The 2021 ELF season is the inaugural season of the

European League of Football The European League of Football (ELF) is a professional American football league. The league (as of the 2023 season) consists of 17 teams located in Germany, Poland, Spain, Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Hungary, Czech Republic and France, with p ...

, a newly formed professional

American football American football (referred to simply as football in the United States and Canada), also known as gridiron, is a team sport played by two teams of eleven players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end. The offense, the team wit ...

league based in

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

. It started on June 19, 2021, and ended with a Championship Game in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

Merkur Spiel-Arena Merkur Spielarena (stylized as MERKUR SPIEL-ARENA), previously known as the Esprit Arena (until 2 August 2018), the LTU Arena (until June 2009), and as the Düsseldorf Arena (during the Eurovision Song Contest 2011, 2011 Eurovision Song Contest), ...

, on September 26, 2021. Map of ELF 2021

Format

The league is divided into two divisions, North and South. Each team plays 10 games during the regular season: twice against their division rivals, and twice against two of the teams from the other division. The top two teams in each division qualify for the playoffs, with the North and South champions qualifying for the Championship Game.

Rules

For the inaugural season, the ELF is mostly using adapted NFL rules, as opposed to adapted NCAA rules which virtually all other European American Football leagues use. There is a limit of two "Americans" (a category which also includes some other non-European nationalities) per down but people who are dual citizens of the U.S. and a EU-member country are not counted towards that limit in keeping with the

Bosman ruling ''Union Royale Belge des Sociétés de Football Association ASBL v Jean-Marc Bosman'' (1995) C-415/93 (known as the Bosman ruling) is a 1995 European Court of Justice decision concerning freedom of movement for workers, freedom of associatio ...

. Unlike in most other European American football leagues there is

overtime Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. The term is also used for the pay received for this time. Normal hours may be determined in several ways: *by custom (what is considered healthy or reasonable by society) ...

during regular season games that are still tied after regulation, but the overtime rules are based on NCAA rules.

Teams

Coaching changes

Salaries

For its first season, the league pays a salary to American "import" players that generally ranges from €600 (around $700) to €3,000 ($3,500) per month, and provides housing, health insurance and two meals per day to players during the season. Despite claims to the contrary by the league, most "local" players did not get paid during the 2021 season.

Regular season

Standings

Results

Playoffs

Divisional playoffs

South: Frankfurt Galaxy 36, Cologne Centurions 6

North: Hamburg Sea Devils 30, Wrocław Panthers 27

Championship Game

The inaugural

Championship Game In sport, a championship is a competition in which the aim is to decide which individual or team is the champion. Championship systems Various forms of competition can be referred to by the term championship. Title match system In this system ...

, between the North and South division champions, was played on September 26, at

. In a game in which the lead changed more than once, Frankfurt, not confident enough of the quality of their placekicker, opted for

two-point conversion In gridiron football, a two-point conversion or two-point convert is a play a team attempts instead of kicking a one-point conversion immediately after it scores a touchdown. In a two-point conversion attempt, the team that just scored must run ...

s after every single touchdown (only one out of five being successful), and not attempting a single

field goal A field goal (FG) is a means of scoring in gridiron football. To score a field goal, the team in possession of the ball must place kick, or drop kick, the ball through the goal, i.e., between the uprights and over the crossbar. The entire ba ...

. Meanwhile, Hamburg's kicker

Phillip Friis Andersen Philip, also Phillip, is a male given name, derived from the Greek (''Philippos'', lit. "horse-loving" or "fond of horses"), from a compound of (''philos'', "dear", "loved", "loving") and (''hippos'', "horse"). Prominent Philips who popularize ...

, who led the league in successful attempts during the regular season and won "Special Teams Player of the year", missed 2 FG attempts, including one from 61 yards on the last play, that could have won the game for Hamburg. The Championship

MVP In team sports, a most valuable player award, abbreviated 'MVP award', is an honor typically bestowed upon an individual (or individuals, in the instance of a tie) whose individual performance is the greatest in an entire league, for a particu ...

trophy was won by Frankfurt QB Jakeb Sullivan, who passed for 324 yards, with 4 TD and no interceptions, and added another rushing TD.

Hamburg Sea Devils 30, Frankfurt Galaxy 32

All-Star Game

The inaugural All-Star Game was held one week after the end of the season, on October 3 (the Day of German Unity), at

Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark The Friedrich-Ludwig-Jahn-Sportpark is a multi-purpose sports complex located in the western part of the locality of Prenzlauer Berg in the borough of Pankow in Berlin. The sports complex covers an area of approximately 22 hectares and compr ...

Berlin Berlin is Capital of Germany, the capital and largest city of Germany, both by area and List of cities in Germany by population, by population. Its more than 3.85 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European U ...

. It will feature a selection of the best players from the ELF, playing against the United States Federation of American Football All-Stars.

Attendance

Games without fans are not counted in averages or games played. All teams started the season with capacity restrictions, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identified ...

Awards

MVP of the Week

Honors for the season

On 1. October 2021 the "ELF Honors" were presented at RCADIA Hotel in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. The following players received the awards mentioned below: * Most Valuable Player:

Madre London Madre London (born January 27, 1996) is an American football running back for the Pittsburgh Maulers of the United States Football League (USFL). He played college football at Michigan State and Tennessee. High school career London original ...

, Running back, Cologne Centurions * Offensive Player of the Year: Jakeb Sullivan, Quarterback, Frankfurt Galaxy * Defensive Player of the Year: Kyle Kitchens, Defensive End, Leipzig Kings * Special Teams Player of the Year:

, Kicker / Punter, Hamburg Sea Devils * Rookie of the Year:

Louis Geyer Louis may refer to: * Louis (coin) * Louis (given name), origin and several individuals with this name * Louis (surname) * Louis (singer), Serbian singer * HMS ''Louis'', two ships of the Royal Navy See also Derived or associated terms * Lewi ...

, Wide Receiver, Stuttgart Surge * Coach of the Year: Thomas Kösling, Head coach, Frankfurt Galaxy * Offensive Rookie of the Year:

Gerald Ameln Gerald is a male Germanic given name meaning "rule of the spear" from the prefix ''ger-'' ("spear") and suffix ''-wald'' ("rule"). Variants include the English given name Jerrold, the feminine nickname Jeri and the Welsh language Gerallt and ...

, Running back, Frankfurt Galaxy * Defensive Rookie of the Year:

Marcel Dabo Marcel may refer to: People * Marcel (given name), people with the given name Marcel * Marcel (footballer, born August 1981), Marcel Silva Andrade, Brazilian midfielder * Marcel (footballer, born November 1981), Marcel Augusto Ortolan, Brazilian s ...

, Cornerback, Stuttgart Surge * Assistant Coach of the Year: Kendral Ellison, Defensive Coordinator, Hamburg Sea Devils * Man of Honor: Jan Weinreich, Quarterback, Cologne Centurions

Statistical leaders

Signees to other professional leagues

The following players invited to the NFL’s International Combine, assigned to NFL's International Player Pathway Program (IPPP), signed or drafted by

CFL The Canadian Football League (CFL; french: Ligue canadienne de football—LCF) is a professional sports league in Canada. The CFL is the highest level of competition in Canadian football. The league consists of nine teams, each located in a ...

team or signed with

USFL The United States Football League (USFL) was a professional American football league that played for three seasons, 1983 through 1985. The league played a spring/summer schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be ...

team following their involvement with The ELF in 2021:

NFL

CFL

The following players signed with a CFL team: The following players got drafted in the CFL's Global draft:

USFL

Broadcasting

Notes

References

{{2021 European League of Football season by team 2021 in American football

ELF An elf () is a type of humanoid supernatural being in Germanic mythology and folklore. Elves appear especially in North Germanic mythology. They are subsequently mentioned in Snorri Sturluson's Icelandic Prose Edda. He distinguishes "ligh ...

European League of Football seasons