You may have been searching on the guide menu on your TV and found something called “Arena Football”, “Indoor Football”, or something along those lines. You, being a football fan, check it out and it seems really weird and you don’t know what it’s like because the rules are totally different, but you like it because it is different than everything else. Here, we will break down the reasons why arena/indoor football is a great sport.
Reasons Why Arena/Indoor Football is a great sport
Tickets are much cheaper
If you are a fan of arena/indoor football, chances are that you’ve been to a game or two… or what seems to be a million. If that’s the case, then you know how cheap the seats can get. If you don’t know what it’s like because you haven’t been to a game, let’s put it this way for you: Two season tickets for any team across any league vary, but it is typically around the price of one single game National Football League (NFL) ticket, depending on where you are sitting.
Season tickets are normally around the range of $150-$250 for two tickets for the whole season, depending on the league and where you choose to sit. In the major leagues or college games, season tickets could get very pricey.
Single game tickets can go down to as low as the cost of popcorn and a soft drink in the concessions. If you choose to sit closer to the front row, they can get a little higher, but it still isn’t outrageous. It’s a great sport to take your friends, family, or even co-workers to.
High Scoring and racking up yards
In arena/indoor football, the fields are 50-yards long by around 28 yards wide with eight yard end zones on both ends of the field. With that being said, scoring is pretty high and yards are always being picked up. In arena football and indoor football, a normal score would be somewhere in the 50’s, 60’s, or 70’s, depending on the teams playing and what the competition is like.
Some may think, however, that since it is a smaller field, it would be harder to gain yards than it is on a regular 100-yard field. That is sometimes true, but with the game being an eight-on-eight competition, there aren’t as many people on the field. Both arena and indoor football are primarily passing leagues. The Indoor Football League (IFL) and any other leagues run the ball more than the Arena Football League (AFL) and other arena football leagues do, but the average receiver can still easily get 100-yard games and have two, three, four, or maybe even five touchdowns all in one game. The game of arena/indoor football is fast-paced and never slows down.
Proximity to the field
To some, this is the coolest thing ever. You want to go to your local arena or indoor football team’s game and you get a great deal on front row seats. That’s incredible! In the NFL, front row seats are normally 30-feet away from the field of play and it is sometimes hard to see what is going on in the game, especially if the ball is on the other side of the field from where you are sitting.
Arena/indoor football doesn’t have that issue. If you have front row seats, you are almost literally on the field. The only thing that’s holding you back from the field of play and the crowd is a wall that is about four feet tall. That’s it. You can give players high fives, talk to them, interrupt a play (it’s not against the rules, but it’s frowned upon, and intense fans don’t like this, so please don’t do this), and if you catch a ball, you get to keep it. In the NFL or college football, you would have to give the ball back and you would be lucky to get a souvenir in return.
Fans Access post game
At any sporting event, no matter what event it is, you may not be allowed to go on the field after the game is over. That is not the case in arena/indoor football. After the game, players go to the locker rooms to get their post-game speech from the coaches, then come back about five or 10 minutes later to meet all the fans that come onto the field after the game. Players will talk to the fans, sign anything that the fans want to get signed, and on a rare occasion, the players might play catch with you.
Different rules (REALLY DIFFERENT)
Something that was mentioned earlier was the fact that the rules are totally different. In college football, NFL, and any other outdoor football league, any player can run around and do whatever like a chicken with its head cut off. That doesn’t slide with arena and indoor football.
Arena/indoor football have different rules as well, so let’s break down the different rules for those who don’t know what some of the rules are.
In arena football, there are two different types of linebackers: Mack Linebacker, and Jack Linebacker. The Mack Linebacker can rush the quarterback, sit back and cover receivers, be used as a decoy so a defensive lineman can get through a hole to get the quarterback, or anything he wants to do. The Jack Linebacker has a five yard by five yard box that he has to stay in while the quarterback is in the pocket and has the ball. Once the quarterback is out of the pocket and/or lets go of the ball, the Jack Linebacker is now a “free man” so to speak. He can do whatever he wants at that point. Typically, it is tough to throw down the middle in arena football because most of the Jack Linebackers are super tall and are used for tipping the ball and intercepting any passes that go in his direction. The only way to avoid a Jack Linebacker down the middle is by throwing it deep, which is dangerous a lot of times unless your quarterback is very accurate.
Also, arena football has a rule where one wide receiver can be in motion at the snap of the play, whether he’s going horizontal (toward the sidelines) or vertical (toward the end zone). In many cases, the receiver is offsides during the snap, so there is a one or two yard cushion for the receiver.
The same rule goes for indoor football, but all receivers may move if they wish to move.
The linebackers are also different in indoor football. Instead of Mack and Jack Linebackers, there is something called the “Alley Rule”. That is an imaginary box that is at the line of scrimmage and goes five yards back on the defensive side. This line is only the width of the two outside linemen on the offense. Nobody other than defensive linemen can be in this box or line. This ultimately limits the number of times a team can blitz and/or makes it harder to blitz.
The penalties are basically the same as bigger leagues. There’s offsides, false start, pass interference, taunting, and other basic penalties.
One major thing about arena and indoor football is that there is no such thing as excessive celebrating unless you are doing the celebrating toward an opponent, their bench, or a referee.
While there are a lot of things to do this spring, try to attend your local arena football or indoor football team’s game.
Click here to view the National Arena League’s (NAL) schedule. Click here to view the newly revised IFL schedule. Both leagues are great leagues to watch for starters and die hard fans.
