NFL Europa

[ChuckDownfield]

So, it has been awhile since my last concept, so I decided to start up a new project. I will be taking the NFL Europa teams and making up to date pro combat uniforms for them, and reworking logos if necessary. I know the league is done, but I would like to make the teams they finished off with first. Then I will move on to the older teams. Without further adieu, here is the start of the NFL Europa Redesign.

Here we have the 'new' league logo. It's a mix of the old shield logo and the newer league logo. It's nothing special really, I just took the script logo and slapped it on the shield. I think it turned out well, and is used on the collars.

Now on to what you really want to see, the first team in the series, the Amsterdam Admirals.

I didn't change any of the logos, and I only really used the primary logo.

Next is the uniforms. Here are the uniforms they wore last, home and away. I tried to really tie the logo into the uniform in a unique way. For the helmet stripe and pants stripe I used the X's from the sash type thing going across the logo diagonally. I also got inspiration from the alternating orange and green stripes in the corners of the shield. I used that pattern on the sleeves, while making it modern looking. For the numbers, I used a standard varsity block font, but added a shade type thing as seen in the X's in the logo. That's about all I can say bout them, enjoy.

I hope you like this, C&C is appreciated.

[Chawls]

I love the stylized numbers on the jersey. It really adds depth to the uniform as a whole. Maybe make the orange pants white instead and add a wordmark below the collar. Other than that, I like it. Though I'm beginning to worry that the Nike Pro Combat concepts are being overdone. I'd like this as a regular concept. Just put some TV numbers where the flywire would go.

[9erssteve]

Hey that's not bad actually. In fact it's an improvement on some of the crazy jerseys we had over here in NFLE!

Like the fact you've added helmet stripes, none of the teams had any which always bugged me a little bit but it doesn't stop me loving my gameused Claymores helmet that's sitting on the shelf above my desk!

As someone who attended every Claymores home game and a few more I have to say throughout the history of the league TV appeared and disappeared to make way for extra striping or sponsorship patches etc, and to be honest trying to see who was making tackles without them could be a total nightmare at times! So please find a way to get them on there as they really are an important part of not just the uniform but the experience of watching a game live.

Cant wait to see the rest and hope I'm still talking to you once you've redesigned my dearly departed Claymores! Dont worry I'm sure I will be.

9erssteve

[IceCap]

You should see if you can use the current NFL shield font in your NFL Europa shield.

[santoleri3]

You should see if you can use the current NFL shield font in your NFL Europa shield.

I agree, the new font should be used. Also, I like the stripe on the legs, but not a fan of the helmet; the solid blue of the regular helmet would look much better, imho.

I always thought there was great design in the NFLE, at least it's last 3 or 4 years. Looking forward to this as a series.

[ChuckDownfield]

Alright so here is the first update. I decided not to use the new NFL letters on the shield, as I got a more European vibe from the old ones. As far as the uniforms go, I added TV numbers, shrunk down the front numbers and added this script logo above the numbers. I also changed the orange pants to white, but I'm not sure on that yet, tell me what you think.

[Bmac]

I like this. The update is great. Some of the details are a little out there, but I like them. Great job with this, looking forward to the rest.

[Panthers]

I'd like to see what you would do with two teams - Orlando, now knowing what the Tuskers' colors and helmet looked like - how would the metallic look with the Orlando Thunder's colors and uniforms? And Barcelona. I have a Barca helmet, given to me by the NFL tht was in Barca blue when the Dragons became FC Barcelona Dragons. They were going to change to that blue. Amsterdam was to have a new logo had the league continued playing.

[neo_prankster]

I'd like to see what you would do with two teams - Orlando, now knowing what the Tuskers' colors and helmet looked like - how would the metallic look with the Orlando Thunder's colors and uniforms? And Barcelona. I have a Barca helmet, given to me by the NFL tht was in Barca blue when the Dragons became FC Barcelona Dragons. They were going to change to that blue. Amsterdam was to have a new logo had the league continued playing.

Are you sure of all this?

- I'm pretty sure it was the Dragons' partnership with FCB, which ultimately backfired, that led to the Dragons' dissolution in 2003.

- Had the league been allowed to go on, I couldn't imagine the Admirals with anything other than the shield-and-pennant flag logo.

[IceCap]

I decided not to use the new NFL letters on the shield, as I got a more European vibe from the old ones.

What's a "European vibe"? It just looks off to have the NFL Europa crest have a font so similar to the current NFL font yet also different. It seems needlessly inconsistent. Plus the old time NFL font clashes with the modern font used in the "EUROPA" portion.

[Chawls]

Alright so here is the first update. I decided not to use the new NFL letters on the shield, as I got a more European vibe from the old ones. As far as the uniforms go, I added TV numbers, shrunk down the front numbers and added this script logo above the numbers. I also changed the orange pants to white, but I'm not sure on that yet, tell me what you think.

I see you took my advice to heart. I really believe this looks much better now.

[9erssteve]

I'd like to see what you would do with two teams - Orlando, now knowing what the Tuskers' colors and helmet looked like - how would the metallic look with the Orlando Thunder's colors and uniforms? And Barcelona. I have a Barca helmet, given to me by the NFL tht was in Barca blue when the Dragons became FC Barcelona Dragons. They were going to change to that blue. Amsterdam was to have a new logo had the league continued playing.

Are you sure of all this?

- I'm pretty sure it was the Dragons' partnership with FCB, which ultimately backfired, that led to the Dragons' dissolution in 2003.

- Had the league been allowed to go on, I couldn't imagine the Admirals with anything other than the shield-and-pennant flag logo.

It was attendances of less that 6k a game (and most of those tickets had been given away to school kids) that killed the Dragons not the tie in with FC Barcelona, if anything that kept the team afloat for a year or two longer than they would have lasted anywhere else... that and the fact that NFL executives loved going to Barca for "research and league development" (read a free jolly in the sun!) and well who can blame them I only got out there once for the football but the mini estade at the Neucamp was an impressive little stadium and the weather was AWESOME!

I have doubts about the whole blue helmet thing and the resulting Amsterdam logo change, for plenty of reasons but mostly because the Dragons folded two years before the league folded and were replaced for those two years by the Cologne Centurians who played in red so there would be no issues with teams playing in colours that were too similar. I could be wrong in all this and if so then I'd love to see the proposed changes and new logos but I knew plenty of folk who worked for the league building websites and working in the marketing departments and was on pretty good terms with the GM in Scotland and heard nothing about any of those changes, and on the grounds I heard from one of those people that the NFL were updating their shield two years before it was publicly announced I feel pretty sure that if an NFLE team was gonna be changing stuff up I'd have at least heard a rumour about it.

9erssteve

[ChuckDownfield]

Bump.

[Panthers]

Trust me on both Amsterdam and the blue Dragons helmet.

I covered NFL Europe for 15 years and worked at the NFL for a short while. The Amsterdam logo was a creepy looking Admiral. I was given the blue Barca helmet by a person in NFL Properties and I have it sitting on the shelf, next to a game-worn Dragons helmet. I bet you didn't know about the franchise that was never granted - the Ruhr Valley Miners. After the Fire moved back to Dusseldorf, there was a conditional franchise granted to Gelsenkirschen to play at Arena AufShalke.

By the way, did you know that the original Galaxy team was to be owned by Fred Smith of FedEx and play in Memphis? Smith declined and the franchise was put in Frankfurt - one of the reasons being it was a FedEx hub. The colors they wore were the exact PMS purple, orange, red as FedEx. And as to why they never wore all purple? I was told "we want to look like a professional football team." They had the opportunity to switch many times.

[9erssteve]

Trust me on both Amsterdam and the blue Dragons helmet.

I covered NFL Europe for 15 years and worked at the NFL for a short while. The Amsterdam logo was a creepy looking Admiral. I was given the blue Barca helmet by a person in NFL Properties and I have it sitting on the shelf, next to a game-worn Dragons helmet. I bet you didn't know about the franchise that was never granted - the Ruhr Valley Miners. After the Fire moved back to Dusseldorf, there was a conditional franchise granted to Gelsenkirschen to play at Arena AufShalke.

By the way, did you know that the original Galaxy team was to be owned by Fred Smith of FedEx and play in Memphis? Smith declined and the franchise was put in Frankfurt - one of the reasons being it was a FedEx hub. The colors they wore were the exact PMS purple, orange, red as FedEx. And as to why they never wore all purple? I was told "we want to look like a professional football team." They had the opportunity to switch many times.

I believe you have a blue Barca helmet I just questioned you're time line, you claimed if the league had continued they'd have switched to using it, but Barca had been dead for two years before the league folded and replaced by Cologne, so I was curious as to how they would have switched to it, not many defunct teams go changing kit colours.

I couldn't have told you the name of the team rumoured to be playing in Gelsenkirschen, but I remember talking to a good few people there during the Worldbowl they hosted (had photographers field passes) who said there was a strong possibility that a team would remain there when the Fire returned to their new stadium in Dusseldorf. Talk at the time was it was going to be either the Amsterdam or Scottish franchise that would be moved there. Scottish officials were less than impressed by what they perceived to be some slightly underhand tactics on the part of other GM's to make sure it was the Scottish franchise. The reason I heard that Gelsenkirschen didn't get the franchise in the end was over fears of the growing number of local soccer fans who had started attending games and the reputation they had for causing trouble. As a result it was awarded to Hamburg where at one time it was rumoured the NFL was going to try and purchase the name Blue Devils from the local German League team which already had a strong following, in the hope they could jump start the fan base. In the end they went with Sea Devils which was as close as they could get and dropped what had to be the most half assed logo NFLE was ever witness to on us, cheap disney rip off was the first thing that sprang to mind when I saw it and over five years later that hasn't changed.

I knew the story about the FedEx connection and have to admit I agree with the whole not wearing purple thing if you want to look professional. After the Worldbowl in glasgow Frankfurt left a ton of purple under armour behind and the amateur team I played for inherited it, it was affectionately referred to as a "Barney suit" especially if worn by a lineman! It's not an overly flattering colour purple, especially on the larger gentleman shall we say.

If you have copies of any of the logos, Amsterdam or the proposed Ruhr Valley Miners one I'd genuinely love to see them. To this day I cant believe the NFL wasn't smart enough to make NFLE work, it really wouldn't have been that hard if they'd made a decent go of it, but they didn't market it at all, tv coverage was almost non existent on local tv and still they just expected people to turn up, and when they didn't they packed up and buggered off leaving those who did know and love it with nothing. Shame it could have been a quality development league.

9ressteve

[IceCap]

So would you mind showing us this blue Barcelona helmet?

[neo_prankster]

I have a couple of questions for Panthers:

- When NFL Properties was creating the identities for the original WLAF teams, they looked for names for the European teams that related to the history and culture of each. How did the Galaxy name fit that criteria in Frankfurt?

- Where did the Rhein Fire get their name? I sometimes thought it was supposed to represent the Ruhr Valley industries.

[Panthers]

I wasn't sure of the timeline regarding Barcelona's switch to blue. I was surprsied when I saw the helmet and even more shocked when she gave it to me. Yes I would be glad to post.

If you have any of the programs from the first year, there is a story how David Boss designed the league. The Galaxy came to be because of a picture of a nebula he saw on the front of the LA Times. From what I remember, the Surge were to be called the Pioneers, the Riders the Alamo, Lone Stars, Trail Riders. The Ohio Glory was named by Tilman Engel, a suma cume laude in history at Iowa State and later the GM of the Galaxy. He had a hand in the Centurions name as well. As far as moving to AufShalke, I didn't hear any of those stories, but I do know the Dutch complained loudly about the 5 teams in Germany. One club official said to me "Now they want to rule NFL E." He was very pissed at the inclusion of Hamburg. What would have happened though, had Red Bull and/or Leipzig been awarded franchises? By the way, the original WLAF plan was to have teams in Mexico City or Monterray, Memphis and Milan. I don't think those teams made it to the identity stage.

Off the record, had the NFL chosen to work with local product manufacturers like Falke (great workout gear. The best I've worn) instead of importing everything, the league may have begun on the path to respect by those outside the football fans.

[Panthers]

Oh I am not sure how the Rhein Fire got their name, but I asked around and when the league came back, Amsterdam, Scotland and Dusseldorf were pretty much selected by lottery.

[IceCap]

Again, could you provide us with proof of this blue Barcelona helmet? You said you had an actual prototype.