Arena football is a variety of gridiron football played by the Arena Football League (AFL). It is a proprietary game, the rights to which are owned by Gridiron Enterprises, and is played indoors on a smaller field than American or Canadian outdoor football, resulting in a faster and higher-scoring game. The sport was invented in 1981, and patented in 1987, by James F. Foster, Jr., a former executive of the National Football League and the United States Football League. Though not the only variant of Indoor American football, it is the most widely known, and the one on which most other forms of modern indoor football are at least partially based.
Two leagues have played under the official arena football rules: the AFL, which played 22 seasons from 1987 to 2008 and resumed play under new ownership in 2010, and arenafootball2, the AFL's erstwhile developmental league, which played 10 seasons from 2000 through 2009.
Read more about Arena Football: History, Graduates To The NFL, Other Media, Fatalities
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