NFL Announces Partnership to Bring Football Back to Europe
NFL Europa to Re-Launce in 2022
August 2, 2021
New York, NY - NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell announced to the crowd that the National Football League partnered with the European League of Football to become the official developmental league of the NFL. The league would begin play in June of 2022 with the eight teams of Hamburg Sea Devils, Cologne Centurions, Frankfurt Galaxy, Berlin Thunder, Barcelona Dragons, Wroclaw Panthers, Tokyo Demons and London Monarchs.
Each franchise would remained owned by ownership groups outside of NFL jurisdiction, but each franchise would be partnering up with multiple NFL franchises for player allocation. The NFL believes this league will help expand the game of football internationally. The league hopes to have 24 teams by the end of the decade.
Each NFL Europa team may have a maximum of 46 players, including 2 players identified as quarterbacks and 44 other players. Of those 44 players no more than 20 can be American. The American players must have less than three years of experience at the NFL level. Of the 24 starters on a team, a minimum of 7 need to be Non-American born players.
The player salaries are believed to range from $75-100k.
The NFL buying into the European League of Football is believed to have become a reality after the AAF denied the NFL of it's request to purchase the league earlier this summer.
CFL Unlikely to Play in 2021
August 16, 2021
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada - The CFL, once again, will not be getting an interest-free loan from the Canadian government. The two sides have been talking since last August after the Canadian Football League closed the door to their 2020 season.
According to CFL expert Rod Peterson on his show today. Sources are telling him it is 60 / 40 that there WILL NOT be a CFL season in 2021.
“There are some teams very low on cash, very… I wouldn’t put the (Ottawa) RedBlacks in that category, nor the (Calgary) Stampeders. But these community-owned teams have lost millions and millions… So what’s going on in the CFL right now? There are some teams that I have no idea how they’re keeping the lights on. I have no idea.”
Peterson believes the CFL are talking about a possible merger with either the AAF or the newly formed NFL Europa. The CFL and it's eight franchises, Edmonton Football Team, Ottawa RedBlacks, Calgary Stampeders, BC Lions, Atlantic Schooners, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Hamilton Tiger-cats and Saskatchewan Roughriders remain in limbo.
“Well, I’m hearing next year, but I don’t know how that’s possible, I would think 2023.”
Tokyo is a bit far away from the ELF, travel might be an issue