h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

*Topic of the Month - May*

How good is NFL Europe? Most weeks two of the three matches are low-scoring affairs. Offenses don't seem to be that great.

Will the league be extended far into the future. Does it have legs as a breeding ground for the Brad Johnsons of the world? Or is it just a hapless old venture with no particular benefit?

Asa a seeding ground it's proved pretty worthwhile, I'd say. Johnson, Warner, Kitna, Sinclair, all came from NFLE. And there are bound to be other's that i can't think of right now...

How could you forget Stan Gelbaugh ... and Dedrick Dodge

Lets all forget Stan the Man, whose NFL career was little short of disasterous...

Dedtick Dodge, though was a more than handy nickel and dime guy for the 49ers.

Aaron Stecker seems to have found have home, as well.

There are a *shed-load* of NFLE O-Linemen round the league as well

Indeed we have Barry Sims installed as our starting left tackle

What about the kickers though ... Gavin Hastings, Clive Allen ... they didn't go far now did they?

According to the NFL Europe website the following players were involved in SB XXXVII

Those participating for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers the NFC Champions are:

Devone Claybrooks DT Rhein 2002
Chartric Darby DE Barcelona 2000
Cornell Green T Scotland 2001
Corey Ivy CB Frankfurt 2000/02
Brad Johnson QB London 1995
Onome Ojo WR Rhein 2002
Aaron Stecker RB Scotland 2000
Tony Taylor RB Rhein 2002
Ron Warner DE Barcelona 2002
Ramondo North WR Berlin 2002

Those participating for the Oakland Raiders, the AFC Champions, include:

Madre Hill RB Berlin 2001
Tim Johnson LB Rhein 2002
Marcus Knight WR Amsterdam 2002
Clarence Love CB Frankfurt 1999
Barry Sims T Scotland 1999
Marcus Williams TE Ams/Fra 2002
Brandon Christenson TE Barcelona 2001/02
Joe Wong T Ams/Bar 2001/02

10 Bucs / 8 Raiders - that's about 20% of the players

A rather stupid and short sighted attempt to inject celebrity glamour that backfired.

Phil whatsisface did a respectable job at the Monarchs the first year though - wasn't he tapped by a couple of NFL teams?

I don't see how scoring in the NFLE relates to talent level. The NFLE would almost have to have more talent than the collegiate WAC, and WAC conference games average about 80 points total.

It's more about the talent on offense versus defense, and how good the schemes are. Remember, there's an ebb and flow for scoring in every professional sport. That's true for the NFL as well. We seem to be in a defensive era, especially compared to 10-15 years ago. The defensive schemes* have an advantage, but soon the offenses will evolve something new and the defenses will be back on their heels.

* Okay, there aren't enough talented offensive players either... too much expansion has diluted teams... which is why we need the NFLE... have to expand the talent pool, and it can't possibly get any bigger in the US.

The relationship between talent and scoring was not inferred.

The question was more suggesting that because most of the NFLE games are low-scoring affairs dominated by field goals, the product itself isn't that good. Unfortunately rather ambiguously stated.

Point being do matches need to be high-scoring to make it worthwhile and interesting to the average non-American fan?

I'm not sure I'd necessarily agree about defenses being in the ascendency. Agreed two of the best have been to the SB in recent years (Ravens and Bucs), but in the last 5 years we've also seen the highest scoring offense around (Vikings 98), plus the Rams. The West Coast is incredibly difficult to defend when executed properly because there are always openings in the defense. Just my humble opinion. Although rereading your posting, u did say in comparison to 10 years ago - which I guess might be true.

I think the NFLE should stay where it is. After all, as have been mentioned before in the threas, there have been a considerable amount of players that have come through the ranks of the NFLE to get to the Pro Bowl. The likes of Kurt Warner is obviously the most prolific player, and we also have La'Roi Glover, who played in Barcelona and is now a perennial Pro Bowler.

It's also important to have the league to try and develop the interest of the game outside the borders of the US. Right now, the NFL is a sport still dominated by Americans, whereas the NBA and the NHL nowadays rely heavily on foreign imports.

Therefore I'd say to keep the NFLE.

Well, the product on the field *is* the talent, isn't it? Talent plus coaching, anyway.

VR: Let's not get confused about the internationalism in the NHL and NBA. The NHL is a very international league, with significant contributions from all over Europe and North America. The NBA, on the other hand, has a handful of players whose names are spelled with all consonants. If sports were water and internationalism were its temperature, the NHL would be scalding, the NFL would be frozen, and the NBA would be melting.

Balthers, I'm sorry if I overemphasised the non-American influence of the NBa, but as I said, and you too, the NBA still has a lot more non-Americans than the NFL.

The point I was trying to make was that since the NFLE has been running, that can give the Nationals a bit more incentive to be good and to catch the eyes of a few of the NFL owners. There have been a bunch of National players that have at last been asked over for training camp after they've shown what they can do in NFLE.
The latest example would be Ola Kimrin, the Swedish kicker who were recently signed to a one-year deal with the Cowboys to give Billy Cundiff a run for his money. Last year, Kimrin was asked to come to the Denver Training camp, where he booted that 65-yard field goal in a pre-season game, and that cuaght the eye of a couple of the owners.

<Quote>What about the kickers though ... Gavin Hastings, Clive Allen ... they didn't go far now did they?

Admittedly these guys were brought in to give the locals someone to identify with, and to try and pull in the crowds.

Rob Hart (Claymores kicker) has had a try out with the Bucs just before the training camps for NFLEL.

Regarding the usefulness of the league, I would say it gives a chance for the NFL coaches to see what their players could do in real game and pressure situations, rather than in their practice squads. It also gives the players a chance to show what they can do.

Is this a case of someone getting out the wrong side of bed or is there anything in this, you decide


http://www.bucpower.com/editorial4.html

Mostly on the wrong side of the bed.

However, I think he makes an excellent point with this: "No NFL team is ever going to send anyone worthwhile across the Atlantic any more. Pro Football has become a year-round exercise in off-season workouts, minicamps and training sessions. Give me one honest good reason why learning a totally different playbook for three months and coming to training camp totally knackered, is going to do any player or any team any good at all?"

Major League Baseball and the National Hockey League both maintain minor leagues for player development, and both have enormous success with it. But the minor league teams for MLB and the NHL are owned exclusively by their major affiliates. A player who works his way through the Reading Royals to the Manchester Monarchs to the Los Angeles Kings has played in the same system the whole time, so when the Kings call him up, he's already familiar with the style of play.

Football is the most complicated of all pro sports. If the 49ers sent their top QB prospect to play the 49ers playbook in London over the spring, he'd get some serious value from the experience. But since no single NFL franchise owns a NFLE team, playbooks are generic. The prospect gets almost no value from the experience, and the NFL team would rather have that prospect at home for a spring QB school.

The Bucpower article is interesting. I think there are a number of good points being made, albeit in a slightly too scathing manner.

There are definitely some players who've come out of the league that have benefited. Good example being Barry Sims. He had a knee injury at the end of his college career, decided to do something in real-estate (or wahtever) for a couple of years, and then thought he'd give football another shot. NFLE was his route in. Over the past 4 years with the Raiders he's become a solid backup, able to start at almost any position when injuries require it. He spent most of last year as the starting right tackle.

Whether the cost of developing a few players justifies this is debatable and the attempt to get Amfoot into Europe (as the Bucpower guy says) is really not working.

All I can say about the article is that it's interesting, and the guy can express his opinion about NFLE all he wants on that site, cause it's his own site. However, I don't have to agree with him.

In my opinion, anything that can get soem more exposure of the sport in this country is a good thing. I know that the NFL is now a year-round venture, with QB schools, mini-camps and the likes, but the league would be a great way for the NFL teams to send over some questionable drafts to see if they can cut it in a league that's run by the NFL. If they want their prospects evaluated and there's no NFLE, where would they send the players? AFL? CFL? Both of those leagues are independent from the NFL and there are transfer rules to follow. Instead, wouldn't a team rather like the opportunity to send the player to a developmental league where they can be sure that when the guy comes back, he's still on their pay-roll and no other team can grab them before they, themselves have decided what to do with him?

Anyways, I dont agree with the sentiments of the author of the site (won't mention his name) but he's entitled to his opinion, like everyone else.

Two Words

Brad Johnson

Sadly learned to take abuse from his own fans a lot of the time while at the Monarchs. But a better naked bootleg I have yet to see than one he ran in At White Heart Lane. I was sat 10 yards back from the action and I missed the fact that he hadn't handed the ball off.