Editorial

Europe Has Its Own American Football League. They Named One Team The ‘Seamen’

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The Hamburg Sea Devils of the European League of Football celebrate after a big play. [Twitter/Screenshot/Public -- User: @SickEditzBro]

[Twitter/Screenshot/Public -- User: @SickEditzBro]

Andrew Powell Sports and Entertainment Blogger
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NFL Europe is back! Well, kind of. (And it’s actually been around for a couple of years now.)

So if you’re not familiar — and I highly doubt a lot of you are — Europe actually has their own professional American football league called European League of Football, which is owned by SEH Sports & Entertainment Holding and Patrick Esume.

The inaugural season of this league was in 2021, but a lot of us (including myself) are just now finding out about its existence. Heading into the 2023 season (which starts in June), the league has 17 teams spread throughout Europe, located in Germany, Spain, Poland, Italy, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland, France and the Czech Republic. On top of that, the league plans on expanding to 24 franchises by the 2025 season. The league was officially founded in 2020.

Now that we’re set on what the league is, let’s go over the teams:

  • WESTERN CONFERENCE
    • Cologne Centurions (Cologne, Germany)
    • Frankfurt Galaxy (Frankfurt, Germany)
    • Hamburg Sea Devils (Hamburg, Germany)
    • Paris Football Team (Paris, France)
    • Rhein Fire (Düsseldorf/Duisburg, Germany)
  • CENTRAL CONFERENCE
    • Barcelona Dragons (Barcelona/Reus, Spain)
    • Helvetic Guards (Zürich, Switzerland)
    • Milano Seamen (Milan, Italy)
    • Munich Ravens (Munich, Germany)
    • Tirol Raiders (Innsbruck, Austria)
    • Stuttgart Surge (Stuttgart, Germany)
  • EASTERN CONFERENCE
    • Berlin Thunder (Berlin, Germany)
    • Fehérvár Enthroners (Székesfehérvár, Hungary)
    • Leipzig Kings (Leipzig, Germany)
    • Wroclaw Panthers (Wroclaw, Poland)
    • Prague Lions (Prague, Czech Republic)
    • Vienna Vikings (Vienna, Austria)

And here’s what the logos look like for each team:

Okay, so first off, who the hell thought that ‘Seamen’ would be a good team name?

I’m not even going to touch that one because I’m not trying to get fired.

Second, the Wroclaw Panthers and Vienna Vikings are completely guilty of hijacking the Carolina Panthers’ and Minnesota Vikings’ logos. At least the Munich Ravens, Tirol Raiders and Prague Lions switched up the logos and colors — though the Raiders are guilty of stealing team colors. But the Vikings and Panthers straight up hijacked our Vikings and Panthers. (RELATED: Georgia Students Celebrate Back-To-Back National Championships By Setting Christmas Trees On Fire)

I mean, come on, where’s the originality here?

It’s cool to see an NFL-esque European league in the picture, but I want to see outright original teams with original logos and colors. Screw this knockoff stuff. But, complaints aside, the bigger this league becomes, the closer American football gets to becoming an Olympic sport one day, and wouldn’t that be dope?

I’m on board, but let’s tweak a few of these teams before we proceed. In fact, just make me the commissioner.