Modest Proposals
October 3, 2007 - Arena Football League (1987-2008) (AFL I)
San Jose SaberCats News Release
By Scott Cooley
Let me preface by saying that 2007 was the first year I was a part of and had been fully vested in the Arena Football League. I attended a few af2 Arkansas Twisters' games from my years in Little Rock, but was there more to attain a solid buzz before we hit the town that evening than watch football.
I was not around for the heyday of Ironman football that defined the Arena League for 20 years. I did not have the opportunity to watch AFL legends such as Eddie Brown, Barry Wagner and George LaFrance. The Toronto Phantoms, Detroit Drive and Portland Forest Dragons mean nothing to me except that they had some pretty sweet logos.
I did, however, log myriad minutes gazing at modern day greats from a bird's eye view in San Jose this past season. Immediately I fell in love with the life of the indoor game and its players.
The substitution rule change did not affect me like it did most AFL purists. I embraced the alteration as a newcomer to the league and from all accounts, it didn't seem to be as bad as everyone anticipated it would be. From players, coaches and fans I heard remarks such as, "At first I didn't like it, but as the season went on..." and "It really didn't seem to make that big of a difference because..."
Change isn't a bad thing. Every major sport in America has evolved and modified their rules and regulations since originating. In order for a sport to attract more viewers, it constantly has to strive to improve. Improvement requires change and regardless of whether fans accept the changes, they are still going to happen.
Rumors indicate that more amendments for the AFL are to come. Critics say that the league is trying to become more like the NFL. Only time will tell.
Most of my suggestions aren't within the parameters of the game or its rules. I am a marketing-oriented employee so my proposed requests have more to do with growing the visibility of the league. Greater exposure means a larger audience, which produces more money, which translates into better opportunities for the cogs that turn the wheel like myself.
So without further ado, here they are:
Playoff Restructure
You can't honestly tell me that when Austin drops down to the af2 and Nashville collapses the AFL is still going to send 12 teams to the postseason. If so, it will be another in the long line of reasons of why the onlookers won't take this sport seriously.
If the AFL consists of 17 teams next season, it would be ridiculous to keep the same playoff format where only five teams would miss out on the postseason. Why would there be any need for a regular season? Taking 12 of 19 is bad enough and while there are rumors for expansion teams in Washington and Miami, these whisperings happen every year. I doubt the league has any genuine suitors.
Best-case scenario would be that Bud Adams doesn't fold the Nashville squad and there is an even number with 18 franchises. The plausible adjustment would be to decrease the playoff field to eight teams. Of course this will eliminate a bye week for the top seeds but I doubt that would be a big concern. One seed versus the four, while two and three seeds would square off against each other.
Even if the Warriors and Miami surface a team, I still think it would be best to limit the playoff field to eight. The minimum league number that could feasibly allow 12 teams to enter the postseason would be 22, where 12 advanced and ten did not.
Of course 12 teams works in the NFL because they have 32 in the system. Only eight of 30 baseball teams have the luxury of playing in October. Basketball pumps out a moderate 16 out of 30 but that's only one more than half, and we also know how boring the early rounds (or all of them) of the NBA playoffs can be.
The league needs to have legitimate teams competing in the playoffs and eight teams would eliminate the pretenders. It is a discredit to the sport when a 7-9 squad squeezes into the playoffs and wins the ArenaBowl...ahem...Chicago. Or when a team loses five of their last six regular season contests and then makes an improbable run to reach the championship game.
The point here is that only eight teams need to be in the dressing room for Act II of the Arena Football League season.
Competent Officiating
For a sports league to be deemed professional, all aspects of its game must be executed at the highest level. The AFL embodies professional owners, players, coaches and front offices. The officials hired by the league are professional - professional college football referees. The game needs professional Arena Football League officials.
Three blind mice is an understatement. AFL officials can definitely see what's going on in front of them (it's only a 50-yard field); they just don't know how to call it. A more appropriate description might be five absolutely clueless zebras contemplating how big of a TV they are going to buy with their bonus checks from the AFL while waiting for their "real" college football jobs to begin in September.
Anyone can see a holding infraction when it happens (and it does happen on every play). People know when somebody jumps on the line before the ball is snapped. It's obvious when a defender mauls a receiver before the ball is within his reach. These are the easy ones. Not knowing the distinct differences between the outdoor game and the Arena League is the tough part.
A prime example was the af2 ArenaCup Championship game in Bossier City. At one point, the contest was delayed by at least 15 minutes because the refs did not know if a missed extra point kick returned for a touchdown was worth six points or two. And this was not the only case of the officials scratching their heads and guessing instead of making an accurate decision.
In order to be able to comprehend and interpret the rules of the AFL, one has to actually read the rulebook. Does anyone have an extra copy to send these clowns?
Okay, cover your ears everyone, here goes...instant replay needs to happen.
It has worked with minimal objection for eight seasons in the NFL. In 2004, the Big 10 conference experimented with it and now all NCAA Division I-A conferences have implemented and embraced. The NHL, NBA, NCAA, ATP and even the lowly CFL use instant replay.
Instant replay is not a bad thing. We can't expect these guys to see everything, even if it is on a shorter field. Walls make a ton of difference because they trap bodies and deny angles. And we surely can't expect them to catch everything when they don't even know the rules.
The alternate official could serve as the instant replay booth standby. It could be modeled after the NFL's replay system and the same rules would apply. I would propose the only exception be that each team would only be allowed a single challenge, instead of three, for the sake of games getting too lengthy. Officials should also review anything within one minute of the half or end of the game that is worthy of a look.
I understand that costs associated with instant replay can be much more that the budgets of most AFL teams allow. But the components are already in place. Nearly every team has a live video fee for the arena display. Normally, a monitor is already set in place for the PA announcer to gaze upon while calling the game. Have the official sit next to him and stop, rewind and play when needed.
The officials in the AFL miss a lot. And it cost teams notches in the win column. The outsiders notice things like this and chuckle. The lack of capable and knowledgeable officials is one of the reasons why the AFL isn't considered a "major" sport.
This Is The Arena Football League, Nothing More
The most apparent problem I've seen and heard from the people that have been around the AFL since the beginning is that the league tries to make itself out to be something it's not.
It all begins with the AFL's connections to the NFL. The communications department pumps out release after release about the ties between the two almost trying to shove credibility down the throats of AFL antagonists. This isn't necessary. This is a league that's stood on two legs for the last 20 years and doesn't need the blessings of the NFL.
But the league office continues to play out the correlation like a broken record even though from a team public relations standpoint, mixed signals are sent as to endorse or not endorse the connections. There was one instance in particular this season where a PR director got massacred by the league office for publicizing that an NFL squad picked up a player from his team.
The response from New York was something along the lines of "We're not in the business of promoting the NFL or its players".
Oh really! Then why is it every time someone mentions the Colorado Crush, John Elway's name comes up. And we can't forget the Chicago Ditkas...uhhh...I mean Rush. Ron Jaworski, Tom Benson, Neil Smith, Jerry Jones, Deion Sanders and the list goes on and on.
The straw that broke the camel's back occurred during the week leading up to ArenaBowl XXI in New Orleans. Suddenly, Tampa Bay Buccaneers wideout Joey Galloway was an instant AFL celebrity. The world needed to know that he was going to take time off from training camp and watch his Columbus Destroyers play in the title game.
Conference calls, interviews, ESPN News all wanted a piece of Galloway. At one point I was confused as to whether he was playing in the game for the Destroyers - not really but you get my point.
But when a player from an AFL squad earns a spot in the most prestigious outdoor game in the world because of the accomplishments he had on the 50-yard field, that team's PR department is forbidden to make news of it?
A signing like that only provides assurance that the Arena Football League possesses athletes that are highly skilled and many talented enough to play at the next level, evidenced by Greg White and Bobby Sippio.
So how about promoting the actual players of the game instead of the owners? There are plenty of great stories to write about these teams that do not involve mentions of their owner or any other celebrity associated with the organization. Promote the game, coaches and players - that's what the NFL would do, right?
Along the same lines, it makes me cringe every time I read that an AFL expansion team costs $30 million and the average player makes $80,000 a year. You cannot take the salary cap of $1.9 million and divide that by the roster of 24 to calculate what a middle-of-the-pack player makes. Especially if your top players are making $150,000 per season - a number also subject to inflation. Let's stop kidding the public and ourselves; the minimum starting salary for most teams is around $27,000.
It's great when the value of a franchise increases because of its market or a newfound sponsorship. Something like this hopefully produces a financial snowball effect from the ownership down to the player personnel interns. But simply stating in a release that teams are worth $30 million is not an official appraisal of a team's value.
More people aren't going to watch Arena Football because the guys make more money or the teams are worth a greater dollar value. They are going to watch because the quality of football is extremely high and it fills their insatiable appetite to see the pigskin flying through the air.
Adequate ESPN Exposure
I worked for an ESPN television production house right out of college for three years. In my experiences with employees from Bristol (or in some cases New York), I discovered they were the most intense, focused, driven, give every extra ounce of effort laborers in the entertainment business.
After working with the production crew prior to a playoff game in San Jose, I never got the same feeling. And that was the attitude that hovered over everything ESPN controlled concerning the Arena Football League in 2007.
The SportsCenter coverage was atrocious. Maybe a couple of 15 second clips with the score at the end, no stats. Sure, they ran games across the ticker on the bottom but most of the time the team's names were misspelled.
ESPN.com, where there is the most room to expose, did the poorest job. And this is where ESPN should be ashamed.
The same three stagnant columns were available each week. Nothing else. One matchup preview with picks, one "What To Look For" from a supposed AFL expert, and finally a feel-good story about John Dutton adopting an Ethiopian. Okay, it wasn't always that but something along those lines.
On top of everything, these human-interest stories were being written by an ESPN.com intern, whom I was told put a prominent AFL player on hold - twice - during a phone interview. And he was given the job through a family friend who worked for ESPN.
Two words, one hyphen, three times. Half-ass. Low-budget. Busch-league.
I know they only signed on a month or so before the start of the season but these guys are ESPN - the Worldwide Leader in Sports, the mack-daddy of the sporting entertainment industry. Find a way to make it work!
During one Monday Night game, they put up a halftime scoreboard graphic that displayed the Chicago Crush playing against the Philadelphia Soul. This wouldn't happen in any other sport, why the AFL?
The freaking Little League World Series got more play than the Arena League. Stuart Scott could spout off the Tokyo third baseman's favorite food and pet's name but couldn't even learn to correctly pronounce Chris Greisen's name for a highlight? What a joke.
Please don't take this bash on ESPN's coverage this year the wrong way. I think the five-year deal struck with ESPN last year was a monumental stepping-stone for the sport to become mainstream. But they still have to do their part. And I think they will now that one year is under the table and they know what to expect...as do the AFL fans and they expect more.
Reduce Gimmicks
For my final proposal, while I'm on the ESPN note, I would like to delve into the production side of the televised games.
Why in the world does ESPN insist on making the game, coaches and players all-access DURING the contest? You don't see Peyton Manning or Tony Dungy getting miked-up and asked a series of questions while the defense is on the field during a Colts game do you? Don't you think these athletes and coaches are concentrating and trying to win the game just as much as someone in the NFL?
The biggest complaint I hear from people that aren't fans is that Arena Football is too gimmicky. If this league is to build credibility it needs to lose this negative connotation.
Tracking players on the field, revealing the play calls and unnecessary in-game interviews cheapens the integrity of football at hand. These things distract from a game that you are already in jeopardy of missing something if you go to the kitchen to get a beer from the fridge.
Hearing the plays being called and having the analyst break them down is the most annoying aspect in my opinion. First of all, most of the teams don't want to let the world know what their play calls are and secondly, I don't want to see (and I don't believe I'm in the minority) the plays drawn out before they are ran.
Digressing from my argument for just a moment, I think reality television in America is pathetic and is ruining the industry. Sports are my only version of reality TV and they are as real life as you can get. So PLEASE, PLEASE do not tell me how the play is going to unfold before it happens. I equate it to listening to a radio broadcast of a game with the TV muted and the radio is a few seconds ahead of the TV game time. Knowing what happens before you see it on the screen is not a fun way to watch a ballgame.
There are plenty of other ways to get "all-access" without averting attention from the game at hand. Get in the locker rooms before and after the games (this is already done), have a touchdown celebration camera that captures the antics that are forbidden in the NFL but encouraged in the AFL, mike-up another player besides the quarterback to hear sounds of the game.
One of the rules changed prior to this season was pulling coaches off the field of play. This was imposed so the game would look more professional and I would agree that it helped. Now if ESPN could produce a standard football game for the viewers, it might not be as easy to label the Arena Football League a gimmick sport.
(Editor's Note: As a member of the San Jose SaberCats front office staff, Scott Cooley recently completed his first year as an associate of the Arena Football League. The opinions in the following article are entirely his and do not necessarily reflect those of the SaberCats organization. Prior to joining the San Jose arena football franchise, Cooley had no AFL experience therefore his suggestions and viewpoints are presented genuinely as a newcomer to the indoor game. His intentions are not meant to defame the Arena Football League, its sponsoring partners or teams in any way.)
• Discuss this story on the Arena Football League (1987-2008) message board...
Arena Football League (1987-2008) Stories from October 3, 2007
- Desperados to Hold Open Tryouts for 2008 Team at Texas Stadium on October 20th - Dallas Desperados
- Brigade Hosts Off-season Tryouts - Kansas City Brigade
- Modest Proposals - San Jose SaberCats
The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.
