Saturday night: Arena Football
May. 4th, 2018 07:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
bedsitter23The Des Moines Register just ran an article on the Des Moines Barnstormers, the local arena football team. It tellingly did not feature any information on the team or the league, only on restaurants in the area of the stadium and the giveaways.
Which may be fair as Arena Football is something that is a thing to do, much like Monster Trucks, Les Miz or the Harlem Globetrotters. It's unlikely that any of the players you see will ever play in the NFL, and those who do are usually marginal at best.
It's still a fun time, though. Arena Football is a different beast- the field is half as big (50 yards instead of 100), it's 8 on 8 (instead of 11 on 11) and the clock never stops, so there's not time to draw up strategic plays. Which means every play looks like a pick up game with almost all passing.
The Barnstormers are storied in Arena Football. Once part of the AFL. Most everyone will know the AFL- it was prominently featured on ESPN and Jon Bon Jovi's ownership of the Philadelphia Soul has been a headline. The AFL has been around 30 years, so it can be labelled a success, and though it never rivaled the NFL, it had a high point around 2000-2003 where it mattered and a brief return to glory around 2010.
Today's AFL in 2018 is in bad shape. It is down to four teams, one of which is the Soul. Which means Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons Kiss themed Los Angeles team and Vince Neil's Vegas team have called it quits.
Two smaller leagues have succeeded where the bigger AFL has not, yet even these leagues seem to be on the descent. Unsurprisingly, since both of the leagues have a claim now as the premier indoor league, they are in litigation and competition with each other. The IFL has two storied franchises in the Barnstormers and Arizona Rattlers but they are down to only six franchises. The CIF (Champions Indoor Football)has ten teams- many are long standing franchises like the Omaha Beef and the Texas Revolution (formerly the Allen Wranglers).
With the current state of football, one might suspect that there is room for an alternative to the NFL. We all hear about how the NFL ratings are down ostensibly due to the protest by those who don't like the players who won't stand during the anthem. Which of course ignores those who might be protesting because the NFL won't give Collin Kaepernick a job, as well as NFL oversaturation (Thursday Night Football anyone?) and the fact people stream live television in ways that are alternative to sitting if front of a tv set.
This also comes off an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about the XFL. The 30 for 30 series is fantastic in what it does, making everything seem greater than it probably actually was. The XFL special focused on the alternative league started by WWE ownder Vince McMahon and NBC big man Dick Ebersol.
The XFL as we were reminded was a flop, often way more funnier than anything Vince ever scripted, and beyond that, just boring. But there are some points we forget, such as the XFL may have had lousy ratings but they sold tickets. No alternate football league had the numbers the XFL did. Also, for all the jokes about cameras in the cheerleaders changing room, the camera play of the XFL was a game changer. Modern sports broadcasting was changed.
Which means one could be forgiven for thinking the only thing wrong with the XFL was they tried to throw a league together in 13 months. Which also means Vince McMahon is back in the Football Business.
XFL 2.0 will kick off in 2020, because that will work. Interestingly, in this news, Ebersol's son is trying to scoop McMahon by saying he is starting a league in 2019.
I have no doubt an XFL 2.0 could work as a spring league in alternate cities, but Vince seems convinced that he wants to only compete in cities with a NFL franchise already. It sounds like a good way to blow your children's inheritance.
Which is probably fine as Vince just got paid $70 Million by the Saudi Arabian government just to host a PPV event there and signed a 10 -year contract to continue to do that.
There are three football players that every alternate league would be interested in- three non-NFL players of an age where they could still play and have household names even non-sports fans recognize. However, it's unlikely Vince can get any of them. Collin Kaepernick is the bane of the existence of the fans Vince hopes to attract. Johnny "Football" Manziel has a record that doesn't jibe with Vince's goal of attracting only the cleanest, honest, patriotic players, and Tim Tebow's baseball career has progressed well enough right now that it just wouldn't be worth the chance to abandon it.
So there's that. History is filled with failed ventures since the 1960s- the World Football League was a bust mainly due to litigation, any success the USFL may have had was wiped out when they tried to compete directly with the NFL (Don't forget this is where Trump's hatred from the league comes from). Later leagues like NFL Europe and the UFL have only been marginal succes at best. The UFL indeed in retrospect (from 2009-2012) was a bit of a success, it just wasn't sustainable.
It's hard to think Vince will have any better success.
In any case, back to the IFL and this game. It wasn't too close as the Barnstormers ran over the Green Bay Blizzard 46-25. The IFL showcases a lot of players from smaller colleges who maybe didn't have a chance to prove themselves for scouts, or at worst, get to paid to play football professionally.
Grant Rohach, was the QB, and splits duties, but started this game. He was a backup at Iowa State, which feeds into the league's local angle. The team is led by Receiver Brady Roland (Grand View) on the offense and Bryce Enard (NW Missouri State) on defense, though the stars of this game were receivers Ryan Ballentine (Southern Mississppi) and Sheldon Augustine (Langston) who both had 2 TDs each.
Which may be fair as Arena Football is something that is a thing to do, much like Monster Trucks, Les Miz or the Harlem Globetrotters. It's unlikely that any of the players you see will ever play in the NFL, and those who do are usually marginal at best.
It's still a fun time, though. Arena Football is a different beast- the field is half as big (50 yards instead of 100), it's 8 on 8 (instead of 11 on 11) and the clock never stops, so there's not time to draw up strategic plays. Which means every play looks like a pick up game with almost all passing.
The Barnstormers are storied in Arena Football. Once part of the AFL. Most everyone will know the AFL- it was prominently featured on ESPN and Jon Bon Jovi's ownership of the Philadelphia Soul has been a headline. The AFL has been around 30 years, so it can be labelled a success, and though it never rivaled the NFL, it had a high point around 2000-2003 where it mattered and a brief return to glory around 2010.
Today's AFL in 2018 is in bad shape. It is down to four teams, one of which is the Soul. Which means Paul Stanley and Gene Simmons Kiss themed Los Angeles team and Vince Neil's Vegas team have called it quits.
Two smaller leagues have succeeded where the bigger AFL has not, yet even these leagues seem to be on the descent. Unsurprisingly, since both of the leagues have a claim now as the premier indoor league, they are in litigation and competition with each other. The IFL has two storied franchises in the Barnstormers and Arizona Rattlers but they are down to only six franchises. The CIF (Champions Indoor Football)has ten teams- many are long standing franchises like the Omaha Beef and the Texas Revolution (formerly the Allen Wranglers).
With the current state of football, one might suspect that there is room for an alternative to the NFL. We all hear about how the NFL ratings are down ostensibly due to the protest by those who don't like the players who won't stand during the anthem. Which of course ignores those who might be protesting because the NFL won't give Collin Kaepernick a job, as well as NFL oversaturation (Thursday Night Football anyone?) and the fact people stream live television in ways that are alternative to sitting if front of a tv set.
This also comes off an ESPN 30 for 30 documentary about the XFL. The 30 for 30 series is fantastic in what it does, making everything seem greater than it probably actually was. The XFL special focused on the alternative league started by WWE ownder Vince McMahon and NBC big man Dick Ebersol.
The XFL as we were reminded was a flop, often way more funnier than anything Vince ever scripted, and beyond that, just boring. But there are some points we forget, such as the XFL may have had lousy ratings but they sold tickets. No alternate football league had the numbers the XFL did. Also, for all the jokes about cameras in the cheerleaders changing room, the camera play of the XFL was a game changer. Modern sports broadcasting was changed.
Which means one could be forgiven for thinking the only thing wrong with the XFL was they tried to throw a league together in 13 months. Which also means Vince McMahon is back in the Football Business.
XFL 2.0 will kick off in 2020, because that will work. Interestingly, in this news, Ebersol's son is trying to scoop McMahon by saying he is starting a league in 2019.
I have no doubt an XFL 2.0 could work as a spring league in alternate cities, but Vince seems convinced that he wants to only compete in cities with a NFL franchise already. It sounds like a good way to blow your children's inheritance.
Which is probably fine as Vince just got paid $70 Million by the Saudi Arabian government just to host a PPV event there and signed a 10 -year contract to continue to do that.
There are three football players that every alternate league would be interested in- three non-NFL players of an age where they could still play and have household names even non-sports fans recognize. However, it's unlikely Vince can get any of them. Collin Kaepernick is the bane of the existence of the fans Vince hopes to attract. Johnny "Football" Manziel has a record that doesn't jibe with Vince's goal of attracting only the cleanest, honest, patriotic players, and Tim Tebow's baseball career has progressed well enough right now that it just wouldn't be worth the chance to abandon it.
So there's that. History is filled with failed ventures since the 1960s- the World Football League was a bust mainly due to litigation, any success the USFL may have had was wiped out when they tried to compete directly with the NFL (Don't forget this is where Trump's hatred from the league comes from). Later leagues like NFL Europe and the UFL have only been marginal succes at best. The UFL indeed in retrospect (from 2009-2012) was a bit of a success, it just wasn't sustainable.
It's hard to think Vince will have any better success.
In any case, back to the IFL and this game. It wasn't too close as the Barnstormers ran over the Green Bay Blizzard 46-25. The IFL showcases a lot of players from smaller colleges who maybe didn't have a chance to prove themselves for scouts, or at worst, get to paid to play football professionally.
Grant Rohach, was the QB, and splits duties, but started this game. He was a backup at Iowa State, which feeds into the league's local angle. The team is led by Receiver Brady Roland (Grand View) on the offense and Bryce Enard (NW Missouri State) on defense, though the stars of this game were receivers Ryan Ballentine (Southern Mississppi) and Sheldon Augustine (Langston) who both had 2 TDs each.
