The 2022 National Arena League season was the fifth and most recent season of the
National Arena League (NAL). The league played with only six teams from around the
Eastern United States area, with one new team arriving from the
American Arena League, which were the
San Antonio Gunslingers. The season ended with the Albany Empire, Carolina Cobras,
Columbus Lions, and
Jacksonville Sharks all going into the playoffs.
The season ended with the Albany Empire winning the championship.
In July, the league announced that they will have a
expansion team
An expansion team is a new team in a sports league, usually from a city that has not hosted a team in that league before, formed with the intention of satisfying the demand for a local team from a population in a new area. Sporting leagues also ...
for the following season, which was shown to be given to
Fayetteville,
North Carolina.
Teams
For 2022, the NAL consisted of six teams without
conferences
A conference is a meeting of two or more experts to discuss and exchange opinions or new information about a particular topic.
Conferences can be used as a form of group decision-making, although discussion, not always decisions, are the main pu ...
or
divisions. Each team with the exception of the
Carolina Cobras and the
Jacksonville Sharks (they both played 14 games) played 12 games,
six home and six away, while the 14-game teams had seven home and seven away. During the season, there were two
byes In cricket, a bye is a type of extra. It is a run scored by the batting team when the ball has not been hit by the batter and the ball has not hit the batter's body.
Scoring byes
Usually, if the ball passes the batter without being deflected, th ...
given out,
with the exception of the Carolina Cobras and the Jacksonville Sharks, where they do not get a bye week.
Reference for
teams in 2022:
Standings
z – clinched
home field advantage
y – clinched home playoff game
e – eliminated from
playoffs
Reference:
Playoffs
Reference:
Awards
Players of the Week
Reference:
The 2022 All-National Arena League Team
2022 All-NAL Second Team
= Offense
=
= Defense
=
= Special Teams
=
Reference:
2022 All-NAL First Team
= Offense
=
= Defense
=
= Special Teams
=
Reference:
Start of Ironman football
For the season, the teams played
Ironman football
The one-platoon system, also known as iron man football, is a platoon system in American football where players play on both offense and defense. It was the result of smaller roster sizes in the early days of the game and rules that limited player ...
.
This concept was also used from the
Arena Football League, a league that was used the concept from
1987
File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...
up to
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister of Pakistan, Pr ...
.
Ironman football is a variant that allows players to play in both the
offense
Offense or offence may refer to:
Common meanings
* Offense or crime, a violation of penal law
* An insult, or negative feeling in response to a perceived insult
* An attack, a proactive offensive engagement
* Sin, an act that violates a known m ...
and the
defense
Defense or defence may refer to:
Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups
* Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare
* Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks
* Defense industr ...
for the game.
Only two players from the offense, two players from the defense, and one player from the
special teams can have a player who has their position for just one side of the ball.
The goal of the Ironman football is that you can see players become more creative by showing their skills of offense and defense.
Controversies
* In a game between the
Orlando Predators and the San Antonio Gunslingers, after
official
An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...
Andrew McGrath got injured and taken to the
hospital
A hospital is a health care institution providing patient treatment with specialized health science and auxiliary healthcare staff and medical equipment. The best-known type of hospital is the general hospital, which typically has an emerge ...
in the second quarter due to a
broken clavicle and a face laceration, and there were only four referees left. In the fourth quarter, with 24 seconds left, a Gunslinger was close to the
end zone, and one referee signaled
touchdown while the other signaled him short of the goal line, however, the clock kept until the time was out while the referees were discussing the play. After review, the runner was short of the goal line. The clock was set to four seconds left, however, per league rules there was a 10 second run-off since the ball wasn't spotted before the previous play. The Gunslingers then scored the game-winning play. After a review by
Commissioner
A commissioner (commonly abbreviated as Comm'r) is, in principle, a member of a commission or an individual who has been given a commission (official charge or authority to do something).
In practice, the title of commissioner has evolved to in ...
Chris Siegfried
Chris Siegfried is the former head coach of the Arkansas Twisters of the now-defunct arenafootball2. He was previously the offensive coordinator of the Jacksonville Sharks (2010) and Kansas City Brigade (2007), teams in the Arena Football League ...
, the lead official, and the Supervisor of Officials, they decided that that was the correct call.
* In a game between the
Jacksonville Sharks and the San Antonio Gunslingers, Jacksonville player
Devin Wilson hit
official
An official is someone who holds an office (function or mandate, regardless whether it carries an actual working space with it) in an organization or government and participates in the exercise of authority, (either their own or that of their ...
Gary Vaught from behind. The player was suspended indefinitely.
References
See also
*
2022 Indoor Football League season
The 2022 Indoor Football League season was the fourteenth (and thirteenth complete) season of the Indoor Football League (IFL). The league played the season with 14 teams, up from 11 teams the previous season. The Bay Area Panthers, Quad City Ste ...
{{NAL
National Arena League seasons