World Football League: Forgotten League

On March twenty third, nineteen ninety one, the London Monarchs beat the Frankfurt Galaxy twenty four to in London in the very first World League of American Football, which featured teams in Europe, the United States, and Canada in connection with the NFL to help grow the sport across the world. Here's the story behind the short lived football league today on Daily Sports History, Welcome to Daily Sports Is. There is your guide to a rapid deep dive in the sports history every day. I had to go back way past nineteen ninety one. They're saying how this league started. The NFL was growing in popularity and in nineteen seventy four they wanted to start an international league featuring multiple team means in Europe and they were going to call it the Intercontinental Football And they even helmed NFL owners Al Davis and text Straight to help get the league together. But unfortunately a player strike in a recession came and there was turmoil in Europe when Turkey invaded Cyprus, so they shelves the whole product. In nineteen eighty they wanted to bring it back as they started to see the popularity of the football happening in Europe, and they even started to play some preseason over in London. In nineteen eighty nine, they announced the plans to start the International Football League, except they dectarted to change the name, as Donald Trump and a partner, Charlie Finley, already owned the rights to that name due to them trying to start their own league, so they changed the name to the World Football League of America so the NFL was connected. They didn't want everyone to think that this was a fearm team or a minor league system for the NFL. They wanted to use it to help grow the sport across the world. They expected to have both teams six in America, six in the United States, four in Europe, one in Canada, and YMX. They secured a TV deal with ABC and the USA Now and tex Straham was still getting this league together, but he was let go in nineteen ninety due to him trying to make the league independent and stand alone on itself instead of being a small league post to the NFL. But on November fourteenth, nineteen ninety, the WLAF announced it would begin playing in nineteen ninety one with ten teams, six in the United States, three in Europe and one in Canada, split into three divisions, North American West, North American East, and Europe, with a fifty game schedule that would stretch from March all the way to May, and they held a ten day draft convention basically where they would have almost seven hundred players come down, workout and do a combine light workout, and then they would hold a position draft where each round a team would draft a specific position, so they would have a quarterback round where each team drafted quarterback and a running back round where each team draft a running back, trying to make all the teams fair. All the players would receive a base salary of twenty thousand dollars, and players could make more money by getting performance based incentives. With a maximum total salary of one hundred thousand today, that would be roughly forty thousand dollars base and a chance to make almost two hundred thousand dollars. The league started on March twenty third, nineteen ninety one, and had a triple header with games featured in Frankfurt, Germany, Birmingham, Alabama, and Sacramento, Californi. And they made it all the way through their regular season, and they had a playoff system where the three division winners, which were the London Monarchs, the New York Knights in the Birmingham Fire, and one wildcard team, the Barcelona Dragons, would all compete in a playoff scenario where London faced off against Barcelona in the World Bowl in nineteen ninety one at Wimbley Stadium, where London won twenty one to zero. They were able to get to their first season, but they neted a loss of seven million dollars which is almost fifteen million dollars today. In addition to that, they got terrible ratings on ABC and the US Network, who were threatening to pull their contracts. Though they averaged roughly twenty six thousand fans per game the first season, the European teams had more success than the North America teams. Despite all this, the NFL decided to bring them back for one more season to see if they could could correct some of this challenges. They shortened the name to the World League, but they didn't see any different results and they folded after the ninety two season. But three years later, given the popularity that they saw in the European League, they tried to bring it back in a new form called NFL Europe where they would have teams exclusively in Europe, and this lasted for almost twelve years. Despite having thousands of fans at every game, they still couldn't catch on. But they did have great players come out of this league, such as quarterbacks Kurt Warner, Brad Johnson, Jake Delone and John Kidnap and Hall of Fame kicker at Invententario. Since these leagues have failed, it didn't mean they weren't successful, which is why we have seen the NFL go more and more playing games in Europe, starting with games in London, playing games in Mexico, and now more recently they played a game this past year in Germany. They may continue to as there's a want for Europeans to want to enjoy the game of football, or as they call it, American football, and who knows, maybe we'll actually get a team over there one day. It seems like that may be a possibility. Thank you for listening to today's Daily Sports History. I hope you enjoyed it. Please like and subscribe wherever you're at. We want to hear from you. We want to know that you're enjoying it. 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