The Stuttgart Surge are an

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 ...

team based in Stuttgart,

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...

. They play in 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 ...

(ELF) as part of the league's South division. The team plays its home games at the Gazi Stadium which is currently the oldest sports stadium in Germany still in use.

Franchise history

The Stuttgart franchise is one of the eight founding members of the European League of Football (ELF), established in 2020. Initially, the franchise was supposed to start as the

Stuttgart Scorpions The Stuttgart Scorpions are an American football team from Stuttgart, Germany. The club's greatest success came in 2007, when it reached the German Bowl but lost to the Braunschweig Lions. History The Stuttgart Scorpions were formed in December ...

, adopting the name of Stuttgart's German Football League (GFL) team. Since the member's assembly of the ''Stuttgart Scorpions'' decided to disallow the use of the name, the team formed as ''Stuttgart Surge'' reviving the

World League of American Football NFL Europe League (simply called NFL Europe and known in its final season as NFL Europa League) was a professional American football league that functioned as the List of developmental and minor sports leagues, developmental minor league of t ...

(WLAF) "Surge" franchise of the 1992 World Bowl champion Sacramento Surge. The World League of American Football was later renamed the NFL Europe. The label ''Surge'' was picked over the name ''Stallions'' in compliance of the former 1980s and 1990s American football team Stuttgart Stallions and determines the design of the new club logo and ensign. The franchise is operated by the American Football Club Stuttgart GmbH, whose

general manager A general manager (GM) is an executive who has overall responsibility for managing both the revenue and cost elements of a company's income statement, known as profit & loss (P&L) responsibility. A general manager usually oversees most or all ...

Timo Franke previously worked as gameday manager for the Stuttgart Scorpions. Martin Hanselmann, the former coach of Germany's national American football team was signed as

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other Coach (sport), coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manage ...

in 2021. The team played their first game in the new league against the Barcelona Dragons (ELF) on June 19, 2021, with a 17–21 victory. In their week 2 loss to Frankfurt Galaxy starting Quarterback Jacob Wright was ejected for using a racially charged insult against an opponent for which he was ultimately cut from Stuttgart Surge and banned from playing for any ELF team for the ongoing 2021 season. The new Quarterback Aaron Ellis was presented ahead of the week 3 matchup against Berlin Thunder (ELF). After two consecutive losses during the end of the season, the team finished last in the South division and did not qualify for the playoffs. The front office and owner structure changed significantly in preparation for the 2022 European League of Football season. Former general manager Timo Franke handed the office over to Suni Musa, but staying in the organisation as head of sales and sponsoring. On February 4, 2022, it was revealed that

New England Patriots The New England Patriots are a professional American football team based in the Greater Boston area. They compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's American Football Conference (AFC) AFC East, East divisio ...

fullback and Stuttgart native Jakob Johnson will become co-owner of the franchise.

Season-by-season

Logos

With the presentation of the new team name in 2021, the franchise unveiled two logos for their first season. The design of the ''major'' logo uses the form of the Stuttgart TV tower in the team colors yellow and blue with the tower shaft and the antenna depicting a stylized lightning bolt. The tower basket features the team name in white on a dark ground. The ''minor'' logo just shows a stylized lightning bolt in yellow pointing to the right and features optionally the team name or a multiangled line, both in a dark color.

Roster

Staff

References

External links

Official website
{{Stuttgart Surge American football teams in Germany Sport in Stuttgart European League of Football teams 2021 establishments in Germany American football teams established in 2021