johnnysama Posted February 24, 2023 Share Posted February 24, 2023 Do you remember the WLAF? The World League (of American Football) was created and backed by the NFL, and played for two seasons (1991 and 1992) as a hybrid North American/European league (I'm focusing on those initial seasons only, and not the later ones where they became a purely European league), as part of the league's initiative of trying to grow the game abroad. Sadly, despite the NFL's backing, the league was merely a blip on the radar in North America, but the three European teams gained a huge following there in their respective markets. What do you remember most about the WLAF? What did the NFL have right and have wrong with the experiment? Post it here. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cujo Posted February 24, 2023 Share Posted February 24, 2023 The only two things I remember about the World League: - Those Orlando Thunder uniforms - The helmet cam 2 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJWalker45 Posted February 24, 2023 Share Posted February 24, 2023 The NFL was too risk adverse when they pulled the plug. The loss in reps was seen over the years as some of the game play at the start of the NFL season was not as sharp as those years the WLAF/ NFL Europe existed to allow players to work on technique. Aesthetic wise, it's a shame those uniform designs didn't stay around, at least the looks of the 1991-1992 seasons. Templating took away from the teams when they returned in 1995 as a Europe only league. One thing I actually liked about the league was even though there was a "template", it wasn't one uniform design stuck on every team. I also loved the fact that the sleeves for home and away were the same for some of the teams. Ohio, and Sacramento had this. Orlando did a s well, but only for the 1992 season. http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5092/5403274116_cbf7a5d683_z.jpg The league also started wearing the championship game patch way before the NFL finally did. Also, choosing colors that weren't normally associated with pro teams really helped the league stand out. Over time they went back to standard colors, with the exception of Hamburg, whose current iteration is now a mix of the colors for Hamburg and Cologne. The league did try the experiment of making football jerseys look like soccer jerseys. I actually have a Frankfurt Galaxy and Rhein Fire authentic. The Rhein Fire jersey which copied these designs when they entered the league is from Fab Knit, the Galaxy is a 1995 Reebok jersey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ferdinand Cesarano Posted February 24, 2023 Share Posted February 24, 2023 What I remember most is that the Knights had an outstanding colour combination and uniform design. The Knights were also the first team to use the unwieldy "New York / New Jersey" location name, several years before the founding of MLS and the MetroStars. This was on account of a rule by the public authority that ran the Meadowlands stating that any team that played there (apart from the Giants and the Jets) had to have "New Jersey" in its name. The league had intended to call the team the "New York Knights" (and head coach Mouse Davis wore a sweater with that name knitted on it; sorry I cannot find any pictures), but adapted it to "New York / New Jersey Knights"; likewise, the USFL intended to call the Generals the "New York Generals", before changing the name to "New Jersey Generals". The first team to challenge this rule was the MetroStars, when they changed their name to the New York Red Bulls. Their own stadium was under construction at the time, so they did not care if the New Jersey Sports and Exposition Authority kicked them out of the Meadowlands. This evidently gutted the NJSEA's naming rule, as we can see from the XFL's New York Guardians having been able to secure a lease to play at the Meadowlands. The other significant thing was that the Knights were coached by the aforementioned Mouse Davis, the creator of the run-and-shoot offence. The team had an iconic coach and an overall winning record; nevertheless, crowds for the Knights were sparse, as they were for the other WLAF teams based in North America (though I did one of my rare acts of attending a game at a Knights game in the first season). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BBTV Posted February 24, 2023 Share Posted February 24, 2023 There was also the "World League face mask", which was adopted by many high schools as well as Reggie White. FWIW, everyone at my high school that got a helmet with a World League mask ended up buying their own normal one. 2 Quote "The views expressed here are mine and do not reflect the official opinion of my employer or the organization through which the Internet was accessed." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnysama Posted February 24, 2023 Author Share Posted February 24, 2023 ^ Riddell did something similiar for the USFL a decade earlier; of note is the WLAF masks were made of Kra-Lite plastic, and could reportedly hold up a normal-size car w/o breaking. Another thing of note, is that the WLAF placed their league logo on the hip of the pants, and not the yoke of the jersey collar as would later become standard. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnysama Posted February 24, 2023 Author Share Posted February 24, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OY4aobHByj8 - Also: The one good thing that came out of the WLAF: The Helmetcam. Yes, it was quite bulky and cumbersome, but for its time, it was quite the game-changer in football coverage on TV. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sykotyk Posted February 24, 2023 Share Posted February 24, 2023 I was pretty young, so I remember the WLAF, but not able to distinguish much between that incarnation and the NFL Europe incarnation that came later. And I can't find it, but I swear the NFL Europe incarnation was originally called the WLAF for a few more seasons even when it was all Europe. But can't seem to find anything to corroborate it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MilSox Posted February 24, 2023 Share Posted February 24, 2023 Every uniform in the original WLAF looked good and they seemed to go out of their way to have each team stand out from the NFL. Each one had a cool logo, cool colors, or both. The Birmingham Fire was my favorite because of the flames on the helmets and jerseys. I thought the Frankfurt Galaxy looked cool too. The Sacramento Surge had a decent logo, but I'm surprised their colors haven't been copied more often... teal and yellow slaps! They even made RWB look exciting with the Ohio Glory (too bad that team was the drizzling s--ts on the field). 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnysama Posted February 24, 2023 Author Share Posted February 24, 2023 1 hour ago, Sykotyk said: I was pretty young, so I remember the WLAF, but not able to distinguish much between that incarnation and the NFL Europe incarnation that came later. And I can't find it, but I swear the NFL Europe incarnation was originally called the WLAF for a few more seasons even when it was all Europe. But can't seem to find anything to corroborate it. You are correct, the league kept the World League name for three seasons (1995-97; the league took a two-season hiatus in 1993 and 1994) before transitioning to NFL Europe. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
johnnysama Posted February 27, 2023 Author Share Posted February 27, 2023 Also, here's one fun thing the WLAF had: Three Easter Sunday games, one in 1991, and two in 1992! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gosioux76 Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 I was 14 or 15 at the time the league debuted and I agree with what most others here have said about their most notable memories and the uniforms. But I also seem to recall that the broadcast distribution seemed quite limited. I lived in a rural area, without access to cable TV, so all I ever saw was whatever games were on network broadcasts, which seemed to be only one or two per week. I recall seeing a lot of games with New York, London, Barcelona and Orlando, but can't ever recall seeing San Antonio, Ohio and (later) Raleigh-Durham. Most of my memories of those franchises came from the Pro Set football cards. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian in Boston Posted February 28, 2023 Share Posted February 28, 2023 I remember being pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to secure souvenir merchandise - including quality, personalized jerseys - for the WLAF teams. There was an entire section dedicated to the WLAF in the NFL souvenir catalog that I would use to order merchandise. I purchased personalized Orlando Thunder, London Monarchs, Ohio Glory, and Frankfurt Galaxy jerseys that my son still has to this day. 3 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CaliforniaGlowin Posted March 12, 2023 Share Posted March 12, 2023 I loved the league and the cards, still have them, and some Thunder merch. The international aspect was a cool idea but must have been a logistical nightmare. Quote Last updated 2/26 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJWalker45 Posted March 13, 2023 Share Posted March 13, 2023 16 hours ago, CaliforniaGlowin said: I loved the league and the cards, still have them, and some Thunder merch. The international aspect was a cool idea but must have been a logistical nightmare. I remember an article where they talked about having to find night stands to put at the end of the beds for some of the bigger players because European hotels used smaller beds. ESPN did a retrospective on the league in 2017 as well. https://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/19638357/oral-history-10-years-nfl-europe-demise-alumni-such-kurt-warner-remember-developmental-league-fondly "Andrew Brandt: "The biggest problem: food. The hotel wanted to serve us on 'Spanish time' dinner, around 9:30 at night. That was a no-go. I paid extra for a 6:30 seating. No matter the hotel we stayed in, I would order food for 60 and it would be gone after 20 to 25 players. I rarely got to eat with the team; we always ran out of food." Larry Kennan: "We made a 17-day, 17,000-mile road trip to play three games. Think about putting a team of 65 people on a regular flight, flying from London to Dallas to San Antonio, staying four or five days, getting on another flight to New York, playing five days later, and then flying to Sacramento, and then flying back to London. The time zones, it was unbelievable. A bunch of 300-pound guys stuck in middle seats in the back. I was in the middle of two fat linemen on my left and right. Guys were like that every flight." Andrew Brandt: "When we arrived in Spain, having put a team together in a matter of weeks, we had sold scant few tickets to the opening game. I handed out tickets right and left and somehow convinced FC Barcelona to let us around during halftime to try to juice the attendance." The most disappointing part to me is that the league lost $32 million in 2007, and the owners could have said, "We make 10X that with the NFL, I can write off $1 million to keep this going". It's also interesting to see that they mention how the Champions League final was all about the game. Now though, they are copying the Super Bowl in terms of entertainment before and during the games. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heavybass Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 Ah the Monarchs... the greatest team to have ever existed. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MJWalker45 Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 50 minutes ago, heavybass said: Ah the Monarchs... the greatest team to have ever existed. The decision to move them all over England was a bad one. I remember them going with shortened end zones for a few years, and then a shortened field with full end zones. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heavybass Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 1 hour ago, MJWalker45 said: The decision to move them all over England was a bad one. I remember them going with shortened end zones for a few years, and then a shortened field with full end zones. That and they became England Monarchs with those god-ugly uniforms.... christ that was BAD. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tigers Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 Imagine if the NFL went ahead with a London side as many people think will happen, but what if they bought in a whole European Division? - London Monarchs - Berlin Thunder - Frankfurt Galaxy - Either Amsterdam or Barcelona Quote Logano wins BOWL before Chargers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heavybass Posted March 14, 2023 Share Posted March 14, 2023 It would be Monarchs, Galaxy, Dragons and Admirals.... the legacy European teams. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts
Join the conversation
You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.