World League of American Football

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The World League of American Football (WLAF) was founded in 1990 with support from the NFL to play semi-professional American Football in North America, Europe and later possibly Asia. This came after the NFL had played popular American Bowls in London's Wembley Stadium and elsewhere since 1986.

World League of American Football logo

The WLAF played two seasons with 10 teams in the spring of 1991 and 1992, with the World Bowl as championship games. Rules unique to WLAF included assigning increasing point value to field goals based on distance, and a requirement that at least one player of non-US American nationality participate in at least every other series of downs.

New ideas were successfully tested, like using the 2-point conversion rule also on the professional field before adopting it in the NFL in 1994. Other minor tweaks in gameplay, such as a shorter kickoff tee, were also first used in the WLAF.

Also, on live TV broadcasts by USA Network, helmet cameras provided spectacular pictures. These were discontinued, though, due to the extra weight of the equipment, and sometimes very aggressive content the cameras picked up. Also the audio coverage of single players that was picked up with parabolic mirror microphones was quite disturbing at times.

In 1995 games in Europe were resumed as the World League, in 1998 as NFL Europe and in 2006 as NFL Europa

1 WLAF History
2 1991 season
3 1992 season
4 1995 Comeback
5 WLAF Teams
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] WLAF History

The original WLAF was a spring developmental American football league which had 10 teams playing a 10-game regular season. Teams were aligned in three divisions:

North American West: Birmingham Fire, Sacramento Surge, San Antonio Riders
North American East : Montreal Machine, New York/New Jersey Knights, Orlando Thunder, Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks (replaced by Ohio Glory in 1992)
European: Barcelona Dragons, Frankfurt Galaxy, London Monarchs

The playoff format consisted of four teams: the three divisional champions, plus a wild card with the best overall non-division winning record. The two teams emerging from the World League of American Football semifinal playoffs met at the end of the season in the World Bowl. The first two World Bowl games were held at predetermined locations much like the modern Super Bowl.

The original WLAF was less than popular in the United States. This might also have been caused by the surprising domination of the three Europe-based teams in 1991, which had a combined 24-6 record, while no North American team managed to be better than 5-5. The Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks even lost all 10 games as well as their franchise, which was moved to Ohio for 1992.

In 1992, fortunes changed and the European teams all had losing seasons. Despite this, the European fans remained loyal, but operations of the WLAF were suspended after the 1992 season as the league lost money and the involved NFL owners were not willing to invest more. However, the National Football League still liked the idea of a spring developmental league - and they needed another pro Football league to help their cause in the antitrust and free agency lawsuit with the National Football League Players' Association.

[edit] 1991 season

Team	Record	PF	PA
Europe
London Monarchs	9-1-0	310	121
Barcelona Dragons	8-2-0	206	126
Frankfurt Galaxy	7-3-0	155	139
North America East
New York/New Jersey Knights	5-5-0	257	155
Orlando Thunder	5-5-0	252	286
Montreal Machine	4-6-0	145	244
Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks	0-10-0	123	300
North America West
Birmingham Fire	5-5-0	140	140
San Antonio Riders	4-6-0	176	196
Sacramento Surge	3-7-0	179	229
Playoffs
Barcelona	10	Birmingham	3
London	42	NY-NJ	26
World Bowl I (London)
London	21	Barcelona	0

[edit] 1992 season

Team	Record	PF	PA
Europe
Barcelona Dragons	5-5-0	104	161
Frankfurt Galaxy	3-7-0	150	257
London Monarchs	2-7-1	178	203
North American East Division
Orlando Thunder	8-2-0	247	127
New York/New Jersey Knights	6-4-0	248	188
Montreal Machine	2-8-0	175	274
Ohio Glory	1-9-0	132	230
North American West Division
Sacramento Surge	8-2-0	250	152
Birmingham Fire	7-2-1	192	165
San Antonio Riders	7-3-0	195	150
Playoffs
Orlando	45	Birmingham	7
Sacramento	17	Barcelona	15
World Bowl II (Montreal)
Sacramento	21	Orlando	17

[edit] 1995 Comeback

After revamping itself into an exclusively European circuit, the WLAF re-launched in 1995 with the simpler name of World League ^{[citation needed]}, consisting of the three existing European teams from the original format as well as three new teams in Amsterdam, Düsseldorf and Edinburgh (who would compete as Scotland).

By the end of the 1997 season, the league was growing concerns that their markets, except Germany, were not living up to their potential. Radical changes were made to the two British teams. The London Monarchs would become the England Monarchs, and play their home games in London, Birmingham and Bristol. Also, the Scottish Claymores would divide their schedule between Edinburgh and Glasgow. Then, at a press conference in San Diego during Super Bowl XXXII weekend, the league announced it too would be changing: the league would be rebranded as the NFL Europe League.

[edit] WLAF Teams

[edit] North American West

Birmingham Fire (1991)	Sacramento Surge (1991)	San Antonio Riders (1991)

[edit] North American East

Montreal Machine (1991)	New York/New Jersey Knights (1991)	Orlando Thunder (1991)	Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks (1991) season only	Ohio Glory (1992) season only