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IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD

5 years of memories, that's all we have left. Stan Gelbaugh throwing London into the final, Dave Archer surging to the top before mining for gold, the purple people defence of Frankfurt chewing up the admirals, the Bravehearts of Siran, Sean and Jim, John Kitna breathing the fire of a Dragon. All gone, all in the past. For the World League is dead.

The critics were proved right, the League would and did die. Yet we are supposed to believe in the Phoenix that rises from the embers as NFL Europe.

It should have been a sad day for the League - no more the hope of a international league, where now Montreal Machine, Orlando Thunder and the New York Knights ? Gone for good I fear. And the dream of taking American Football to the globe ? Perhaps it too has died.

Yet for many commercial reasons NFL Europe is a good thing. It brings the name of THE football league to the fore, bringing more money and sponsorship. Perhaps it may even bring some new fans. However after some thought I realise that we have lost just as much as we have won, perhaps even more.

NFL Europe. That name should mean something more than it does, it sounds as if these teams should and even could play in the NFL against the Giants, Jets, Cowboys et al. NFL - with all that majesty it brings weight and expectation, but most of all legitimacy. Yet we get not NFL but NFL Europe as coke is to diet. It tries to be the same but it isn't.

That's the whole point. The World League was never the NFL, and we all knew it. To be honest it never tried to be, the World League was without a doubt something VERY different. Yet now it is trying to be like the NFL and that's fine, that's something to aim for. BUT (and that's a BIG BUT) it won't happen. Not any time soon - perhaps never. For WLAF is now more than ever owned lock stock and barrel by the NFL. Before they could pass it off as something different, they allowed the WLAF its own little space in the world. With the outstanding uniforms (London not included), the logos and the parties. We had our fun, and it was great - well almost. Yet for all that it was ours.

We made the WLAF what it was - the fans you and me. It's not really ours anymore. I know in reality it never was - smoke and mirrors gave an illusion - but for a while it felt like it.

So goodbye World League of American Football.

The dream isn't dead but part of it has gone ...

"It's the end of the world as we know it,
It's the end of the world as we know it,
It's the end of the world as we know it,
And I feel fine..... "

Well, almost.

We'll miss you.

Douglas T. Adamson - Editor