The "Other" Leagues: NFL Europe

In a quest to expand American football to other countries around the World, the NFL created the World League of American Football in 1991. The first season consisted of 10 teams, with 6 from the U.S., one from Canada, and 3 from Europe. After a couple of moderately successful seasons, the league went on hiatus for a year, before returning as an NFL spring developmental league. NFL Europe consisted entirely of European teams, mostly based in Germany (in fact, a team from Germany made every single World Bowl during the league's tenure). The league modeled itself as a wholly "European" league, but in the end, only one team outside of Germany remained (Amsterdam Admirals). The London Monarchs (later known as the England Monarchs) who at one time had a field on 93 yards long, folded in 1998 and were replaced by the Berlin Thunder. The Barcelona Dragons, one of the first teams in the league, folded in 2003 due to lack of fan support and other struggles financially, despite being relatively successful. They were replaced by the Cologne Centurions. The last team outside of Germany, the Scottish Claymores (who played for both Glasgow and Edinburgh), folded in 2004 and were replaced by the Hamburg Sea Devils.

NFL Europe experimented with multiple rule tweaks during its existence. It had a sudden death overtime format, with both teams allowed a possession during a 10 minute period. Only two games would end in ties, one in 1992 and the other in 2006. Another rule change was the fact that long field goals (more than 50 yards) would be awarded 4 points rather than 3. This was put in place to please the already large population of association football fans in Europe. Another rule put into effect was the use of "national" players, or players that were not from the United States. Every team had to have at least one of these players play every down. However, as time progressed, these "national" players came to be used only for kicking duties. NFL Europe was also known for its colorful uniforms, with team logos taking precedence over numbers of the players.

NFL Europa, as it came to be called during its final season, ceased operations in 2007. Since then, however, the NFL has still maintained a presence in the international scene, particularly in London, where the International Series features two NFL teams playing a regular season game at Wembley Stadium (most recently, the San Francisco 49ers defeated the Denver Broncos 24-16). Prior to the International Series, the American Bowl was held from 1986 to 2005, to exhibit NFL teams in preseason actions in many different venues, including in Tokyo, Berlin, Dublin, and Sydney. The NFL has continued to show an interest in expanding American football abroad, including possibly planting a franchise in London sometime in the future. For now, though, the idea of having a full fledged football league in Europe has come to an end.