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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 maybe Asia. This came after the NFL had played popular American Bowls in London's Wembley Stadium and elsewhere since 1986.
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. Since 1995, games in Europe were resumed as the World League and since 1998 as NFL Europe League.
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 the 1992 draft, the league made sure that the American teams would not be inferior again. So in 1992, all three European teams had losing records, while five of the seven North American teams had winning records.
Despite the losing teams, 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.
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 |
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 |
1995 Comeback
After revamping itself into an exclusively European circuit, the WLAF re-launched in 1995 with the simpler name of World League, 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.
See also
External links
- NFL Europe website: http://www.nfleurope.com
- Private Page about the original WLAF: http://www.geocities.com/Colosseum/1871/
- Fantasy World League: http://www.fwl.org.uk
NFL Europe | 1991 establishments | 1992 disestablishments | Sports-related flops
World League de futbol americà | World League of American Football
"World League of American Football"