The NFL season has come to an end, but that doesn’t mean there’s no more football. On Saturday, a new pro indoor football league will take center stage as the Fan Controlled Football (FCF) league makes its debut. Four teams will play in the inaugural season, and the first two games (and all the games this season) will steam only on Twitch Saturday evening. The Glacier Boyz will face the Wild Aces starting at 7:30 p.m. ET, while the Beast will take on the Zappers at 9:30 p.m. ET. All the games will be played at the Infinite Energy Arena in Duluth, Georgia, which is outside of Atlanta.
The FCF will be different from what you see in college football and the NFL. First, it’s 7-on-7 football, and the field is 50 years long. The games only last an hour with two-20 minutes halves with the clock running until a score. Halftime is only eight minutes, and there’s a one-minute warning at the end of each half.
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But the biggest selling point for FCF is fans calling plays while the game is streaming. Fans can do this either on Twitch or it can be done by phone through the Fan Controlled Football app, according to USA Today. They can call for a run or pass with four diagrammed runs or four diagrammed passes. The plays will be seen by fans before they are run, while the calls are relayed to a coach who then sends the play to the offensive players via communications in their helmet.
“We’re building something new and fresh and different, and we felt like if could break away from the mold, it would reset expectations,” Sohrob Farudi, CEO of the league said. “So they could come up and say, ‘Hey, I’m not going to even compare it to what I watch on Sundays because this is a whole new sport.’ “
One player to watch is former NFL quarterback and Heisman Trophy winner Johnny Manziel. He will be playing for the Zappers and explained to USA Today why he’s playing in the new football league.
“A big reason I’m here is I’m a little bored,” he said. “I’ve been playing golf five days a week, hanging with my boys and playing cards and running around Scottsdale having a blast with a great group of friends that I’ve acquired out there. But I don’t have much of a schedule unless I create one, and I haven’t really created one.”
