The_Philster
01-29-2003, 05:11 AM
COMMENTARY by Pat Haden, NBC Sports
Strategically, Arena Football is a surprisingly intriguing game to me. There are times when the strategy in this brand of football that’s played indoors on a 50-yard field with eight players on a side, clearly runs counter intuitive to the strategy of the football that’s played in outdoor stadiums.
SOME STRATEGIC DIFFERENCES
The kicking game in the AFL is one of the key areas that has aspects of strategy to it that run against the grain of stadium football. For example, in the AFL a team might kick an onsides kick when it’s ahead. There are also times when a team may choose to deliberately miss a field goal.
Also, while we are on the subject of the kicking game in the AFL, I should point out that on field goal attempts, players have to both block for the kick and then defend any runback of it. So they go from blocking to covering all on the same play.
These types of things are just so opposite to what I — and all football fans — have grown up with in playing and watching football outdoors. It’s taking me a while and it will take fans a while to get in sync with some of the different strategies employed by Arena coaches, but that’s part of the fun of football indoors......
more (http://www.msnbc.com/news/865470.asp?cp1=1#BODY)
Strategically, Arena Football is a surprisingly intriguing game to me. There are times when the strategy in this brand of football that’s played indoors on a 50-yard field with eight players on a side, clearly runs counter intuitive to the strategy of the football that’s played in outdoor stadiums.
SOME STRATEGIC DIFFERENCES
The kicking game in the AFL is one of the key areas that has aspects of strategy to it that run against the grain of stadium football. For example, in the AFL a team might kick an onsides kick when it’s ahead. There are also times when a team may choose to deliberately miss a field goal.
Also, while we are on the subject of the kicking game in the AFL, I should point out that on field goal attempts, players have to both block for the kick and then defend any runback of it. So they go from blocking to covering all on the same play.
These types of things are just so opposite to what I — and all football fans — have grown up with in playing and watching football outdoors. It’s taking me a while and it will take fans a while to get in sync with some of the different strategies employed by Arena coaches, but that’s part of the fun of football indoors......
more (http://www.msnbc.com/news/865470.asp?cp1=1#BODY)