By RICHARD OBERT
The Arizona Republic

Part rock concert, part hockey, part basketball, part pinball. Toss a cream-colored, oblong ball with a blue stripe onto the 50-yard turf, and you've got Arena football.

It's the only game where fans can take home an errant pass, where nets draped in the end zones are part of the action and the offensive coordinator can stand on the field and carry on a conversation with his quarterback after each play.

It looks easy enough. Eight men on each side of the ball. Touchdowns come at such a clip that a fan can miss 21 points worth of action if he slips out to use the restroom.

But there's a reason the sport - which has its championship game Sunday - is called the Indoor War and the Ironman's game.

Only the quarterback, offensive specialist and two defensive specialists don't have to play both offense and defense. Everybody else had better be ready for 60 minutes of nonstop action.

Most teams sign linemen who were defense-oriented in college, because the defense is always at a disadvantage playing by rules made for quick scores.

Only three linemen and a linebacker can rush the quarterback, so it's basically man-on-man in the trenches.

No tricks. Just strength against strength.

Receivers often slam into thinly padded walls. They rely on Good Samaritan fans to catch them if they flip over.

The artificial surfaces and the hard hits on a field where nobody can hide result in long injury lists.

"There are more players per square foot on an Arena football field than there is on the normal field," Arizona Rattlers defensive coordinator and former Chicago Bears defensive back Doug Plank said. The Rattlers play the San Jose SaberCats in ArenaBowl XVIII on Sunday. "That correlates into more collisions, more opportunities for hits on the opponent. It's impressive.

"Sometimes, when I look at this game, I don't understand why there aren't more injuries, because of the incredible demands on their bodies."

Purists who have never watched an Arena game will need a glossary and a rulebook to understand what is going on.

There is no punting. There is no blitzing. Only one linebacker can rush. The other has to stay in a 5-yard zone.

The kick returner never takes a knee in the end zone. He runs out everything off the live net. If he's smashed in his end zone, it's a touchback, and the offense starts at its 5-yard line.

Field-goal tries that bounce off the net are live, as are Hail Mary passes. A kicker can get lucky and bounce an attempt off one of the goal post bars, and, if the kicking team recovers the ball, it is theirs.

The clock doesn't stop after an incomplete pass until the final minute of each quarter. In the final minute, if the defense is trailing and prevents positive yardage on a running play, the clock stops - about the only reward the defense gets.

All this is part of a game that Rattlers coach Danny White says has grown "light years" in sophistication in the 13 years he has coached in the league.

He was a league innovator: Jerry Colangelo hired him to lead the Rattlers in 1992, with no prior coaching experience and an NFL resume as a quarterback and punter with the Dallas Cowboys.

Two games into his coaching career, White threw out his Cowboys playbook and started winging it, as if he were back in the '60s on his Mesa, Ariz., street, drawing up plays in a pickup football game with the other neighborhood kids.

He will come up with a play during the game and call it without anybody feeling lost. He patterned his play calling after Tom Landry's system in Dallas.

"We call out what the block and protection is and what each receiver runs so we can create plays during the game," White said. "It's very wordy, but, with a quarterback like Sherdrick (Bonner), who understands what you're trying to do, we haven't had any problems with delay of games (penalties)."

Usually, they end up touchdowns. Which is what the Arena Football League likes.

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