ANTHONY GETTINO
Special to The Leader
Finally, it’s that time of the year. Football is back on our television every Sunday once more.
The greatest thing about this year is that it came back in Feb.
Why it comes back so early this year is because of the new experimental league called the Alliance of American Football, otherwise known as the AAF.
This league is fun to watch and also very helpful to the NFL due to its experimental rules.
Some of these rules include a running clock, no extra point attempt after a touchdown and no kickoffs. Along with these rules, another thing the AAF has done is have the entire process of instant replay be more transparent.
Like when a coach challenges the ruling of a play on the field, the play is reviewed by the officiating booth and a decision is made. However, unlike the NFL, the fans can hear the officiating crew talking about the replays and the reasoning as to why a play is being called in real time.
The overtime rules have also changed, as they are more along the lines of college footballs overtime rules, which viewers have shown to be more fond of. Each team gets the ball on the 10 yard line in a first and goal situation. There are no field goals and you have to go for two points after scoring a touchdown. The part that fans may not like is that games can still end in ties.
There are also rules that are being tried out currently in the AAF that sound very strange; almost reminiscent of a game of football in your backyard.
Since there are no kickoffs in the AAF, the league has to try to find a way to make an equivalent to the current onside kick.
“Obviously, if you get rid of the kickoff, you have to get rid of the onside kick. So what we’re doing . . . If you want to go for the equivalent of the onside kick, we will give you your ball on your own 35 and you’ll be facing 4th-and-10,” said founder of the AAF Charlie Ebersol. “If you convert, you keep going. If you don’t, you’re giving the ball back to someone knocking on your own red zone.”
While the AAF is an experimental league of sorts, it doesn’t mean that it isn’t fun to watch. Sure the talent isn’t to the same degree that the NFL has, but the players aren’t awful. This isn’t like the first attempt at the XFL from the early 2000s. These are real football players.
Some of these guys were first round busts trying to make a name for themselves and get back into the league. Some of them are Division II standouts who learned how to play quarterback by watching YouTube videos. What is the same about all of these guys playing in this league, though, is that they are playing because of the love of the game and to keep the dream that they have alive.
That is why the AAF is such a great idea.