NFL Europa

[LowMan]

Okay we recently got DishTV or DirectTV or somethin like that. Now that we have it, and since I've been playing almost nothing but Madden '06 on the xbox, one of my new favorite chans is now the NFL Network. I didn't even know there was a europian leauge out there till now. Hell that's great cuz they're playing their games right now, I can watch live (but damn way to eairly in the day) games again.

So from what I've leared about this strange mix of europe and real football is that's it's new. Bout 5-7 years old? Only 5-7 teams? Half the teams are in germany. Oh and the NFL wants to add a 17th week to the game season for international games. This is all from like 2 days of channel surfing from the NFL channel and Hist or disc channels.

I would espt. that the europa teams are 2nd best to even the worst team here in the america's? Uneless they bring players from the US teams/collages to europe? Should there be a 17th season game for international games? I like the idea, if the away team gets the chance to go in eairly and get to train in the other countries so they won't have to worry about jet lag affecting their game.

Anyway I digres, Does anyone actually watch let alone know anything about NFL Europa? I'm hoping to watch my first game in about 8 hours.

[Neo]

Yeah, I watch NFL Europe games on the NFL channel occasionaly, mostly the repeats. I guess the easiest way to explain what it is is to think of it as a minor league of sorts for the NFL.

There are players in NFL Europe that were originally signed by teams in the NFL. They use NFLE as a seasoning (I guess developmental would be a better word) league to progress the potential of younger, raw players. In case you were wondering, current college players are not invited, nor allowed, to participate. It is a professional league, and they do get paid.

I seriously doubt that any NFLEL team could compete and stay close with the worst NFL team (which has to be the Raiders). You are talking about a team that has a lot of "project" players, those who have talent but haven't tapped into their potential yet. The other thing that would hurt the talent pool is that there is a certain number of players that cannot be American on each team. Most of these players are relatively new to American football, having only been recently exposed to it.

The rules are different, but not to accomodate European players and fans. Most of the different rules you see there are rules suggested by folks within the NFL, and are being tested to see how they work first.

To make my long winded response short, the NFLEL is a junior league of the NFL, and is an excellent idea as it exposes talent in other countries to American football. I think the time is nearing that you will begin to see more and more foreign kids receiving D1 scholarships and starring on a collegiate and professional level. I can remember not so long ago when the United States would absolutely DOMINATE in basketball. Then, the original "dream team" with Jordan, Ewing, Barkley, Magic, etc., came along and just blew the foreign competition away. They stirred the passions of fans and atheletes all around the globe, and look at the level of foreign competition in basketball now.

The folks in the NFL hope NFLEL will do the same thing.

[LowMan]

I decided to set my alarm eairly yesterday and catch the Berlin/Cologne game. I kept dozing off eairly in the game, and the roomies got home from the hospital late in the game so I was a tad distracted. And even though it was my first game I have to say Berlin is already my fav NFLE team. Just for the fact they came back from a 21 point deficit to win the game lol. The crowd was a little lite, and didn't seem to be as enthusastic as I'm used to (which I expected). Even so it's still football and I enjoyed the game. One thing though, I could have swore the sports caster called Werner Hipper Werner Hittler. Took a double take on that one and decided to google it and see if there really a guy named hitler playing football. Turned out it wasn't, and found out that Hipper played for a amatur Cologne (his home town) football team then came to the US to play collage ball. Meh ya learn something new every day.

Right now I'm watching the Rhein/Hamburg game (took the night off work). The stands are way more packed, the temp is higher paced. Much more like a NFL game is here in the states then I was expecting. Already I can tell I'm going to like this game. I think I'll keep a wandering eye on this league from time to time to see how I like it. Thanks for the heads up Neo.

Oh yeah and I kinda agree about the NFL teams vs the NFLE teams thing. I was thinking bout the 10 game season the NFLE plays, and only 6 teams. Less playing time, and the playing time they do get in is against a much smaller array of opponent players. A good NFL vs NFLE (baring a fluke) would be away's off.

Oh and hell no I didn't take the night off work just to watch a NFLE game. Didn't even know it was comming on tonight. I've been feelin like crap and decided to screw it and stay home. I've been flipping between Patriot Games (the movie, not the friggen pats old games) and the NFL bloopers. It just turned out to come on after the movie was over.

[NLSoulja]

/yawn

DA BULLS

bandwagon picked me up early last week...

[Neo]

/yawn

DA BULLS

bandwagon picked me up early last week...

.........and will be be unloading in Detroit soon.