lot of NFL football over the years, and I have to admit that I carried along that prejudice that I learned along with about 99.95% of breathing males in the United States. The football experts, particularly those from ESPN, which just bought into the league (See: "What the AFL Got for Christmas", SZ, 01.22.07), said that the AFL was no big deal, a bunch of second-stringers hanging on to a semblance of a pro football career.

Imagine my surprise at how blown away I was by arena football.  Looking back at my notes from years ago, my immediate impressions were:

•    Arena Football is much faster than the NFL flavor.  The field is tight, usually in places where they play hockey and hoops, which means that every play has to be that much more on target;

•    Quarterbacks have near-zero reaction time and learn to think on their feet with little or no room for much pocket protection;

•    Kickers didn’t have the luxury of firing across a wide goal.  They were booting the ball through a small hole in the netting, with amazing accuracy.

•    The game is in your face. NFL Football has wide sidelines are filled with players and support people. Television equipment gives the home audience a great view, but often cuts off your view from the seats.  When the ball heads down field, you have a much harder time watching the game from most of the stadium.  Arena football is right there, up close, and personal.  Fans in the front rows scream as players chasing a pass fly toward them.

By the end of the night, I was a convert.  I developed a whole new respect for the AFL. 

What we have witnessed, over the last twenty years, is the birth of a new major league.  Arena Football has its own heroes, hall-of-famers, traditions and lore.  Many of its fans are die-hard football junkies looking for their Spring/Summer pigskin jones.  As many more though, are arena football fans who love that game, and its stars.

Dolezel. Kaleo. Grudin. Just a few of many great quarterbacks past and present who hold records, or have lead their clubs to Arena Bowls.

Moreover, even though these guys play a different flavor of the game, NFL quarterbacks don’t have anything on AFL QBs.

The opportunity hasn’t come by again, but how many more AFL quarterbacks, given the opportunity that Kurt Warner was given with the Rams, could have done the same thing?  Plenty.

An NFL snap is like three AFL lifetimes.  Doug Flutie wasn’t all that big, but he could play.  A Doelzel or Jay Grudin in their prime could do some serious damage working out of the short pocket and putting big pressure on the lumbering defensive lines of the NFL used to working longer time-frames.

This is the AFL’s time.  In another ten years, ESPN will be doing the same big, over the top ballyhoo on a future “AFL Classic,” that they do for the NFL now.

‘One football, two different games,’ was the note that I had written on my pad.  I think that holds as true today as the day that I caught my first arena football game.