Arena football

Arena football is a variety of eight-man gridiron football. The game is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian football, designed to fit in the same surface area as a standard North American ice hockey rink, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game that can be played on the floors of indoor arenas. The sport was invented in 1981, and patented in 1987, by Jim Foster, a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. The name is trademarked by Gridiron Enterprises.

The CAFL, which operates on a heavily abbreviated schedule solely in China, is the only active league playing by arena rules.

Arena football is distinguished from the other indoor leagues by its use of large rebound nets attached to the side of each goalpost, which keep any missed field goal or overthrown ball in the field of play and allow the ball to remain live.

The field

As its name implies, arena football is played exclusively indoors, in arenas usually designed for either basketball or ice hockey teams. The field is the same width 85 feet (26 m) and length 200 feet (61 m) as a standard NHL hockey rink, making it approximately 30% of the dimensions of a regular American gridiron football field, and 19% of a Canadian gridiron football field (the total playing area, including the end zones of an Arena football field is 17,000 square feet (1,600 m2)).

The scrimmage area is 50 yards (46 m) long (unlike the field in NFL which is 100 yards (91 m) long), and each end zone is approximately 8 yards deep, two yards less than the standard 10 yards. Depending on the venue in which a game is being played, the end zones may be rectangular (like a basketball court) or, where necessary because of the building design, rounded (like a hockey rink; this is much like some Canadian football fields where the end zones can be cut off by a track). Each sideline has a heavily padded barrier, with the padding placed over the hockey dasher boards.

The goalpost uprights are 9 feet (2.7 m) wide, and the crossbar is 15 feet (4.6 m) above the playing surface. Taut rebound nets on either side of the posts bounce any missed field goals back into the field of play.

The ball is “live” when rebounding off these nets or their support apparatus. The entire goalframe and goalside rebound net system is suspended on cables from the rafters. The bottom of the two goalside rebound nets is 8 feet (2.4 m) off the playing surface. Each netframe is 32 feet (9.8 m) high by 30 feet (9.1 m) wide.

A player is not counted as out of bounds on the sidelines unless they are pushed into or falls over the sideline barrier.

The players

Each team fields 8 players at a time from a 21-man active roster.

Substitution rules

According to the so-called “Elway Rule”, coaches can substitute players at will.

The rationale is that free substitution improves the overall quality of football in the league by giving coaches the freedom to put their best players on the field for every play of the game, and that teams are able to select from a wider player talent pool when building their rosters.

Formations

Four offensive players must be on the line of scrimmage at the snap; one of the linemen must declare themselves the tight end. One offensive player may be moving forward at the time of the snap as long as they have not yet crossed the line of scrimmage. Three defensive players must be in a three- or four-point stance at the start of the snap.

Two defenders serve as linebackers, called the Mac and the Jack. The Mac may blitz from the side of the line opposite the offensive Tight End. The Jack’s role has changed after new rules set in place by the league. The Jack cannot blitz, but under new, more defense-friendly rules, the Jack Linebacker may roam sideline to sideline within five yards of the line of scrimmage and drop into coverage once the Quarterback pump fakes.

Ball movement

The ball is kicked off from the goal line, to start the halves and odd overtimes, or after any score. The team with the ball is given four downs to gain ten yards or score. Punting is illegal because of the size of the playing field, however, a field goal that either misses wide (therefore bouncing off the nets surrounding the goalposts) or falls short, may be returned. Thus an impossibly long field goal is tantamount to a punt in other football variants.

A receiver jumping to catch a pass needs to get only one foot down in bounds for the catch to be ruled a completed catch, just as in college football. Practically, this means that one foot must touch the ground before the receiver is pushed into the boards by an opposing player. Passes that bounce off the rebound nets remain “live”. Balls that bounce off the padded walls that surround the field are “live”.

Scoring

The scoring is the same as in the NFL with the addition of a drop kick field goal worth four points during normal play or two points as a post-touchdown conversion. Blocked extra points and turnovers on two-point conversion attempts may be returned by the defensive team for two points.

Coaching challenges

Coaches are given 2 (two) challenges per game, as in the NFL; to do so, they must throw the red flag before the next play. If the play stands as called after the play is reviewed they lose a timeout; however, if the play is reversed they keep their timeouts. If a team wins two straight challenges they are granted a third. All challenges are automatic in the final half-minute of regulation and all overtime periods, as they are on all scoring plays and turnovers.

Timing

A game has four 15-minute quarters with a 15-minute halftime. Teams are allowed three timeouts per half, and two per overtime period if regulation ends tied. Teams must use a timeout if there’s an injury inside a half-minute left in regulation or overtime; exception applies to when team has no timeouts, and this occurs, they’re granted an extra timeout.

The clock stops for out-of-bounds plays, incomplete passes, or sacks only in the last half-minute of regulation or overtime (there is only a half-minute warning, as opposed to the two-minute warning in the XFL/NFL and the three-minute warning in the CFL) or because of penalties, injuries or timeouts. The clock also stops for any change in possession, until the ball is marked ready for play; for example, aside from the final half-minute of regulation or overtime, time continues to run down after a touchdown, but stops after an extra point or two-point conversion attempt.

If a quarter ends as a touchdown is scored, an untimed conversion attempt takes place. The play clock is 30 seconds, starting at the end of the previous play. In all arenas, the final minute of the period is measured in tenths of a second.

In the first overtime, each team gets one possession to score. Whoever is ahead after one possession wins. If the teams are tied after each has had a possession, true sudden death rules apply thereafter. Each overtime period is 15 minutes, and continues from the ending of the previous overtime period until the tie is broken. All overtimes thereafter are true sudden death; no games can be tied. This includes both games of all semifinal series.