Football league is arena where lawyer makes plays

The son of Carmen Policy is a 1989 graduate of Mooney High School.
By ASHLEE OWENS
VINDICATOR CORRESPONDENT
It's not every day that a lawyer negotiates with Rattlers, Diamondbacks, Dragons and Destroyers.
But Ed Policy isn't your everyday lawyer.
As the executive vice president of league development and legal affairs for the Arena Football League, the Canfield-Poland native oversees the AFL's legal department and works to expand the league into new markets.
Policy recently put together AFL's expansion team in Philadelphia for the 2004 season. The team -- Philadelphia Soul -- is owned and operated by rock star Jon Bon Jovi and Philadelphia businessman Craig Spencer.
Policy also works out player-relations issues, including salary cap and free agency.
He lists his spectrum of responsibilities as one of the greatest perks of his job. On the more glitzy end of that spectrum, Policy says, he's negotiating the sale of a team to Jon Bon Jovi on the rocker's private jet between concerts. At the opposite, he's making sure that a box of T-shirts "gets from wherever it is now to wherever it has to be to get sold," he says on the telephone from his New York City office.
Admittedly, Policy's workdays are long -- often starting at 8 a.m. and ending about 9 or 10 p.m. -- but the 33-year-old bachelor says he absolutely loves his job.
The AFL is in its 18th season, making it the second-longest-running professional football league in the United States, trailing only the National Football League. But unlike NFL games, which are played outside in stadiums on a 100-yard field, AFL games take place in arenas on a 50-yard field. The ball can bounce off nets on each end zone and still be alive and in action.
Family
Policy, the middle of five children, is the son of Carmen Policy, who has held executive positions with the San Francisco 49ers and, most recently, with the Cleveland Browns. The two share similar work histories: The elder Policy was a trial lawyer in Youngstown for years.
Pleasant and polite in conversation, Policy calls his relationship with his father "extremely close" and expresses thankfulness for the lessons his father taught him: "He's got five Super Bowl rings, but he's a guy who values his integrity much more than any of those rings. I've seen him treat the guy who sells hot dogs at the stadium with the same degree of respect that he would treat the commissioner of the NFL," he says, adding with a laugh "which, by the way, is a high degree of respect."
Throughout high school, Policy was a guard on Cardinal Mooney's football team. "I was a little on the small side for being a guard, which is why I'm much better suited to being an executive with a sports league, as opposed to being a participant," he says.
A 1989 Mooney grad, Policy attended University of Notre Dame, where he studied business with an emphasis on accounting. During his summers at home, he'd work at the Mahoning Valley Sanitary District, where he "used to shovel sand and gravel in drinking-water filters for the good folks of Youngstown."
In 1996, he received his law degree from Stanford University and worked at a large law firm in San Francisco and then in Cleveland. He received the top score on the 1999 Ohio Bar Exam.
Ticket to the AFL
He always enjoyed watching AFL games, but he never thought he would "become a part of it in any way, shape or form."
"I was happily practicing law in Cleveland. ..." Policy begins his once-upon-a-time story. That's when one of his friends from the NFL -- a big supporter of the AFL -- sparked his curiosity in the AFL and asked if he would be interested in working for the league. Later, when watching an arena game in Arizona, Policy met AFL Commissioner David Baker "and his passion for what he does, and his excitement for what this league is and what it could be, was just kind of infectious," he says.
Policy dubs his football-law career "the best of both worlds."
"I have the best elements of a startup company, in that we can be very fluid and experimental in some things. We can move fast." But the league is also stable, he said.
These days, when Policy comes home, he's not shoveling sand into water filters, but visiting his mom, who lives in Warren with Policy's stepfather. He also tries to hit Cornersburg Pizza in Poland a few times.
Although Policy loves New York City for its productivity and high energy, he misses the Mahoning Valley for its people. "It's a community where values and work ethic and honor and integrity are almost taken for granted, because it's the norm there," Policy says. "And I miss that."