Month: September 2023

Part 2 of building a team

Norm did a great job finding a few A-tags right away.  He had some contacts with a group he worked with and we suddenly had a Division I quarterback on our team and a legitimate defensive pass rusher.

Collin Hill played in three of four years (starting when he was healthy) at Colorado State and then played as a grad transfer at University of South Carolina – starting eight games.  An accurate and gifted QB.  Truly a steal for our expansion franchise.

JR Tavaii would become a lynchpin for our defense.  JR was an on and off starter at USC.  He  would certainly  be a top player for us and the Helvetic Guards.  Plus, he is a fantastic guy.

We had our eye on a quick and fast WR early on.  But, he had other plans and we had to move on.  Later we would find an excellent athlete in Silas Nacita – an experienced and well known player in Europe.  But more about that later.

We really hit gold when we found a corner.  Kenny Hike Jr. was a GFL all-star for Dresden, played in the Spring League for Jerry Glanville.  Kenny was everything we heard about him.  A gifted cover corner … a leader and most importantly a fantastic person.

Every one of those guys turned out to be excellent additions for a first-year team.  Very good players but their leadership and guidance meant so much for our young and inexperienced team.

I would say that we hit on each one of these players as far as finding first rate players for our team.  It would turn out that we weren’t as good with the six E-tag players we went after.

First, we found two offensive linemen in Gabriel Rodriguez and Amos Laoye.  Gabe from Spain, Amos from Belgium… well not so fast… turns out Amos cannot be considered an E-Tag.  Unfortunately, we didn’t find out this until too late.  We never replaced him.  Playing without an E-tag was probably a mistake.

We then picked up Igor Mašlanka a TE from Slovakia and Swedish wide receiver Anton Jallai.  Norm really thought Mašlanka would be a great fit for his vision of our offense. I saw Anton running past guys in his league – looked straight line fast.

Unfortunately for us Igor just never developed into a flexible enough player for us and Anton got a case of the “yips.”  He had a hard time catching the ball … we tried to get them going – just couldn’t get it done.

I really think both will have good futures – but we had to move on and we eventually released them both.  (That turned out to be another problem for us … releasing players … more on that later).

Defensively, we picked up two versatile defensive backs Chaska Perron and Maceo Beard who were both French.  They both lived up to our expectations.

Mace would go on to be the most valuable defensive player in the European Football League.  Chaska was equally important to our defense.  Both were also instrumental in helping us sign two wide receivers towards the end of the season.

Next we needed to find our Swiss players!

 

 

Obviously, hiring Norm Chow as the new head coach for the Guards was a priority for our management team.  Now we had to start building a team from scratch.  This had to be accomplished within the unique structure of the European League of Football (ELF).

Within the ELF there is a formula for each team’s roster to insure that the foundation of the team is built around “Home-grown” players.  In other words the vast majority of your squad had to be athletes who first started playing football in your country.

Again, this is unusual.  It means that you have to show where you first started playing football … not your passport declaration.  Unlike other European leagues which allow dual passport players to have flexibility in their designations – the ELF had different mandates for eligibility.

The ELF had specific ways to structure the roster as well.  For instance, each team was allowed to sign four players designated as A-tags (A player from either of four countries – the US, Canada, Mexico or Japan).  In addition, you could add 6 E-tags (player from another country besides the A-Tag regions).  The rest (about fifty) had to be from your country.

We now had to find a lot of players who started to play ball in Switzerland.  Not an easy task since Switzerland is a country of about 8.7 million people – and football here is a niche sport that most guys don’t start playing until they are in the 16-17 year range.

Also, Switzerland is the smallest of the nine countries making up the ELF.

The nine countries which have franchises in the ELF population wise:  Germany (83.2 Million), France (64.7M), Italy (58.7M), Spain (47.5M), Poland (41M), Czech Republic (10.4M), Hungary (10.1M), Austria (8.9M), Switzerland (8.7M)

 The list of the teams for 2023 season.

• Hamburg Sea Devils (Germany)
• Frankfurt Galaxy (Germany)
• Cologne Centurions (Germany)
• Stuttgart Surge (Germany)
• Berlin Thunder (Germany)
• Munich Ravens (Germany)
• Rhein Fire (Germany)
• Vienna Vikings (Austria)
• Tirol Raiders (Austria)
• Barcelona Dragons (Spain)
• Wroclaw Panthers (Poland)
• Paris Musketeers (France)
• Prague Lions (Czech Republic)
• Helvetic Guards (Switzerland)
• Milano Seamen (Italy)
• Fehérár Enthroners (Hungary)

Istanbul (Turkey) played one season in 2022 and then dropped out of the league.

Leipzig Kings (Germany) dropped out of the league during the 2023 season.

Prague Lions suspended play for a week during the 2023 season.

Fortunately, I had a pretty good handle on many of the better players in the Swiss league (Swiss American Football Verband) since I had spent several years with the Thun Tigers located on the Thunersee in the Bernese Oberland.

But, it was going to be a pretty hard task regardless of my experience.  First, we had to identify the players and then analyze their videos to assess their value to the team.

We decided that Norm and I (here in the US) along with JC and Matt (in Switzerland) would start to organize the team.  Matt would also handle setting up the contracts so that we stayed within the salary cap the ELF had.

Matt’s job would be very stressful since our majority owner didn’t set a budget.  Obviously, it would be helpful to know how much money Mukka was going to allot to the signing of players and how it should be structured.

But, like many things we would encounter along the way beginning til end …. there was little if any transparency when it came to the money.  No one knew where it was going to come from and no one knew how much was there.

Plus, the fact that we were an ocean away – literally!  Well, it was hard to get together.

Later Darius Willis joined our coaching/scouting department and his help was invaluable.  Later we all agreed we could have never accomplished this without him.

So, Norm and I would start watching all kinds of highlight videos on Hudl (football app).  Now, one thing you know as a coach – you need to see “game” videos to study a player.  That we could only get our hands (or eyes I guess) on self-made highlights makes it hard.

Think about it … shouldn’t you look good on a highlight video you put together?  If you don’t look good on your own highlight film.  Yikes!

More to come!

 

 

The Helvetic Guards were very fortunate  to be able to hire a quality coach in Norm Chow for their first season in the European League of Football.  Norm is a well-known offensive coach who has coached in the college ranks as an assistant and also as a  head coach and he has spent several seasons in the pro ranks as well.

I didn’t know Norm until we became acquainted during this hiring process.  Since then we have become good friends.  Honestly, I wish we had met before … the chance to learn from such a great football mind.  Well, lucky to have spent this year working closely with him.

Many people will remember him for coaching three Heisman Trophy winners  …  Ty Detmer at BYU, Matt Leinart and Carson Palmer at USC.  Norm was also a coach on National Championship teams at USC (two) and BYU.

Best known as a QB coach / offensive coordinator.   He developed many QB’s – Steve Young, Mark Wilson, Philip Rivers, Carson Palmer, Jim McMahon, Matt Leinart, Ty Detmer and also Matt Cassel.  Quite a list of star players who had excellent football careers in college and many went on to play professionally.

Norm was an assistant at BYU, North Carolina State, USC, UCLA and Utah … more than 30 years of experience at the college.  Three years as the offensive coordinator at Tennessee Titans as well.  He was also the Head Coach at Hawaii.

The Guards ownership was greatly impressed by the time he spent with them.  Soon after the interview he was hired.  Again … lucky to have him.

One of the first tasks on our list (well actually my list per the owners of the Guards) was to try and find a coach for our new enterprise.  Well we don’t use a rolodex anymore … so I pulled out my phone and my notebooks to try and find a match for the Guards.

So, with back and forth conversations with my friends in Switzerland – JC and Matt – I began to formulate a list.  But, then I find out that our majority owner had already interviewed Rip Scherer and was thinking about talking to Hal Mumme via zoom.

I don’t know either of them, but I know they are well respected.  So, I am fine with that – but they are also in the category of “professional job seekers.”  Always looking for the next job.  Nothing wrong with that…they both have impressive resumes and would be great for the job.

But, I now begin the see how some of this is going to work.  So, what do they need me for?

They want my help … but well maybe not so much.  No problem.

I told Matt that I was going to put any work l was doing on finding a coach on hold until Mukka (majority owner) talked with the people who interested him.  I want to help as I said I would – but, not going to waste my time or bother candidates that I knew if management was going off on their own.

After about a week of spinning their wheels with guys asking for the moon and the same salary for that celestial body (those are college thoughts!) and not realizing what football in Europe was like.  I have the ball shot back into my court.

One of my first calls is to June Jones who is one of the most innovative offensive coaches … been a successful head coach in the NFL and Division I football.  He is a fantastic person and a great leader.  I love the man because he is always honest and is extremely thoughtful.

Although he finds it intriguing … not for him.

Jim Herrmann one of the finest defensive coordinators that the University of Michigan ever saw found it “intriguing, but not interested right now.”  He wanted to stay in the XFL (or USFL) as a coordinator with a shot at getting back into the NFL.

I get it … Jim belongs in the big leagues.  He’s the real deal as a coach.

Later, I come to realize that the phrase … “intriguing, but not interested right now.”  Well, it means to move on.

Well, I have some other friends who were bigtime NFL and college coaches as coordinators on defense.  I reach out to my friends Martin Bayless and Ray Horton.

Both great guys and awesome coaches with excellent resumes.  I hear … “intriguing, but not interested right now” from Ray.

Don’t blame him .. he lives in Phoenix and plays golf everyday – owns a plane and flies it all over the west chasing around after that little white ball.

Ironically when the head coach of the Pittsburgh Maulers in the USFL quit in the early part of the training camp … Ray became the new  boss – then they win the championship!  The guy is a fantastic leader and a truly stand up guy.  He brooks no bullshit from idiots.

 Now, Martin was different – he had a genuine interest.  We spent time on the phone and I tried to explain the situation with the European League of Football and the Guards in particular.  The longer we talked the more I thought we might have someone on the line!

In the mean time I had secured an offensive line coach (Bob Palcic), and a defensive line coach (Bert Hill) both friends who I had worked with over the years.

Since I am writing this after the fact (I am traveling back in time with the “Wayback” machine I can say that neither of them coached a down with the Guards … for various reasons they had to withdraw.

 Now contrary to popular belief … I am not the dumbest man in the world.  I continue to mine my football black book and reach out to Jim Zorn.

Now “JZ” is one of my favorite guys.  A great NFL quarterback and later a solid coach including a stint with the Washington Redskins (well that was what the were known as then) as the head coach.

He had also been a head coach in Seattle with either the USFL or XFL or one of those other leagues.  Now he thought coaching in Europe was … “intriguing, but not interested right now.”  Whoops – he said he would love to interview with our group.

So, now we have lined up two viable candidates to spend a zoom meeting with.  Things were looking up for the Helvetic Guards.  I really felt we might be able to land one of them.

We spent some time with each of them on a zoom call and they were both great.

More importantly Mukka (who would have the final call on hiring the coach) was impressed with both of them.  He now would have to make a call.

Both Jim and Martin were impressed with the opportunity …  but “not so fast Kemosabe!”

Jim has too many reservations and he said the team won’t pay enough … he wants to get back into the NFL or the USFL or XFL at the least.  So he is out.

Martin talks with our group again and he just decided to step back and says he wants to get another shot at the NFL like the other guys.  I get it, and like Jim Zorn and Jim Herrmann he deserves it.

But, he recommends an offensive coach … Norm Chow.

So, here comes Norm!

 

 

 

How did all of the ELF stuff get started with me?  I’ve been asked that several times over the past year. Well let’s see…

Let’s jump into the “Wayback Machine” … come on many of you are old enough to remember Mr. Peabody and Sherman on the “Rocky and Bullwinkle Show??”  Ok those of you a little younger think about Marty McFly gets into the time traveling DeLorean automobile and goes back in history in “Back to the Future.”

Same thing guys I’m going back to look at the future.

It’s June of 2022 and I was helping coach the Thun Tigers (our first year in the top level of football in Switzerland).  My time in Switzerland was coming to an end and I was getting ready to head back to the states.

An old friend who I worked a football camp with back in 2018 sent me a message saying we should get together.   JC Williams – a Canadian – wanted me to come down to his home and talk to him about a football project.

So, I hopped on the train and went to visit him at his house somewhere out in the countryside past Wintherthur.  Now this was a good hike for me leaving out of the Thun Bahnhof.  Probably more than two hours.  But, I had time and a train pass – so off I go.

JC had played wide receiver for a few teams in Europe and was pretty well known – especially in northern Switzerland.  He had married a Swiss girl and now was a fulltime resident.

He picked me up at the small train station and we set off for his house.  He was planning on getting the grill going and I sat down for a beer.  Well, that’s what I do – sit down for a beer a lot!

JC told me that he was part of a group that was going joining the European League of Football.  He explained that he and three other guys had put together half the finances and that they also had a majority owner at 51%.  All five of these guys were friends and had played together in Winterthur at one-time.

In my mind…. I am thinking friends and business don’t end up being friends or in business eventually.  Sorry to say I was right – but that’s another story.

The team would be called the Helvetic Guards and be based in Zurich.  That makes sense because if you think about Switzerland and major cities (with airports) you have Zurich, Geneva and Basel (I guess you can count Bern as well).

He told me that he and Matt Hammer (another acquaintance) were going to be “Athletic Directors” and they would be charged with developing a roster and finding coaches.  This is where I would come in.

They wanted me to coach with the team.

I shook JC off by telling him I would help – but my heart was in Thun with the Tigers and their club.  I’d help them build the team and use my contacts to help them build a coaching staff as well.  But my intentions were to stay in Thun.

I must have a giant “S” on my forehead that stands for “Sucker!”

A few nights later I am in the Radison Blu Hotel in the Zurich airport (which is an extraordinary place by the way).  Matt and JC come over to spend some time with me before I leave.

We do an interview via zoom with one of the bigger sports personalities in Switzerland – Manuel Aeberli.  It was fun and as it moved along I swear the “S” on my forehead was pulsating.

But, in my mind I figured I get on the jet the next morning and fly home and in the following weeks things would just go away in regards to the Helvetic Guards.

“Not so fast Kemosabe!”

 

 

In 2020 The European League of Football (ELF) was created with Željko Karajica as the  Chief Executive Officer and Patrick Esume as the Commisioner.  It appears that the goal of the entire operation was to create a professional football league that could be sustained with mostly local players.

By local I mean from the same country not necessarily from the same city or the particular area where the team was located.  The hope was to create interest among the citizens of Europe.

It’s the opposite approach the NFLE (National Football League Europe).  The NFLE made a mistake in thinking Europe would become a giant market if they brought mostly US players to various cities in those countries.

They were right – it is a giant market.  Mostly untapped when it comes to football.  Actually, there is a great deal of interest in football – the NFL games overseas are giant hits.  With the time differences between the continents it is a bit difficult – but quite honestly Europe loves pro football.

Their mistake is believing that Europe would embrace the games and produce big crowds.  Well, without local players the NFLE was destined to fail.

The ELF has an interesting approach.  There is no doubt that you need some talent at key positions like quarterback, speed wide receiver, pass rusher and a cover cornerback.  With that in mind the league rules allow each team to have a total of four imports from either the US, Canada, Japan or Mexico (almost all are from the US).

Each team can also roster six players from another country in Europe other than their home base.  For instance, German teams can add six players from say various countries like France, Austria, Spain etc.

The team in Paris can get a six-man combination from maybe Germany, Spain, Denmark etc.

The rest of the roster has to be generated from the team’s home country.

Currently teams in the league are allowed a roster of 65 players.  The make-up would be 53 active players and 12 practice squad members.  (46 are allowed on game day).

So, in reality you need to try and find 55 players who are “home-grown.”

Not a problem for most European countries with large populations – but Switzerland is small.

The nine countries which have franchises in the ELF population wise:  Germany (83.2 Million), France (64.7M), Italy (58.7M), Spain (47.5M), Poland (41M), Czech Republic (10.4M), Hungary (10.1M), Austria (8.9M), Switzerland (8.7M)

Interestingly enough your “country of origin” is not according to your passport.  But rather to where you started playing football!  We have a few players from western part of Switzerland who live in Switzerland but actually started playing football in France.  Therefore they would count as imports if they played for their actual country!

Teams throughout Europe … most in Germany.

First year (2021) there were eight teams:

• Hamburg Sea Devils (Germany)
• Frankfurt Galaxy (Germany)
• Leipzig Kings (Germany)
• Cologne Centurians (Germany)
• Barcelona Dragons (Spain)
• Stuttgart Surge (Germany)
• Wroclaw Panthers (Poland)
• Berlin Thunder (Germany)

Second year (2022) four teams added :

• Vienna Vikings (Austria)
• Tirol Raiders (Austria)
• Istanbul Rams (Turkey)
• Rhein Fire (Germany)

Third year (2023):

Istanbul withdraws after the second season.

New Teams added:

• Paris Muskateers (France)
• Prague Lions (Czech Republic)
• Helvetic Guards (Switzerland)
• Munich Ravens (Germany)
• Milano Seamen (Italy)
• Fehérár Enthroners (Hungary)

Leipzig Kings withdraw during the season.

Prague suspends play for a week … the league bails the franchise out so they can play.

The European League of Football play with NFL rules with exception of kickoff –  which is designed to be similar to the XFL’s rules.

The ELF overtime rule is like the NCAA format.

Note here:  Referees are improving … but they have a tendency to watch the game and miss things right in front of them.  Often the more powerful and established teams have a definite advantage in games in regards to penalty calls.  I do see it getting better though.

My belief is that the ELF administration is trying to “shine-up” their product and hopefully get the NFL interested enough to put some money into the league.  I’m not sure that this could happen despite the growing popularity of football.

I’m guessing the NFL is happy enough to let someone else spend their money and still come and give the best ELF players a tryout and perhaps even keep one on the practice squad.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

As I said in the Facebook post I’ll expand upon what I wrote there.

After watching our team – the Helvetic Guards –  play in the European League of Football (ELF) this year I came away with a greater appreciation of the players and teams throughout the league.  The ELF is certainly competitive and the level of play has continued to improve over the its three years of existence.

Now, we weren’t able to compete with the majority of the teams we played … but as an expansion team I think we got a lot of things done.  Not enough – there was definitely progress.

Our 3-9 finish in the first year of our franchise was certainly not the result we hoped for.  But, when you examine the season … it’s what we earned.  Looking at the breadth of the schedule I guess you can say we might have been able to do a little better.

Had we played a little more consistently in the opener we might have been able to beat the Dragons in Barcelona in our opening game.  A few weeks later we lost to the Milano Seamen in Italy after our import QB Collin Hill was lost for the season.

Without Collin the early part of our season quickly spun out of control.

Then again … I’m sure both the Dragons and Milan certainly are thinking the same way from the opposite side.  They probably feel that they could have beaten us a second time in the back half of the schedule.

So reality is reality – we ended up 3-9.

There are certain teams that we just could not compete with due to the strength of rosters.  For example, we don’t have anywhere near the talent that the Rhein Fire or the Tirol Raiders have on their team.  These are not excuses – they are just facts.

Along with the Stuttgart Surge they just have access to better players and have fantastic foundations already in place.  We are restricted in our player selection and we have absolutely no physical facilities to work with.

We have basically two practice fields – neither are full sized, neither have goal posts.  Only one has lights (and we practice in the evening.

But, I will explain that as we go on in the next few posts.

Man-for-man (or will the PC police make me say person-for-person?) we can line up against Milano and Barcelona in our division and perhaps Paris, the Cologne Centurians, Prague, and the team in Hungary (Fehervar Enthroners) who play in the other two divisions.

Other than that – our team could not really compare talent man-for-man with the other teams.

Really, once we lost our import QB – Collin Hill – in game three and the inability of our front office to replace him quickly really hurt us.  We had to jury rig our offense and we basically played four games without a competitive player under center.

Everyone knows you cannot win without a quarterback.  Arguably Collin might have been the best thrower in the ELF.  That injury was particularly frustrating because Collin was such a gifted player and so critical to our team.

To become a competitive team there has to be an emphasis on roster development and perhaps creating a scouting department.  But, there has been no discussion about these critical areas to my knowledge.

But, again stories for a later time.