A new football league is coming to Alberta this fall.
EDMONTON, Alberta – There’s a new professional sport coming to Alberta. The Airdrie Anticlines football team was officially introduced on Monday morning press conference at the Airdrie Convention Centre.
City manager and team owner, Andy Felthersnatch, got things started with a bit of inspiration.
“While I was in my outdoor shower last night, I looked to the stars, and I said, ‘It’s Aquifer, it’s Acreage, it’s Associated Aas… NO, IT’S ANTICLINES!’” – he exclaimed as he finalized the name of his team.
The Anticlines are part of the newly created AAPEG Football League (or AFL), which was formed by the Alberta Association of Professional Engineers and Geoscientists earlier this year. Their goal was to help youth understand that just because they study engineering or the geosciences, it doesn’t mean that they can’t play professional football at sub-elite levels.
The vice president of AAPEG Sporting, Anita Dickenme, P.Eng., spoke to 2P News this morning.
Anita Dickenme, P.Eng.
“Based on data collected by our annual AAPEG census and survey, 87% of our members have a BMI that exceeds 121, which is one order of magnitude greater than what is typical of people from non-engineering and non-geoscience professions. It was from that survey that the AFL was born. I wanted to create a football league where mathletes and rock jocks can finally have a place to shine and show off their competitive nature and physical prowess. And the only requirement for player is that his or her AAPEG membership is paid up and in good standing!” – Anita Dickenme, P.Eng., VP of AAPEG Sporting
For those of us who are used to NFL or CFL football, the AFL rules will require some getting used to since they produce a sport that is quite different from conventional football.
Below is a highlight of some of the key AFL rules that fans will see when its first season kicks off on September 7th, 2021.
5-Yard First Down: Unlike the CFL and the NFL, teams in the AFL will need to move the ball at least 5 yards to earn a fresh set of downs. With a standard 10-yards required for a 1st down, the league felt that most games would be scoreless.
20 Downs: That’s right, not 3 or 4 downs, but 20 downs. The league figured it will take at least that many downs to make a 5-yard first down considering both the spacetime-warping girth of its players and their ineptitude at anything related to fitness.
40-Yard Field: The regulation AFL field will measure only 40 yards between goal lines. Anything longer than this and the league figures there would be no scoring.
In-Play Timeouts: Players who are involved in play that requires a lot of running are allowed to call a time-out so that they can take a 2-minute breather, before the whistle is blown to resume the play.
Quiz Snaps: In the CFL and NFL, the quarterback puts the ball in play by calling a series of coded words, with one that actually instructs the snapper to hut the ball. In the AFL, the snapper presents a skill-testing question to the QB, and only when it is answered correctly does the ball move.
A comprehensive list of AFL rules can be found on the AAPEG website.
Joining the Airdrie Anticlines in this inaugural season are the following 7 teams:
Balzac Blow-Downs
Chestermere Completions
Nanton NGLs
Wainwright Workovers
Slave Lake Shut-Ins
Red Deer Risers
Okatoks OOIPs
But not everybody is keen on this new league designed for professional engineers and geoscientists. TeeSN sports analyst and former CFL star wide receiver, Silt Megall, told 2P News that having these people try to play a game that was built for elite athletes will likely not go over well for ratings.
Silt Megall, with TeeSN
“I know a few engineers and I think it’d be fair to say that they aren’t exactly a picture of elite athleticism. I can see them being linefolk, but not so much suited for skilled positions in the secondary. But one thing the engineers have going for them is that they are typically very angry for some reason and that bodes well for football. As for the geo people, their ultra short attention spans will make their play very interesting. We’ll see, I’m not certain things will go well for the AFL, but I could stand to be mistaken here.” – Silt Megall, TeeSN football analyst
The AFL will air on SeeTV and will also be streamed on AAPEG Sports Online. Get your tickets before they’re gone.
