John Elway Wants Arena Football to Become the Official Minor League of the NFL

According to Pro Football Talk, the demise of NFL Europa has given Colorado Crush owner John Elway some big ideas for the Arena Football League. Specifically, Elway wants to work out an arrangement where the Arena league would become an official minor league of the NFL. In order to do so, Elway might attempt to force out the Arena league's commissioner, David Baker, who has always taken pride in making Arena football its own entity, not just the NFL's little brother. As I see it, a couple of big obstacles would have to be overcome before this idea could be implemented. First, the Arena game would need to tweak some of its rules to make it more like the NFL. I'm not sure exactly what those rules tweaks would be, and I'm not sure if rules changes would turn off the league's fans, but as it's currently constituted, the Arena league would have a hard time developing any offensive linemen, defensive linemen or running backs. Secondly, NFL coaches would have to be convinced that players would benefit from a minor league. The NFL's owners likely wouldn't buy into a minor league if their coaches were telling them that the minor league wouldn't be an effective way of developing players. But those obstacles can be overcome. This idea could definitely work, and having a front man like Elway would go a long way toward making it work.