Why did NFL Europe fail, and can it be revived?

The NFL has made no secret of its plans to ingratiate itself as a worldwide entity. In December 2024, the league announced that it will schedule a game in Berlin during the 2025 season, after having previously played games in Munich and Frankfurt. This got us wondering about the league’s previous dealings with NFL Europe, and whether a league in Europe could ever gain traction.

Readers of a certain age might not realize that the NFL had a league in Europe from 1991 through 2007. The league had teams based out of the United Kingdom, Spain, the Netherlands and Germany at various points throughout its history.

Many people remember former Indianapolis Colts quarterback Andrew Luck, but his father Oliver was also an NFL quarterback. Perhaps more importantly to this story, Oliver Luck was also tagged with being the first general manager of the Frankfurt Galaxy.

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Oliver Luck told ESPN years later, “I can’t emphasize how little had been done to prepare to launch a pro sports franchise (back in the 1980s early 1990s)… There was no stadium deal, not one employee. No local staff, marketing PR. Nor was there any football staff. It was a true truncated startup. Our first game was March 25. We had all of three months.”

Former NFL coordinator Larry Kennan was also part of NFL Europe’s early days. He told ESPN, “We didn’t have any goalposts, so we used the film tower as our goalposts. We figured if we hit the video guy, the field goal was good.”

The NFL viewed NFL Europe as a development branch or a minor league system. Players who weren’t quite good enough to play in the NFL or who needed to hone their talent stopped in NFL Europe. Recognizable NFL names like Kurt Warner, Adam Vinatieri and Dante Hall all played in NFL Europe.

Warner told Fox News about his time in NFL Europe, “We had a number of quarterbacks in that league that went on to play in the Super Bowl. But just giving these people an opportunity to play and showcase and live that dream, because it doesn’t always work out no matter what field you’re in… Sometimes you need that second opportunity, and these leagues give guys a second opportunity.”

Warner remembered his days playing in Amsterdam and learning about his new surroundings. He told Yahoo Sports, “Each of our teams had a couple international players or players from that area so we would have them take us around a little bit and show us different things, so that part I enjoyed.”

While the NFL had high hopes for the venture, it never panned out. The league discontinued NFL Europe in 2007, as ESPN reported that the league lost money for 15 straight years.

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Len Pasquarelli of ESPN wrote in 2007, “Truth be told, over the past four or five years, the biggest advantage to having the European league was that the NFL could use it as a testing ground of sports… The NFL used NFL Europe to groom game officials. And when the NFL’s powerful competition committee wanted to sample a potential rule change… It could tinker with those changes by enacting them in NFL Europe first.”

The NFL instead shifted to more of an event-based model in Europe; by bringing its franchises over to Europe a few times a year to showcase the best of their product instead. The first regular season game the NFL played in Europe was in October 2007, when the New York Giants faced the Miami Dolphins.

However, it looks like the NFL is trying to get to Europe as much as reasonably possible in the coming years, which makes thoughts of an NFL Europe-style reboot not out of the realm of possibility. But would it work?

In order for any NFL Europe operation to work, there would need to be legitimate excitement amongst fans in the continent. It’s not just the fans; the league would need grassroots efforts at the youth level to get European children playing football to build a generation of supporters.

The NFL has attempted to do this by introducing NFL Flag international programs across the world. According to its official website, NFL Flag has “20 million enthusiasts across 100 countries.” While those numbers are definitely encouraging, the NFL faces an uphill battle trying to get kids to play American football rather than soccer/world football.

Another idea might be to have an NFL franchise based in Europe. While this would give European fans exposure to the game’s brightest stars, it would also create logistics and scheduling challenges.

Do you think the NFL could thrive with franchises in Europe? Let us know what you think by leaving a comment!

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