German Football Leagues

[Tidewater]

I just spent two weeks in Potsdam and on German tellie, I found American rules football on Saturday and Sunday.
German football league plays Saturday.
European League of Football plays Sundays. The ELF contains the remnants of the old NFL-Europe (Rhein Fire and the Frankfurt Galaxy are a couple of the teams). Barcelona and Constantinople (I'm a traditionalist) both have teams and I do not recall enough about the NFL-Europe to recall whether Constantinople and Barcelona had teams in that league.
The GFL is probably high school to NCAA Div III level play. Most of the players are German. QBs tend to be American, but played their college ball in NCAA Div. III or NAIA, so expect that level of QB play. They stream online.
The ELF is, I think, better quality play, but is behind a pay wall.
For those desperate enough form some football, the Germans are at your service.

 

[Atl Joe]

Barcelona did have a team, the Dragons. Constantinople did not. I am kind of surprised football is watched in Istanbul.
Hope you enjoyed Potsdam. I work for a German company and the best brat I ever had was from the market in Potsdam.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I just spent two weeks in Potsdam and on German tellie, I found American rules football on Saturday and Sunday.
German football league plays Saturday.
European League of Football plays Sundays. The ELF contains the remnants of the old NFL-Europe (Rhein Fire and the Frankfurt Galaxy are a couple of the teams). Barcelona and Constantinople (I'm a traditionalist) both have teams and I do not recall enough about the NFL-Europe to recall whether Constantinople and Barcelona had teams in that league.
The GFL is probably high school to NCAA Div III level play. Most of the players are German. QBs tend to be American, but played their college ball in NCAA Div. III or NAIA, so expect that level of QB play. They stream online.
The ELF is, I think, better quality play, but is behind a pay wall.
For those desperate enough form some football, the Germans are at your service.

I have an Austrian friend from Innsbruck. They have a minor league, basically about as good as a 6A HS team here, (that's what the players and stadium look like)...

 

[Isaiah 63:1]

I have an Austrian friend from Innsbruck. They have a minor league, basically about as good as a 6A HS team here, (that's what the players and stadium look like)...

That good huh?

 

[TIDE-HSV]

View attachment 26252
That good huh?

Not nearly that good...

 

[Tidewater]

View attachment 26252
That good huh?

The quality of play I saw fro the GFL was good high school, maybe NAIA or NCAA Div III. That was where the QBs came from.
ELF was a little better.
Still, other than USFL, it is the only football on TV.

 

[KrAzY3]

I had season tickets to the Rhein Fire, my wife was an American football fan when she still lived in Germany (Oliver Luck actually gave her season tickets to the first Rhein Fire season). They had legit fan support, the games were packed usually (smaller stadiums though), they had halftime shows (Right Said Fred for instance, heh) and put on a pretty good spectacle. It was nothing, nothing remotely like what you see at UAB and I'd argue a better environment than the Senior Bowl for example. The crowd was sometimes annoyingly loud actually.

Attendance in the NFL Europe was pretty solid considering the size of the venues (20K) when they ended the league due to costs. It wasn't really lack of fan support, just that football is expensive I guess. The fans never really completely gave up and for instance the Rhein Fire cheerleaders never actually disbanded. So, the ELF is built on the remnants of that, unfortunately it's not at the level of the NFL Europe was at.

 

[Crimson1967]

There is a John Grisham book called Playing for Pizza about an ex-NFL QB playing in a league in Italy. The book is fiction, but Grisham did spend time in Italy learning about the league.

 

[CullmanTide]

I still can't get over college football being played in Japan!

 

[Tidewater]

Barcelona did have a team, the Dragons. Constantinople did not. I am kind of surprised football is watched in Istanbul.
Hope you enjoyed Potsdam. I work for a German company and the best brat I ever had was from the market in Potsdam.

Potsdam is a pretty cool city. Frederick the Great built his palace Sans Souci ("No worries" or "Carefree") there and Prussian noblemen had to build their nearby to have access to the king. Lots of chateaux, statuary, and museums. I liked it a lot. Germans don't do air conditioning though and it was hot (36 degrees).

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Potsdam is a pretty cool city. Frederick the Great built his palace Sans Souci ("No worries" or "Carefree") there and Prussian noblemen had to build their nearby to have access to the king. Lots of chateaux, statuary, and museums. I liked it a lot. Germans don't do air conditioning though and it was hot (36 degrees).

Funny, but my German next door neighbors, who always spoke English with my wife and German with me always reverted to German from English and called him "Friedrich der Grosse," and Charlemagne "Karl der Grosse"...

 

[Tidewater]

I think the Enlightenment was the period when everybody who was anybody spoke French. French was the "lingua franca" of European elites: common to all, native to none.

 

[Tidewater]

The Berlin airport, however, was an on-going catastrophe. It's like an airport designed by Italians and operated by Afghans. Chaotic does not begin to describe it.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

I think the Enlightenment was the period when everybody who was anybody spoke French. French was the "lingua franca" of European elites: common to all, native to none.

Like Swahili in Africa...

 

[TIDE-HSV]

The Berlin airport, however, was an on-going catastrophe. It's like an airport designed by Italians and operated by Afghans. Chaotic does not begin to describe it.

So much for German efficiency. They didn't even have a word for it - had to borrow " Effizienz" from English. It's not in my vintage 1978 Cassell's English-German dictionary...

 

[KrAzY3]

The Berlin airport, however, was an on-going catastrophe. It's like an airport designed by Italians and operated by Afghans. Chaotic does not begin to describe it.

Wait until you use the Frankfurt one, it will make all other airports seem like a marvel of efficiency. I flew into Berlin once and it did not mentally scar me. I hated the Frankfurt one so much I have sworn off using it ever again (after the misfortune of being there a couple of times).

To give one example, my wife and I once tried to get to a Burger King within the airport. After frustratingly trying to figure out how to get there ourselves we asked someone. They said it would take all day to get there! We left the airport (on foot) and got food and came back, that's how bad it is to get anywhere in that place. It also very nearly made me miss a connecting flight once even though I should have had ample time, it's a travesty. They had single gates that had their own individual security checkpoints.Just... horrible.

 

[TIDE-HSV]

Wait until you use the Frankfurt one, it will make all other airports seem like a marvel of efficiency. I flew into Berlin once and it did not mentally scar me. I hated the Frankfurt one so much I have sworn off using it ever again (after the misfortune of being there a couple of times).

To give one example, my wife and I once tried to get to a Burger King within the airport. After frustratingly trying to figure out how to get there ourselves we asked someone. They said it would take all day to get there! We left the airport (on foot) and got food and came back, that's how bad it is to get anywhere in that place. It also very nearly made me miss a connecting flight once even though I should have had ample time, it's a travesty. They had single gates that had their own individual security checkpoints.Just... horrible.

That's helpful. I've been through there only once, but it was in a different era, pre-9/11. It wasn't bad back then. Every time I go to visit my daughter in France, it comes up as a main connector, along with Schiphol, CDG and Munich. I've always chosen Schiphol, just because of familiarity. You've persuaded me to cross off Frankfurt...

 

[Tidewater]

Wait until you use the Frankfurt one, it will make all other airports seem like a marvel of efficiency. I flew into Berlin once and it did not mentally scar me. I hated the Frankfurt one so much I have sworn off using it ever again (after the misfortune of being there a couple of times).

To give one example, my wife and I once tried to get to a Burger King within the airport. After frustratingly trying to figure out how to get there ourselves we asked someone. They said it would take all day to get there! We left the airport (on foot) and got food and came back, that's how bad it is to get anywhere in that place. It also very nearly made me miss a connecting flight once even though I should have had ample time, it's a travesty. They had single gates that had their own individual security checkpoints.Just... horrible.

I had a similar experience in Frankfurt airport. I told my travel bookers, never book me an itinerary that goes through Frankfurt. I'll go to Constantinople to avoid Frankfurt. Frankfurt airport is the most unGerman thing in Germany.

 

[Tidewater]

That's helpful. I've been through there only once, but it was in a different era, pre-9/11. It wasn't bad back then. Every time I go to visit my daughter in France, it comes up as a main connector, along with Schiphol, CDG and Munich. I've always chosen Schiphol, just because of familiarity. You've persuaded me to cross off Frankfurt...

Munich, on the other hand, is quite nice.

 

[Isaiah 63:1]

Wait until you use the Frankfurt one, it will make all other airports seem like a marvel of efficiency. I flew into Berlin once and it did not mentally scar me. I hated the Frankfurt one so much I have sworn off using it ever again (after the misfortune of being there a couple of times).

To give one example, my wife and I once tried to get to a Burger King within the airport. After frustratingly trying to figure out how to get there ourselves we asked someone. They said it would take all day to get there! We left the airport (on foot) and got food and came back, that's how bad it is to get anywhere in that place. It also very nearly made me miss a connecting flight once even though I should have had ample time, it's a travesty. They had single gates that had their own individual security checkpoints.Just... horrible.

You were on the Continent, looking for Burger King? Even Vincent Vega knew better than that.