Football - Football Jobs - Football Employment - Arenas

Arena football is a sport invented by Jim Foster, a former executive of the United States Football League and the National Football League. While attending an indoor soccer game in 1981 at Madison Square Garden, he conceived the basic rules of the sport. Over the next five years, he continued to modify the rules, and play some test games, until he was ready to launch the Arena Football League in 1987. The league spawned a minor league called af2 in 2000. Other people have started their own indoor football leagues. These leagues do not technically play arena football, however, because of the patent on the rules (specifically for the rebound nets [1]) that Foster obtained in 1990 (which is actually held by Gridiron Enterprises).

Arena football is very similar to American football, so only the important differences between its rules and those of the National Football League are articulated here. In addition to differences relating to the reduced field size, other rule changes were intended to make the arena game faster-paced and higher-scoring.

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) as a standard NHL hockey rink. The field is 50 yards long with 8-yard end zones. Depending on the stadium in which a game is being played, the end zones may be rectangular (like a basketball court) or curved (like a hockey rink). There is a heavily padded wall on each sideline, with the padding placed on top of the hockey dasher boards. The field goal uprights are 9 feet wide, and the crossbar is 15 feet 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 apparatuses.

A player is not counted as out of bounds on the sidelines unless they are pushed into or fall over the boundary wall.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association is a voluntary association of about 1,200 institutions, conferences, organizations and individuals that organizes the athletic programs of many colleges and universities in the United States. Its headquarters are located in Indianapolis, Indiana and it is currently under the leadership of president Myles Brand. The NCAA is the largest collegiate athletic organization in the world, and because of the great popularity of college sports among spectators in the United States, it is far more prominent than most national college sports bodies in other countries.

In August of 2007, the current three-division setup of Division I, Division II, and Division III was adopted by the NCAA membership in a special convention. Under NCAA rules, Division I and Division II schools can offer scholarships to athletes for playing a sport. Division III schools may not offer any athletic scholarships. Generally, larger schools compete in Division I and smaller schools in II and III. Division I football was further divided into I-A and I-AA in 1978.

The National Football League (NFL) is the largest and most prestigious professional American football league. It was formed by eleven teams in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association and adopted the name National Football League in 1922. The league currently consists of thirty-two teams from American cities and regions, divided into two conference each of four divisions. The regular season is a seventeen-week schedule during which each team plays sixteen games; its divisional rivals home and away (six games) and one game against each of ten opponents across the other divisions and opposite conference. The season currently starts on the Thursday night in the first full week of September and runs weekly to late December. At the end of each regular season, six teams from each conference play in the NFL playoffs, a twelve-team single-elimination tournament that culminates with the NFL championship, the Super Bowl. This game is held at a pre-selected site which is usually a city that hosts an NFL team. Two weeks later, selected all-star players from both the AFC and NFC meet in the Pro Bowl, currently held in Honolulu, Hawaii.

The NFL is one of the most popular sports leagues in the United States, and has the highest per-game attendance of any domestic professional sports league in the world, drawing over 67,000 spectators per game for its most recently completed season in 2006.

Climbing the ladder: Here�s the path for starting and continuing your officiating career:
*The youth level: Many officials start at that level. Contact your local recreation department leaders. Your local association should also help you make contacts to get games. Pop Warner league offers youth games in many cities.
Upgrading to high school: After working some games, you may feel you have the skills and confidence to work higher level competition. Contact your state association for registration information. The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) is the nation�s governing body for high school athletics. Contact the NFHS for rulebooks, rule changes and information on your state association.
Upgrading to college: College football is a highly competitive level of play. Officials with one year of youth league experience would most likely not be a candidate even though there isn�t a designated number of years of experience to reach the college ranks. Obtaining a conference schedule and advancement within a conference is based on the league or conference. When first trying to enter a particular college conference, talk with officials who are currently in the conference. They can give you valuable information such as the conference commissioner and umpiring camps to attend. College athletic directors or sports information directors can also be helpful. Click here for a NCAA college conference directory .
Professional league: Though you don�t have to have top�level experience to become a professional official, some experience is required. For example, it would be impossible for a person with one year of high school experience to be a serious candidate for the NFL. An NFL candidate must have at least 10 years of experience with five of them at a collegiate varsity or minor professional level. For the NFL, candidates are interviewed by clinical psychologists to determine levels of intelligence and ability to handle extremely stressful situations. The NFL�s security department also conducts thorough checks into the candidate�s personal background. Finally the candidate is interviewed by a panel from the NFL officiating department and is given a rules examination.

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