Philadelphia Soul Are The Arena Football League Champions

Arena Football, now there’s a thing. If you like your Football fast and furious, then this is the version for you. In the back of your mind you’re sure it exists, but have you ever seen a game? No? OK here’s how it works.

It’s a fifty yard pitch and it’s played indoors (clearly) on artificial turf. Each team has eight players on the field at any one time. The scoring system is very similar to regulation football, 6 points for a touchdown, 1 point for a conversion kick, but interestingly 2 points for a pass or run conversion, or a drop-kick! With the Arena enclosed by side-line banners and netting the ball can re-bound off them, if it does, it’s still live and you can catch it, as long as you have at least one foot in-bounds. Gameplay is the traditional four downs to make ten yards or score. You have to have four players on the line of scrimmage and the offence can have one player in “forward” motion. On defence, the linemen are not allowed to stunt, and only one linebacker can rush, the other has to stay home. Games are played over four fifteen minute quarters, and there is no punting…got it?

The league has now been in existence for twenty nine years, so it must be popular, it features two conferences of four teams, and after a 16 week regular season that runs between April and August, they all make the play-offs. The American Conference cities with a franchise are currently Philadelphia (Soul), Jacksonville (Sharks), Orlando (Predators) and Tampa Bay (Storm), yeah that is a bit Florida centric as a conference. The National Conference consists of Arizona (Rattlers), Cleveland (Gladiators), Los Angeles (Kiss) and Portland (Steel).

If you don’t get the opportunity to own a NFL franchise, you can bag yourself an Arena league outfit. Gene Simmons and the guys from the rock band Kiss own the LA franchise (hence the name) and ex NFL quarterback Ron Jaworski is the majority owner of the newly crowned champion Philadelphia Soul.

With a few exceptions, you probably wouldn’t be familiar with the players in the league, but you will have heard of the now defunct Iowa Barnstormers quarterback. He went on to play for the St Louis Rams and led them to victory in Superbowl XXXIV against the Titans. He was the league MVP, and also played in NFL Europe for the Amsterdam Admirals. Do you have the name?...that’s right, it’s Kurt Warner.

This years’ championship game was a high scoring affair that saw Philadelphia get the better of Arizona with a 56-42 scoreline. If you get the chance to watch a game, take it, it’s an all thriller, no filler experience!