Wheelchair Football Season Gearing Up

Developed by the American Association of Adapted Sports Programs in Atlanta, Georgia, wheelchair football, the American kind of football that is, has become a burgeoning adapted sport. Reason being – it’s fast and really fun. Players get to see a lot of action because there’s typically only six players from each team on the field at the same time.

The sport is definitely modified too. Tackling has been removed and players only play on a standard basketball court, not a full size football field, to make it easier for the players to wheel up and down without getting exhausted by the second quarter.  If you’ve never seen wheelchair football in action before, here’s your chance.  Check out three wheelchair football videos we love below.

Our first video comes from the New England Paralyzed Veterans of America.  It shows a wheelchair football team sponsored by the New York Giants playing an exhibition game at Gillette Stadium, with a fiery coach and dozens of players eager to play.  It’s only 2:47 minutes long, but it gives you a great idea of what a game is like an action.

After the coach fires everybody up, the players begin playing their exhibition game, with the video showing plenty of offensive clips.  It’s awesome seeing a quarterback in a wheelchair chuck a football successfully downfield into the hands of another wheelchair-user.  Watch the paralyzed veterans show how it’s done

Our second video, brought to you by the Movin’ Mavs, a wheelchair basketball team at the University of Texas at Arlington, shows what it’s like when they get together to play wheelchair football with a wide variety of people, including able-bodied students.  It’s a quick video, but it gives an overview of all the rules so you can see what’s different and what’s the same regarding the able-bodied version.

At the end of the video, one of the players is interviewed and he doesn’t hold back when it comes to certain rules of the sport he doesn’t agree with. What’s cool though is that while he doesn’t agree with all the rules, he still shows up to play.  Watch highly competitive wheelchair basketball athletes play wheelchair football

Our last video is a great collection of awesome wheelchair football moments brought to you by OSM Sports Wheelchair Sports Center.  What they’ve done is combine 10 of their favorite wheelchair football moments.  It shows some pretty sweet stuff, from epic full length field catches to slick catches that almost didn’t happen. Do these guys love this sport? There’s no question. Make sure to look for the cute touchdown pose at the end. Watch

And for a bonus, here’s the “greatest touchdown catch ever,” including a very excited player’s touchdown spike. So awesome. Watch

Wheelchair football may still be not widely played like wheelchair basketball is, but it’s definitely growing, with lots of tournaments on the West Coast.  The sport is great for power chair users too, although the rules are a bit different.  To learn more about wheelchair football and see if you can play, click here

Have you played wheelchair football?  What you love about the sport?

Watch the videos!

– New Englanders playing wheelchair football in manual chairs

– The basics of wheelchair football from the Movin’ Mavs at University of Texas at Arlington

– 10 awesome wheelchair football game moments