(July 13, 2014 at 6:28 pm)Polaris Wrote: They were actually the NFL, but just labeled differently to hit the markets where the usual NFL teams were not located and they didn't have to do some stupid restructuring like they did when they added expansion teams to the Aneup (Seahawks used to be in the same division as the Raiders for example). They failed miserably because those states cared more for high school and college football than the NFL, so they packed up and went abroad.....they ended up doing better overseas than in America (at least a few were just renamed, so technically more like 12 actual teams failed instead of the 18 I listed).
WLAF and and NFL Europe were backed by NFL. They're about the same as Ford and Mercury - they aren't. Different entities with the same parent.
WLAF failed because people in the US aren't particularly interested in paying pro prices to watch NFL castoffs over the best players at the college level. The U.S. teams weren't located in states where the market didn't exist for pro football - they were mostly in states that had existing NFL franchises (California, Texas, New York/Jersey, Florida and Ohio) as well as in a state (North Carolina) that added a successful franchise (Carolina Panthers) in the 90's.
None of those teams were ever IN the NFL, they were in a league backed by NFL. They went on to NFL Europe - again, backed by, but separate from NFL.
Had you said "American Football" you'd have been right.
