So now it’s been almost two months since the last pro football player was tackled and it’s still about three weeks before the NFL draft and four long months until the first preseason game. What’s a diehard fan supposed to do?
Fear not, the Arena Football League has been reborn. Tonight (Friday), the Iowa Barnstormers will host the Chicago Rush at the Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. The game will be broadcast on the NFL Network.
For those of you with short memories, arena football is a game that has similarities to regular football, but with a lot of different rules. The players all wear regular football pads and uniforms. But they play on an indoor field that may have been a hockey arena earlier in the year. There are eight players per team on the field at a time. Of course, the field is smaller than the outdoor variety, but since the action is much closer, it is an exciting game.
If you are a fan of Iowa State athletics and you’ve always wondered what happened to Brent Curvey or Todd Blythe, you can spot them in Barnstormers uniforms tonight. Fans of the Iowa Hawkeyes may remember Eric Rothwell, Pete Traynor or Tim Dodge. All are now Barnstormers, as are Charles Johnson and Tanner Varner from Northern Iowa.
Obviously there are few household names on the Arena League rosters. Some of these guys are clinging to the hope of getting a shot at the NFL, even though some of them may be as old as 33 or 34 years old. There have definitely been some success stories coming from players who got experience in the Arena League. Probably every player has heard about Kurt Warner, who went from Northern Iowa, to NFL Europe to the Arena League to eventual NFL Most Valuable Player.
With a salary of $400 per game, they certainly aren’t in it for the money. Perhaps those who still have some football skill but realize their hope of playing on Sundays in front of 75,000 fans is past still like the idea of playing a team game and getting a chance to travel. There are 15 teams in the league. Besides the Iowa Barnstormers and Chicago Rush, there is the Milwaukee Iron, Oklahoma City Yard Dawgs, Orlando Predators, Cleveland Gladiators, Arizona Rattlers, Alabama Vipers, Bossier-Shreveport Battlewings, Utah Blaze, Dallas Vigilantes, Spokane Shock, Tulsa Talons, Jacksonville Sharks and the Tampa Bay Storm.
The schedule has games listed through the end of July. The Iowa team will be shown on the NFL Network five times this season. The Arena League has a web site with a lot of information, though some of the teams are still developing their individual sites. I also Googled “Arena Football rules” and found several informative sites to get up to speed on the rule differences.
If you are suffering from football withdrawal, the Arena League may be worth checking out.