A View From NFL Europe
Lee Zakow
Tuesday July 11, 2000
First, for the remainder of the season, I’ll keep you in tune with NFL E players who have signed with Arena teams. I’ll talk about prospects and players from NFL E I think belong in the AFL like Amsterdam’s Bashir Levingston -- a smallish DB with blazing speed, trying to make the switch from WR. He’s on the Giants’ roster, but he was burned often this year. His only chance to stick with the Giants is his speed, but I’d love to see him in the Arena League. As a two-way player, he’d be good. I’ll also talk about players I’d like to see come over to NFL E, and no, that doesn’t include Sherdrick Bonner, who upset a lot of NFL people when he walked away from the Rhein Fire in training camp. Actually, it worked quite well for Danny Wuerffel, as well as Bonner, but that’s another story. I’ll also talk about politics and policy.
Now, on to the more important stuff.
I was at the World Bowl, and it was quite a site. I’d say that as far as passion is concerned, Arena fans and NFL E fans are from the same family tree. Yeah, its true that a Browns fan is a Browns fan, and the same used to be true of the Baltimore Colts. But things being what they are, the NFL has become less fan-friendly and woven into the structure of the family conscience. Its trendy to be a Titans fan now, but give them two consecutive losing seasons, and what will happen to the season ticket base? That never used to happen.
Among the crazies at the World Bowl were the famous Claymore Cheddarheads (who wore kilts to the game); the Fire fans, who tailgated out at Waldstadion the night before the game with Amsterdam’s Orange Crush gang; Barcelona fans and even London Monarch fans. It was a party of all nations without the violence and lunacy that was happening to the east in Holland and Belgium during Euro2000.
 AFL Commissioner David Baker and his fincee Colleen Hall. Image courtesy of Mike Wright |
And oh yes, as far as the cities, some NFL E folks I talked with weren’t too sure, but they thought an eight to ten team league was possible with six NFL E cities, and four test markets that the NFL and Arena League agree upon – perhaps London, Paris, Prague and Hamburg or Warsaw. Having been in Russia the last week and talking to many about the former communist states, I am not so sure Warsaw would work, at least not for right now. Italy might, but there is a law on the books that says any foreign company that comes into Italy to open shop has to be 50% owned by an Italian concern. Not only that but in the original model of the World League, Tex Schramm wanted Milan as a team, and someone had told me the Italian sports people had treated him awfully.
I think my interest and passion about NFL E is not unlike what you all have about the Arena game. You fans have traveled and developed friendships. That’s great. For me, it’s the same, only with an international flair. Other cultures, the sport we all love in one form or another. I get to see history on many levels. The hope here is that you will be able to as well.
Lee Zakow was a writer for ArenaFan Online from 2000 to 2001.
