Month: October 2023

I jump on a jet to get back home to the US.  The rest of the coaches stay behind and tour Luzern and potential apartment possibilities (good luck with that – because they are extremely limited).

Norm and his family rent a car and begin to see the sights of Switzerland!

After leaving Zurich for home I realized that this new (mis)adventure would be a little more serious and complicated within the European League of Football (ELF).  I’ve watched the games and this is a serious league with the best players throughout the continent.

We now have a lot more people who are involved and especially on the coaching staff these are pretty high-level guys.  People who have all contributed to successful teams and franchises by designing offensive plays, defensive schemes.

This franchise building is going to be very challenging because there are so many unknowns.

For instance …. to this point we have no extended visas for US coaches and the four A-tag players (trust me this will be an issue, having gone through it before in Switzerland), no housing secured (I repeat this will be a lot harder than our management team thinks), No practice facility, no video equipment, no stadium (well, that’s a problem)!

Then let’s look at the very shaky front office set up.  I love the guys … but, they have no idea how this will work out.  Really inexperienced … not their fault obviously.  But, they will have to learn fast!

I keep hearing the word “professionalism” … let’s hope we can find it.

Oh yeah, most importantly … well we still haven’t signed our roster for the first version of the Helvetic Guards!

I furnished them with a list of things they should look at.  Ideas that we had put together as a coaching staff. Just common situations then would have to face.

Months later … many of these things had not even been addressed.  It’s like they lost those vital points.

Our management is young and full of energy.   But, they will have to learn fast because there are a lot of things to get done before we can even start practicing.  Obviously, the experience of the coaching staff will be invaluable … but at some point they will have to carry the load.

It will be challenging … but all good things are difficult to attain!

Well, no one said it would be easy … and no one said this would be fair.

There was no doubt that we were very excited about the results of the combine.  Both days went very well and I was very happy that everything played out pretty much the way Matt Hammer and JC Williams planned it out.

Certainly, parts didn’t turn out exactly as planned.  But, which person who was attending had ever been to an organized combine before?   No one who was watching or attending knew how it was supposed to work plus … then there was the rain … we can’t control the rain.  If you think about it, the only people who actually had attended a “real” combine were the coaches from the US.

And, we felt pretty good about the entirety of this workout!

The European coaches and players had seen and been involved with football combines.  But, not to the extent that we had.  That doesn’t mean we know everything … we don’t.  But when you sit through year after year of the NFL combine as we all have.  Well, we look at things a little differently.

But, this was certainly a very good showcase of Swiss talent.  Actually, I was proud of what I saw from the players.  The football in Switzerland has improved over the five or six years I have been in my second homeland.

The players, the coaches have continued to advance!  It’s really exciting to see.  We aren’t anywhere we need to be … but we continue forward in our small country.

Was this a perfect effort … well, no but… it was pretty damn good in my opinion.  One big problem was  this – we need to find so many more players.  That didn’t bode well for the Helvetic Guards first incursion (college word Betsy!) into the European League of Football (ELF).

Coaching is important – but the players on the team are the key to success.  Your personnel is (are) the most important part of the organization.  (You can draw all the “X’s and O’s” you want – but it takes the ability of players to make those schemes work.)

We were all  happy with the overall effort by everyone involved.  The coaches, athletes, aides … they were all on point and worked hard to make this venture successful.

In our after action meeting it was obvious that our current ownership was happy with the weekend. Matt Hammer and JC Williams should be complimented for their tireless work and their efforts.  All of us saw that this was not going to easy!

So, we did gather for one last meeting (thankfully only a few hours).

We were all happy and backslapping.

When you have this kind of “joyjacking” sometimes weird things happen.

As we continued with our meeting we addressed what our plans going forward should be.  Norm Chow – our head coach – brought up that we needed to get our Swiss players signed up and put the final touches to our roster.

Now that we had seen, or at least met with the best Swiss players we had to try and get our roster signed.  I think we all realized that this would not be easy.  We needed our primary owner (Mukka) to take the lead on this since he controlled the money and would delegate how it was parsed out in the salary cap.

Matt and JC were doing a good job – but they weren’t privy to the amount of money available.  So, how could they design contracts??   We just needed to get everyone on the same page.  We needed all hands on deck to get the Swiss players on our roster.  Norm agreed and we all agreed that we needed as much help as we could get.

But, since Mukka was the money man … he should be in charge of the contracts.

One thing Mukka also wanted to do was to get more publicity around the team.  He wanted to have a “party” or gathering for the players we had signed.  Toni – jumped on that and said we could get this done and put it out to the public.

Bob Palcic posed the question … well maybe we should have a Super Bowl party and we could all come back to Switzerland!  Nice … but in my mind I’m thinking that this is a bad idea.  (Thinking finances of bringing five or six coaches to Zurich from the US)!

Mukka jumped on this idea and said it would be a great thing to do.  We could do that and also have a “Mini-camp” the week before the SB party.

Are you shitting me???  This will cost twenty to twenty-five thousand dollars to get it done (six round trip flights, housing for six or seven days, food for the coaches, field rental for practices, miscellaneous expenses).  Well, maybe there was a lot more money than I thought!

Another Swiss vacation I guess!  (Chevy Chase … European Vacation!)

 

 

Second day of the combine starts up!

Sun is out…what a fantastic start to the day here in Switzerland.

The long and winding road (that Beatles’ song again) from Konstanz to Luzern promised a nice day.  It would certainly be muddy on the outdoor field, but the sun would make it a pleasant October day.

The US coaches are all looking forward to this day.  Our chance to work with the guys.

I’ve seen most of these coaches on the football field before … they are the very good teachers and motivators.  Looking forward to watching them have a chance to coach these eager players.  The energy from yesterday will be amplified (college word) now that we are actually playing real football.

The goal of the second day of the combine will be to actually conduct workouts for the various positions.  Norm wants each of us to spend as much time as we can with our individual groups.

He would take the QB’s and running backs, Mike the wide receivers and tight ends, Bob the offensive line.  Defensively Otis would lead our charge.

We were tasked with working the players with specific drills and also to talk to as many as possible and get a sense of who they are.  Norm gets it … the fun part about working in football is getting to know new people.

Plus, these are not only new players … but we are in an entirely different country.  Change in language, traditions and obviously a different approach to the game of football!

Unlike at the NFL Combine we don’t have the “scouting report” about the players we would be working with ahead of time.  This would be a “blind” workout.  With the exception of a few players I knew …these were unknown prospects (suspects?).

I spend a few minutes with some management guys before we really got going. They seemed excited and basically asked me for a quick assessment…I told them I thought things were going very well.  Hell…it’s football why wouldn’t it be exciting?!

Really, the previous day went better than expected in my eyes.  That fired them up … I was happy and I hoped each of them understood that this would be a great day.

We get to watch the best of the Swiss players work and compete.

Football is never perfect and it is not an exact science.  I encouraged everyone to enjoy this DNP (Damn Near Perfect) day.

It seemed that everyone was beginning to see the vision … and we were all doing our best to work on this challenging project.  Starting everything from scratch – no players, no practice field, no stadium… so much more to address.

I truly wanted everyone to enjoy the day (I know that we six coaches from the US live for this stuff)  and we needed as many people to take part as possible … get involved by talking to the players and coaches… also to revel in the sunshine (OK … maybe the word revel is going too far!)

But, really this was the beginning of a whole new chapter in Swiss football… in coaching you learn not to look for perfection because you will waste your time (especially with some of the guys we had at the tryout) just try to find effort and excellence!

In sports, you have suspects and prospects.  Almost everyone we had at the combine were suspects.  But, they were eager and excited to compete and that’s all you can ask for.  It was our job as coaches to find those few prospects running around in the mud.

Now that all of the BS meetings were over with we were finally getting down to football!   Anyone who knew football had to be very happy with the direction the combine was moving.

There were several players in particular I was looking forward to seeing work.  I thought that one linebacker in particular –  John Falk would bring a lot of energy to the defensive side of the workout.  Plus, we had identified a few young receivers who might be interesting to bring on board.

Also, there was a defensive back (a police officer) from the the Konstanz Pirates who might be a practice squad player then there was also a young linebacker – Julian Conus who I had been told about earlier.

Julian would eventually make our roster and be a big part of our special teams with the Guards.  Late in the season he also played on the defense as he showed impressive development.

I thought we were at a good place right now.  We had made a great deal of headway considering it was October.  The Guards had come a long way in a few months….  still a long way to go … but let’s build this team one step at a time.

To me – let’s look at this team building process with optimism.

Listen … I can bullshit with the best of them.  My friend John Cordova calls me “Henry Kissinger Clemons” because I can get along with pretty much anyone (Well Switzerland in my second homeland … so I am neutral – right?).

Let’s look on the bright side .. the sun was shining and we could see the mountains surrounding  Luzern. Absolutely beautiful!

Now the field was a little mucky and maybe Paul Simon’s “Slip Sliding Away” might be appropriate.  Hah … what a life!

The first day of the Helvetic Guards combine workout dawns … or emerges … with dark slate gray clouds.

As I look out the window from our really nice house in Konstanz (not sure if we are in Switzerland or Germany??) it’s raining.  Just like it has been doing for the last few days.  If we didn’t have an indoor area for the combine this could be a really shitty day.

We have a drive of two and a half hours to get to the workout.  So, we get an early start.

The distance is a danger signal … we haven’t been able to secure workout or practice areas in the Zurich area where the team is supposed to be located.  We have to travel a pretty significant distance to Emmen (outside of Luzern).

Mukka Erdonez (basically our franchise owner) says to us not to worry about the practice areas, office space, apartments and stadium in the Zurich area (Not to mention our visas).  Claiming it will be easily handled and he was working on it.  This two and a half hour inconvenience for today and tomorrow to run a combine is a one-time thing.

“Don’t worry about it … I have it under control.”

The other guys may not be worrying about it … but I am beginning think our ownership might not be telling the entire truth.  (But, countering my fears – to a man on the business side of our team – they claim Mukka has more money than God.)

Whether or not he has that kind of money will be irrelevant when he screws us in another month or so.

 Anyway, we all jam into several cars and begin the long and winding road (wow that might be a title for a song at some point??) that leads to Luzern.  I think we all get to have a snooze time during the lengthy journey.  Hopefully our driver Ferhat was awake all the way.

When we arrive at the workout site it starts to rain a little harder.  It’s good we arranged to have the school’s gymnasium.  It’s plenty big enough if we can get everything planned out.  I know Mukka is anxious about putting on a good show.

It seems to me that we might be too worried about appearance and not enough about substance.  We are here to find some ball players.  But, management is concerned about selling merchandise and making some money.  I can tell by comments made by some guys on the staff that this is concerning to them.

But, on we go!

Matt and JC do a good job of organizing the stations (actually a great job).  We have plenty of help from local coaches.  We have timers and recorders – clipboards, pens – everything we need to get it off the ground.

Now all we need to do is find some players.

As the day progresses and the drills executed as coaches we circulate and meet as many players as we can.  I know several and introduce them to different guys on the staff.  It’s a lot of fun visiting with some of the players I knew from the Swiss league ( Swiss American Football Verband or SAFV).

I made sure to get the important guys with Norm so he could see who we were dealing with.  Unfortunately, we had several guys who could not work because they were injured.  But, all would be ready when we started up in April.

You could literally feel the excitement and optimism surrounding the development of a new team to play at the highest level in Europe.

One drawback of the set-up is that we had to run the key test outside – the 40-yard dash.  Running the “40” in the rain on a slippery surface was not really conducive to judging speed.  But, that’s all we had.

For me, I got to spend time with John Falk who would be a key member of our defensive team.  He was a very solid player – once played for the German League (GFL) champions.  He had been retired for a few years and served as a defensive coordinator for the Bern Grizzlies in the Swiss league as well as the Thonon Black Panthers in France.

A very tough guy physically and also a player who really studied the game.  You could see that his intensity would make him a bigtime leader on the team.  He had a lot of ideas on what we should do as a team and the direction we should be going.

It’s pretty apparent that he’s going to have a lot of opinions about many things in regards to the team!

 

Also, had some time to sit down with Lukas Ruoss.  Lukas was a very impressive outside linebacker who played for the Rhein Fire in the ELF last season.  Although a Swiss player he played in junior college in there US and then he went on to play at Bemidji State in Minnesota.

A very impressive 6-3 and 230 pounds he was certainly confident in his abilities (he actually is now on the practice for Saskatchewan Rough Riders of the Canadian Football League [CFL]).

Now most of us have recruited Division 1 players … so you can get a feel for guys as you talk to them.  It was pretty clear to me that we weren’t going to have a really good chance of getting Ruoss.  We didn’t have the resources to make him happy and he was already playing for one of the best teams in the ELF.

He later signed again with the Fire before being brought to Canada for the Rough Riders.

I can’t blame anyone for making decisions that are good for them.  We want to get the best Swiss players obviously… but as in Ruoss’ case – why would he leave one of the contending teams in the ELF?

Anyway, it was a really well-run day by Matt and JC and the coaches they enlisted for the combine.  Well done Matt!

 

 

 

 

Well, Mukka said we still needed one more meeting the day before the combine.  Since he was the primary owner we understood that we needed to acquiesce (college word) to his wishes.  He set the time for ten or so.

Norm quickly gathered the coaching staff alone and said we would meet without the management guys at nine to get some things squared away.

Well, we got together the next morning and Norm immediately set the ground rules for our guys on the staff.  We wanted to steer the meeting in a direction with no fireworks – and we wanted it to go quickly.

So, the first thing he said was something to the effect of “guys – don’t ask any questions… it just extends the meeting time and creates opportunities for heated discussions.”  We all agreed to a man.

Let me tell you – that lasted about five minutes once the big meeting started.

Mukka got the gathering started and he wanted to talk about what we needed during the season in regards to equipment, video-taping and medical arrangements for practice.

Norm could certainly address that (plus we already had given Matt and JC a preliminary list of what we should (emphasis on should) have.  That would come down to money – which Mukka assured us was there!

Instead Otis Smith jumped in and started asking questions about the availability of tackling sleds and basic practice equipment … not to be outdone – Mike Wilson wanted to know some other stuff.

First of all – Norm asked us all to just shut-up  and let the meeting get over with and we would fix any problems later.

Otis and Mike were in a dueling contest about bullshit.

As this lengthy cross talk was taking place … Norm looked at me   … I went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea (should have put some whiskey in it).

Oh yeah Bob got involved somehow and that just added more wood to the fire.

I guess none of them heard the discussion in our coaching meeting.

We were dealing with amateurs and then we had to have some of our group just keeping senseless discussions going.  We had plenty of time to get things squared away – didn’t need to turn this into an open forum.

We worked our way through another series of “Mukka Lists” and finally got it all done.

Now I must say Mukka did take us to some wonderful dinners despite the fact that we assured him pizza or sandwiches and beer was just fine with us.

Nope!

Instead we went to some wonderful steakhouse in Konstanz, Germany.  Mukka ordered all kinds of things … broke out some special wines for Otis’ and Bob’s wives.

Although there was no Coors Light – the German beer was damn good!

Fantastic meal …. Should get us ready for the combine tomorrow!

 

 

 

We started the first off staff meetings the very next morning – which was fine.  We included all the coaches and the complete administrative staff.  A total of thirteen of us in a room that probably should have held ten.  But, we dragged in some extra chairs and I sat halfway in the hallway.

From the management side we had Mukka Erdonmez (President and primary owner), Toni Zöeller (Communications), Zeki Öxtürk (Head of Operations), Ferhat Kahraman (Head of Administration).  Our sporting organization was Matt Hammer and JC Williams (Athletic Directors), Norm Chow (Head Coach), Otis Smith (Defensive Coordinator), Mike Wilson (Wide Receivers), Bob Palcic (Offensive line), Darius Willis (Running Backs), Bert Hill (Defensive Line) and myself.

This group would look way different a few months later!

As the Guard’s primary owner Mukka headed up the meeting … he allowed Norm to start off with an intro and also his vision of the team.  A good idea in my eyes since he was going to control the day to day operations of our team.

Mukka was a top dog at XL Insurance (a giant worldwide group) he had a bigtime title – Head of International Casualty Europe, Africa and Latin America.  He had a a PHD in International Management from University of St. Gallen in Switzerland.  (This is one of the best business schools in the world).  I’ve been assured by many people that he is for real!

When Mukka took over the meeting it was apparent that he was used to directing people.  Now leadership obviously can go in many directions.  Mukka liked making lists and assigning people tasks with timelines.

He also liked to show everyone who was in charge.  After a few preliminaries about trust, building a team and having fun together.  He then commenced to start chewing some ass.

Taking all of us from the states by surprise  — he started in

on JC and Matt.  He was very aggressive and wanted to know why Matt hadn’t signed more guys … why a list of guys he gave to Matt wasn’t graded and in some spread sheet.

JC got the same barrage with both barrels.  Why do we have so many spread sheets with different information … why are they impossible to read?  Wow.

Well…so much for trust, friendship and the like.  Maybe this was his management style.

I happened to be glancing at Norm and Otis as this was going on.  I could see them lower their heads and take down a few notes – sensing what they were thinking.

Now, all of us had been ripped pretty good during our coaching careers at various times.  But, that was done by professionals to us also as professionals where the stakes were way higher than the European League of Football.

Norm tried to calm the seas and intercede by telling Mukka that he and I had set up a scouting system and were building an evaluated and graded database by position.  We brought Darius into the conversation who really knew the Swiss players.

The temperature in the room cooled considerably and we did work through a computerized list we were able to show on a big screen TV.  It became apparent we did have a lot of work to do on several guys.   But in reality, we already had four A-tag players signed and several E-tag guys lined up as well.

Those players were key.  We then had some meetings set up with the best Swiss players during the combine. Mukka wanted to know the schedule for meetings and needed another list .. this time showing when these guys were showing up.

He lost it again when there really wasn’t a schedule for visiting with players.  Again, he started to get on Matt and JC.  But luckily, I was able to just say … it wasn’t going to be a problem.  Each of the coaches would be available all day during the combine and we only needed to concentrate on a handful at each position.  Plus, we would circulate when we weren’t doing a one-on-one meeting.

I assured him that we learned flexibility at the NFL combine because there were times in the early years before it became extremely organized that we had to adjust on the run.  It would get done … no sense in trying to control something we couldn’t.

We broke for lunch and most of the US coaches went outside to get some air and also to huddle about this shit show we just took part in.

Pretty much it was apparent that there wouldn’t be any BS taken from Mukka.  And yes …Bert said he might just throw him out the window if he there was any cannon fire at him.

Otis and I talked a little apart and he asked if this was normal … I told him – not in my wildest dreams did I expect our owner to lose his mind in the first 20 minutes we were together.

After lunch we got back to it.  Concentrating on the combine location, the logistics involved and the equipment required.  I know I was hoping this would be a shorter meeting.

But, once Mukka put his crosshairs on Matt again I got the feeling that this might turn into another heated session.  The problem was we didn’t have the players T-shirts for the combine.

Where they were was a question.

As an aside here – you have to understand this.  To print a bunch of t-shirts in Switzerland is expensive.  It’s much cheaper to have them made in Germany or Turkey.  But, then you have to get them through customs … another problem.  Something simple in the US is not that easy in Switzerland.

I guess Matt had ordered them weeks ago, but no one knew where they were.  Phone calls were going unanswered.  When they were picked up – the company couldn’t tell Matt where the truck was.  Mukka was getting fired up again.

We didn’t need another shit show like the morning … Norm and Otis cut everything off by saying we could live without t-shirts as long as we had accurate results and tabulation on a spread sheet.  JC jumped in and said that was under control.

The next thing on Mukka’s “list” was volunteers to run the combine.  Apparently, we had enough and even if Mukka was still asking for who was running what drill and who was recording the information we assured him that if we had the right number of coaches we could make it work.

The man was obsessed with the details … which I could appreciate.  But, I was just happy to get things started and get out of this meeting.

But, that wasn’t going to happen quite that easily.  Next, we had to line up the equipment we needed for the workout phase of the combine.  So, this fell to Zeki.  (Zeki is a fantastic guy – love him.)

Zeki, started with Bert (well, he was sitting next to him).  Bert needed five step-over bags, four hand shields and a big pass rush dummy if one was available.  Leave it to Bert to be ready.

Next was Bob – well despite the fact that he asked for basically the same thing as Bert it took him another fifteen minutes to design what he wanted to do – which we didn’t need.  We only cared about the equipment – it was up to each of us to set up our drills.

Darius asked for five step-over bags, six cones and 4 hand shields.

Poor Zeki had never done this before it was apparent to me … I asked him “OK Zek what do you have so far?”  He told that we needed 20 step over bags, about 12 hand shields, six cones.

Gently I said …whoa there Zeki!!!

I did tell him that all we needed was 10 step over bags and six hand shields with 30 cones.

He looked at me astounded and said but everyone needs 5 and that adds up to a lot more.  Mukka agreed that we needed many more..

I just tried to assure them we would be OK with that number because only one position group- was going at a time.

Therefore, just have a few extra of each and we would be fine.  Then – they got it.

The biggest pointer I gave them was this – make sure we have footballs.  That was the most important thing.

Man – we were going to have a task coaching these guys up.

Another meeting tomorrow morning!

The coaches from the US arrive in Zurich from various destinations … their landing times are all different so, it is basically an all-day sucker.  The pickups are on and off for the entire morning and afternoon.

But, we have some great help in picking up and dropping off the visitors.

Zeki Öztürk (Director of Operations), Ferhat Kahraman (Director of Administration), Toni Zöller (Communications) and Matt help all the coaches get from the Zurich Airport to our Airbnb and apartments for the week.

Bert flies in from Miami, Norm and Mike Wilson a direct shot from LA, Bob Palcic and his wife Theresa fly from DC.  Otis Smith and his wife from Newark.

Zeki and Ferhat then show us a great time at dinner.  We told them that we were perfectly fine with pizza and beer but they told us Mukka wanted them to entertain us at a restaurant.  We ate a lot and then hit the sack with many of the travelers having some form or another of jet lag.

Norm and I were lodged in a beautiful house with the others were in an apartment next door.

I felt a little awkward that Bob and Otis brought their wives because that meant Bert and Mike had to each share space in two bedroom apartments with married couples.  Yes, I get it … we are all adults and can handle it for a few days.

Sure, it is important for the wives to be comfortable with the situation we were entering.  Problem is … the expense you put on the club.  It’s not cheap to fly this many people to Europe, house, feed and entertain them.

When we spoke privately –  our head investor Mukka Erdonmez told Norm and I not to worry about anything financial because it was no problem.  Maybe it was foreshadowing … but the phrase “don’t worry about it …it’s under control.”

Well, should have been wary about that.

In my eyes finances are going to be an issue eventually … I’m not sure how much money the franchise group has.  We don’t want to spent a lot on “outside” expenses when we will need it for running the team later.

This is not the NFL and the sooner everyone understood that, the better.  We won’t be flying all over the place when we play games.  – that will be by bus (as much as six or seven hours) or train for the most part.  That is how it is done in Europe.

The way things were starting out … well not sure how this group would handle this when everything is laid out on the table during the week.

If things don’t work out (which would later occur with a few of our coaches in this [mis]adventure in football) it makes the remaining guys look like the “ugly Americans.    I have learned a lot over the years of coaching in Europe – each time you experience a problem situation you make sure it doesn’t happen again because it hurts your credibility.

US coaches working in Europe – well it takes a special personality and attitude.  I thought this experience might be rough on a few of our guys because I could sense a little lack of flexibility.  But, their credentials were impeccable and we needed to attract players to our team – exceptional coaches would help us do that.

Unfortunately, I found out I was right.

But you have to admit the credentials looked really good as we started out.

Norm Chow as the head coach/offensive coordinator.  Head coach at University of Hawaii  … many years as an offensive coordinator in the NCAA and then with the Tennessee Titans.  Coached on National Championship teams at BYU and USC.  Coached three Heisman Trophy winners.

Bob Palcic the offensive line coach at USC, UCLA, Ohio State, Wisconsin and SMU.  Then in the NFL with Detroit, New Orleans, Cleveland and Atlanta.  As much experience as was needed.  Unfortunately, when we got together it became apparent that his knee, hip and back might be a problem.  He had a hard time getting around and this could be a problem in Switzerland where there is a lot of walking.

Mike Wilson, Wide Receivers…four time Superbowl champ with the SF 49ers as a receiver.  Coached at Stanford, USC, Oakland Raiders, Arizona Cardinals, Cleveland Browns and the LA Wildcats of the XFL.

Darius Willis would coach our running backs.  Played halfback at Indiana University then after injuring his knee played in Europe for several years.  (Bern Grizzlies and Bienna Jets in Switzerland)  He now own a company called Willis Sports Organization in his second homeland of Switzerland.

Otis Smith was our defensive coordinator and secondary coach had played from 1990 until 2003 as a corner in the NFL for five different teams and won a Superbowl with the New England Patriots in 2002.  Otis played the final year of his illustrious career with the Lions where I got to know him.

Bert Hill would be the defensive line for the Helvetic Guards.  He and I coached with the Detroit Lions for eleven years.  Bert is in the Strength Coaches Hall of Fame.  A tremendous all around coach

 

Then there was me.

 

 

 

Quite a staff.

But, when the smoke would clear several months later … just Norm and I remained of the original staff.  Again, reaffirming my beliefs about finding experienced US coaches who have already been in Europe is key.  Lesson learned.

No sense in dealing with issues if you didn’t have to – continuing to learn that you better know the guys you try to bring overseas before you expend a lot of resources.

 

 

 

 

Matt Hammer and I traveled from Zurich to the beautiful city of Vienna, Austria.  Unfortunately, when we arrived there we never left the airport – so never got to see any of it.  After a short lay-over we jump on another jet to fly to Klagenfurt where the ELF championship was being played.

I asked Matt why the European League of Football (ELF) Championship was being held in a city that had no franchise.  If there was to be a game in Austria – why not Innsbruck or Vienna?  It didn’t make sense to me.  Think of the NFL having a championship game in Lubbock, Texas instead of Dallas?

Nothing wrong with Lubbock at all, but the city has no NFL franchise and it is a little out of the way for NFL fans.

Matt explained to me that the Wörthersee Stadion (now known as 28 Black Arena) was controlled by one of the partners and the ELF would reap the rewards of that partnership.  Therefore, the proceeds for the game would go directly to the league office.

Now I know that European sports operate a little different than they do in the states.  I am not saying that anything was underhanded (but I always reflect back on Sepp Blatter and corruption of FIFA funds as well as the controversial awarding of the 2022 Soccer World Cup to Qatar).

There were a lot of rumors about ELF money and where it was directed …. But then there are rumors and there are false promises.  So, we will let it go at that.

Prior to the game Matt and I attended the ELF management banquet.  It was interesting .. the food was good and listening to the speakers was fun … there was a lot of back slapping and congratulations as well.

There certainly was a lot to be proud of.

Matt and I were invited to attend the General Managers meeting the next day by the GM’s at the banquet.  It was nice of them to do it … but they were all very open with us during the evening and felt it would be helpful to the Guards to have someone from the club there to listen in.

That meeting was interesting.  As the forum moved along … it became apparent that there were several issues for the franchises.  Many of them had to do directly with the league office.

For instance, the profit sharing hadn’t been paid… travel that was supposed to be underwritten  didn’t shake out the way it was supposed to, uniforms and merchandising (controlled by the ELF) was not on time.

Not only was merchandising late but much of it was also incorrect.  For instance, your team might be the Wroclaw Panthers or the Barcelona Dragons … but your merchandise might have misspellings like Baclorna Dragons or your team might suddenly become the Wroclaw Surge.

Weird, but these things really happened.  Then, when the clubs sent the gear back to the manufacturer (owned by an ELF sponsor) they refused to replace merchandise or reimburse the money.

This happened a lot from what I gathered.  Now, one might ask … how can this be?  But .. this started to make me think the league itself might be a little shaky.  When we later inquired if anyone had a business plan from the ELF.  Hmmm – no solid answer on that.

Well, just a little strange to me.

The next day we attended the game at the stadium.  A very nice production although the weather did not cooperate early in the day.

Matt and I were treated very well and we were able to attend the game in the press box and sit in the outdoor seats in front of the box.  Everyone there was very accommodating.  It was a great game and the crowd was excited.

Vienna won the game over the Sea Devils.

It was a nice trip to be on with Matt and I learned a lot about our organization and also how the league operated from many of the franchise key players.  I was very impressed by how open they were with us – they truly wanted to help us start on the right foot.

I have to say my impression of the Guards was dampened when I found out that Mukka (primary owner of the team) didn’t allow the club to cover our expenses to the game.  So, Matt covered all the expenses without telling me until later.

Now, that made me worried about our own leadership and the finances they had.

We continued to develop the roster and coaching staff over the next several months.  Then our majority owner Mukka Erdonmez and our athletic directors (JC Williams and Matt Hammer) met with Norm Chow and myself via zoom.

The purpose was to develop a schedule for the fall.  We wanted to find a way to meet in person with the players and also start preparations for the season.  Mukka wanted to bring the entire US staff to Zurich to meet and also run an open combine for European players (we were looking for Swiss players primarily since we had pretty much organized our E-Tags.)

Now we knew when we were going to have the combine (October 1-2 or 2022).  So, it was decided that the coaches would come over at the end of September and stay in Zurich (actually Konstanz, Germany.)

I decided to go over a little early and watch the 2022 European League of Football (ELF)  Championship Game in Klagenfurt, Austria.  Matt Hammer would meet me when I arrived in Zurich and we would then fly together to Vienna and then to Klagenfurt.

We spent two nights in Klagenfurt attending the ELF banquet and the General Managers meeting before attending the game between the Vienna Vikings and the Hamburg Sea Devils.

 

One of our key targets to sign … Tim Hänni – was an ELF all-star for the Sea Devils.  I was really looking forward to the game and also watching him play.

The entire ELF Championship weekend was well done.  Even with the rainy weather the festivities the day before with games for kids, food trucks and tents…beer wagons (imagine that beer in Austria!?!)

The General Managers meeting was enlightening and also a little frightening as well.

More on that later.

Schedule for the Guards:

2022

September                           ELF Championship

September – October     Meetings (US coaches in Switzerland)

Meet and Greet with potential Swiss coaches

October                                 Open Combine (With US Coaches)

November                            Officially Sign “A” Tags (4) and E-Tags

November                            Group Tryouts

2023

Mid February                     Practice Sessions with US Coaches.

Mid February                    Super Bowl Gathering

Mid February                    Select 60-70 man roster

Mid February                   Strength Training Starts

April                                     OTA’s (No A-Tags allowed)

May 1                                  Begin Practice

September 3                 Season Start at Barcelona

 

 

 

 

So, we continue on building our roster for the Helvetic Guards and also our coaching staff.  We identify several players who were either on the National Team or playing in Germany for teams there.

We added Otis Smith as our Defensive Coordinator.  Otis was a friend and a long time NFL player who had coached in the pros as well.  I watched Otis finish his playing career in Detroit and guide our group of young defensive backs … showing them how to be professionals.  A really good man.

Our defense was now pretty much intact.  Otis would coordinate, Bert Hill coach the defensive line and I would handle the linebackers.  Later this would change dramatically before we would start the season.  But … in late August we appeared to be solidifying out coaches.

We would probably add another coach to work with Special Teams and also work on the offensive side.

We also found ourselves in really positive conversations with Swiss players who were competing for teams in Germany.

Adrian Fielder (linebacker) and Timmy Schürmann (linebacker) were with the Schwäbish Hall Unicorns.  Both excellent players on a team that was the champion of the powerful German Football League.

The Unicorns have always been a fantastic organization – one of the strongest teams in all of Europe … winning the 2021 European championship over the Tyrol Raiders in the CEFL Bowl 22-16..

We eventually signed both players and they strengthened our roster significantly.

We then turned to two other Swiss players in Germany – playing for Allgäu Comets.  Fabio Rothmund a linebacker and Pascal Ruegg a wide receiver – both excellent players.

Fabio played for the Swiss junior National Team when I worked with them and we played in Amsterdam against the German team and the Netherlands.  I have always been a fan and also it was easy to see that he continued to play better while with the Comets.

Pascal was recognized as one of the better football players to come out of Switzerland.  A very good receiver with good speed and great hands.  Unfortunately, after he signed with us he decided not to play for the Guards as we began to practice.

While I was really excited about getting Fabio we got even more good news when Andres Buri from the Bern Grizzlies agreed to come on board.  I had watched Andres play for several years.

He was a really hard-nosed player and he was what I always called a “knock-back hitter.”  In other words when he tackled you – went backwards.

The linebacker corps was certainly coming together nicely.  These guys were all good football players.

Norm Chow was also working hard on bolstering the offensive line … grabbing some Bern Grizzly players Timmy Schmid (who would be elected as one of our captains – and oh yeah he will be a doctor!) Jurg Stalder and Pascal Hollenstein.

Through Pascal I was reunited with one of my favorite players from the National team – JP Stadler.  JP is a terrific defensive tackle.  A tough guy who was dominant whenever he played.  He was also really interested in coming onto the squad.  A great addition to our team.

The defensive line just kept getting stronger.  We also were lucky to grab one of the most respected players in Switzerland – Mike Sousa. He was going to join the Guards to play his last year of competing.

Soon after we also were able to land giant Milos Panic as another defensive tackle.  I had known Milos for many years as he played for the Zurich Renegades in the Swiss American Football Verband (SAFV).

Then there was the addition of up and coming linebacker Julian Conus.  He would eventually become one of our best special teams player with a bright future.