Before 1987, indoor football was just for fun. It took the dream of one manJim Fosterto turn it into a phenomenon. Comparing the AFL to the NFL is like comparing wireless internet service to broadbandone is a direct evolution of the other. At the time of the Arena Football League’s founding, Jim Foster was a promotions manager with the NFL. After seeing an indoor soccer match at Madison Square Garden in 1981, he came up with the idea for the league and presented it to several of his friends at the office. After coming up with a business plan, Foster got the NBC network to agree to host a test game. It would be 5 years before the game actually occurred, though. But when the Chicago Politicians and the Rockford Metros finally faced off on April 26, 1986, there was no stopping it. Another test game occurred in 1987, this time covered by ESPN. After this, the Arena Football League was officially founded. Four teams made up the roster in the beginning: the Chicago Bruisers, the Denver Dynamite, the Pittsburgh Gladiators, and the Washington Commandos. Denver and Pittsburgh faced off in the first-ever Arena Bowl on August 1, 1987, with the Denver Dynamite winning in an upset against the Gladiators with a score of 45-16.The new millennium brought a new wave of interest in the AFL, which had only a niche appeal during its first decade. Kurt Warner, a former quarterback for the AFL’s Iowa Barnstormers, was named MVP of Super Bowl XXXIV. The network TNN signed a deal to start airing games livepreviously, games were usually aired at odd hours of the night on ESPN. 2000 also saw the first season of the AFL’s developmental league, arenafootball2 (af2). The league was designed to acclimate players to the game of arena football. In 2009, the AFL cancelled the season due to owing 14 million to its creditors. The league filed for bankruptcy on August 7, 2009, but this was converted to Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on August 26. However, the story does not end there. On December 7, 2009, a new entity of af2 league officials called Arena Football 1 purchased the entire assets of the formal AFL. AF1 changed its name back to Arena Football League on February 17, 2010. Games will begin again with the 2011 season.