1.
European Football League
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The European Football League is a tournament for European American football teams affiliated to EFAF. Until 2013, the game of the EFL was the Eurobowl. In 2014, the EFL was replaced as Europes top-tier club competition by the new BIG6 European Football League, under the governance of EFAF, the best American Football teams in Europe participate in annual competitions. Until 2013, the EFL was the competition for American football clubs in Europe. EFAF determined the relative strength of each of its 17 affiliate leagues and allocated teams to the 4 divisions accordingly, national league champions, runners-up or teams with international success were eligible for the EFL. Teams from weaker leagues could take part in the EFAF Cup, the final game of the EFL was the Eurobowl, which has been held annually since 1986. In 2014, the BIG6 European Football League was introduced as the new competition of American football in Europe. The EFL continued to be played as a competition, with its teams playing for the newly created EFL Bowl trophy. The inaugural EFL Bowl was won by the Kiel Baltic Hurricanes of Germany against Spains Badalona Dracs on 20 July 2014. From 2017 on, the EFL Bowl winners may play a game against the last placed team of the BIG6. Until 2013, Teams were split into 4 divisions of 3 or 2 teams, in a division of 3, teams played 2 matches, once at home to one opponent and the other away to the other opponent. In a division of 2 teams, each played each other home. The division winners advanced to the play-offs. The play-off format was changed for the 2008 season, the tournament was expanded to an eight-team competition. In quarterfinals these teams faced the four winners of the divisional round, in semi-finals teams were paired by the Eurobowl seeding system, with the best-seeded team facing the worst and the second-best facing the second-worst. Winners then advanced to the Eurobowl, with the start of the Big6 in 2014, the format of the EFL changed again. Six teams played in two divisions of three teams, the winners of the groups advanced to the EFL Bowl. For a list of champions by year before 2014, see Eurobowl, † Listed are Eurobowls from 1986 to 2013 and EFL Bowls from 2014 on
2.
World Football League
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The World Football League was a short-lived American football league that played in 1974 and part of 1975. Although the leagues proclaimed ambition was to bring American football onto a worldwide stage, the league folded midway through its second season, in 1975. A new minor football league began play as the World Football League in 2008 after acquiring the rights to its trademarks, gary Davidson was the driving force behind the WFL. His World Football League did not bring any surviving teams into the National Football League, to get the league off the ground, Davidson knew he needed investors. At a press conference held in Chicago, Davidson announced his core of investors, perhaps one of the biggest of the founding fathers was a Canadian movie producer, John F. Bassett. A former tennis prodigy and owner of the WHAs Toronto Toros, the family owned the Toronto Argonauts of the Canadian Football League, two Toronto newspapers and interests in television stations. The younger Bassett himself had been mulling over starting his own football league when he happened to meet Davidson and was given a franchise for Toronto. Several prospective owners were forced to drop out, Davidson was willing to sell his Philadelphia team to investor Harry Jay Katz. Alas, Davidson would learn that Katz didnt have the resources that he claimed. Davidson pulled back his offer to sell the rights to Philadelphia and he nearly sold the Detroit franchise to a man named Bud Huchul, but it was later discovered Huchul had been arrested 30 times and faced 27 lawsuits related to his previous business dealings. Davidson had initially planned for his league to play in 1975. However, the league came under pressure to accelerate its timetable, one team went through several identities. The team slated to play in Maryland was to be called the Washington Capitals, a contest held to name the team came up with the name Ambassadors. The team then became the Baltimore-Washington Ambassadors, and then the Baltimore name was dropped, in order to boost ticket sales, Washington owner Joe Wheeler offered former Baltimore Colts quarterback Johnny Unitas a contract as head coach and general manager of the team. Unitas declined, stating that he was already under contract to the San Diego Chargers, spurned by Unitas, Wheeler reached out to Redskins linebacker Jack Pardee with the same offer. Pardee jumped at the chance, and quickly signed with the new league, Wheeler in the meantime had engaged in a war for territory with Pardees old boss, Redskins owner Edward Bennett Williams. Wheeler wanted the Ambassadors to play at RFK Stadium, but Williams refused to allow it, Williams won the war, and the Ambassadors were on the move. The fledgling WFL did succeed in raising stagnant salaries in the NFL, with the uncertain labor situation, the WFL had the opportunity to provide players with a better deal than the established leagues would give them, along with the promise of employment
3.
American football
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The offense must advance at least ten yards in four downs, or plays, or else they turn over the football to the opposing team, if they succeed, they are given a new set of four downs. Points are primarily scored by advancing the ball into the teams end zone for a touchdown or kicking the ball through the opponents goalposts for a field goal. The team with the most points at the end of a game wins, American football evolved in the United States, originating from the sports of association football and rugby football. The first game of American football was played on November 6,1869, during the latter half of the 1870s, colleges playing association football switched to the Rugby Union code, which allowed carrying the ball. American football as a whole is the most popular sport in the United States, Professional football and college football are the most popular forms of the game, with the other major levels being high school and youth football. As of 2012, nearly 1.1 million high school athletes and 70,000 college athletes play the sport in the United States annually, almost all of them men, in the United States, American football is referred to as football. The term football was established in the rulebook for the 1876 college football season. The terms gridiron or American football are favored in English-speaking countries where other codes of football are popular, such as the United Kingdom, Ireland, New Zealand, American football evolved from the sports of association football and rugby football. What is considered to be the first American football game was played on November 6,1869 between Rutgers and Princeton, two college teams, the game was played between two teams of 25 players each and used a round ball that could not be picked up or carried. It could, however, be kicked or batted with the feet, hands, head or sides, Rutgers won the game 6 goals to 4. Collegiate play continued for years in which matches were played using the rules of the host school. Representatives of Yale, Columbia, Princeton and Rutgers met on October 19,1873 to create a set of rules for all schools to adhere to. Teams were set at 20 players each, and fields of 400 by 250 feet were specified, Harvard abstained from the conference, as they favored a rugby-style game that allowed running with the ball. An 1875 Harvard-Yale game played under rugby-style rules was observed by two impressed Princeton athletes and these players introduced the sport to Princeton, a feat the Professional Football Researchers Association compared to selling refrigerators to Eskimos. Princeton, Harvard, Yale and Columbia then agreed to play using a form of rugby union rules with a modified scoring system. These schools formed the Intercollegiate Football Association, although Yale did not join until 1879, the introduction of the snap resulted in unexpected consequences. Prior to the snap, the strategy had been to punt if a scrum resulted in bad field position, however, a group of Princeton players realized that, as the snap was uncontested, they now could hold the ball indefinitely to prevent their opponent from scoring. In 1881, both teams in a game between Yale-Princeton used this strategy to maintain their undefeated records, each team held the ball, gaining no ground, for an entire half, resulting in a 0-0 tie
4.
National Football League
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The National Football League is a professional American football league consisting of 32 teams, divided equally between the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference. The NFL is one of the four professional sports leagues in North America. The NFLs 17-week regular season runs from the week after Labor Day to the week after Christmas, with each team playing 16 games, the NFL was formed in 1920 as the American Professional Football Association before renaming itself the National Football League for the 1922 season. The NFL agreed to merge with the American Football League in 1966, and the first Super Bowl was held at the end of that season, the merger was completed in 1970. Today, the NFL has the highest average attendance of any sports league in the world and is the most popular sports league in the United States. S. The NFLs executive officer is the commissioner, who has authority in governing the league. The team with the most NFL championships is the Green Bay Packers with thirteen, the current NFL champions are the New England Patriots, who defeated the Atlanta Falcons 34–28 in Super Bowl LI. Another meeting held on September 17,1920 resulted in the renaming of the league to the American Professional Football Association, the league hired Jim Thorpe as its first president, and consisted of 14 teams. Only two of these teams, the Decatur Staleys and the Chicago Cardinals, remain, the first event occurred on September 26,1920 when the Rock Island Independents defeated the non-league St. Paul Ideals 48–0 at Douglas Park. On October 3,1920, the first full week of league play occurred, the following season resulted in the Chicago Staleys controversially winning the title over the Buffalo All-Americans. In 1922, the APFA changed its name to the National Football League, in 1932, the season ended with the Chicago Bears and the Portsmouth Spartans tied for first in the league standings. This method had used since the leagues creation in 1920. The league quickly determined that a game between Chicago and Portsmouth was needed to decide the leagues champion. Playing with altered rules to accommodate the playing field, the Bears won the game 9–0. Fan interest in the de facto championship game led the NFL, beginning in 1933, the 1934 season also marked the first of 12 seasons in which African Americans were absent from the league. The de facto ban was rescinded in 1946, following public pressure, the NFL was always the foremost professional football league in the United States, it nevertheless faced a large number of rival professional leagues through the 1930s and 1940s. Rival leagues included at least three separate American Football Leagues and the All-America Football Conference, on top of regional leagues of varying caliber. Three NFL teams trace their histories to these leagues, including the Los Angeles Rams
5.
Germany
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Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a federal parliamentary republic in central-western Europe. It includes 16 constituent states, covers an area of 357,021 square kilometres, with about 82 million inhabitants, Germany is the most populous member state of the European Union. After the United States, it is the second most popular destination in the world. Germanys capital and largest metropolis is Berlin, while its largest conurbation is the Ruhr, other major cities include Hamburg, Munich, Cologne, Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Düsseldorf and Leipzig. Various Germanic tribes have inhabited the northern parts of modern Germany since classical antiquity, a region named Germania was documented before 100 AD. During the Migration Period the Germanic tribes expanded southward, beginning in the 10th century, German territories formed a central part of the Holy Roman Empire. During the 16th century, northern German regions became the centre of the Protestant Reformation, in 1871, Germany became a nation state when most of the German states unified into the Prussian-dominated German Empire. After World War I and the German Revolution of 1918–1919, the Empire was replaced by the parliamentary Weimar Republic, the establishment of the national socialist dictatorship in 1933 led to World War II and the Holocaust. After a period of Allied occupation, two German states were founded, the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic, in 1990, the country was reunified. In the 21st century, Germany is a power and has the worlds fourth-largest economy by nominal GDP. As a global leader in industrial and technological sectors, it is both the worlds third-largest exporter and importer of goods. Germany is a country with a very high standard of living sustained by a skilled. It upholds a social security and universal health system, environmental protection. Germany was a member of the European Economic Community in 1957. It is part of the Schengen Area, and became a co-founder of the Eurozone in 1999, Germany is a member of the United Nations, NATO, the G8, the G20, and the OECD. The national military expenditure is the 9th highest in the world, the English word Germany derives from the Latin Germania, which came into use after Julius Caesar adopted it for the peoples east of the Rhine. This in turn descends from Proto-Germanic *þiudiskaz popular, derived from *þeudō, descended from Proto-Indo-European *tewtéh₂- people, the discovery of the Mauer 1 mandible shows that ancient humans were present in Germany at least 600,000 years ago. The oldest complete hunting weapons found anywhere in the world were discovered in a mine in Schöningen where three 380, 000-year-old wooden javelins were unearthed
6.
Netherlands
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The Netherlands is the main constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. It is a densely populated country located in Western Europe with three territories in the Caribbean. The European part of the Netherlands borders Germany to the east, Belgium to the south, and the North Sea to the northwest, sharing borders with Belgium, the United Kingdom. The three largest cities in the Netherlands are Amsterdam, Rotterdam and The Hague, Amsterdam is the countrys capital, while The Hague holds the Dutch seat of parliament and government. The port of Rotterdam is the worlds largest port outside East-Asia, the name Holland is used informally to refer to the whole of the country of the Netherlands. Netherlands literally means lower countries, influenced by its low land and flat geography, most of the areas below sea level are artificial. Since the late 16th century, large areas have been reclaimed from the sea and lakes, with a population density of 412 people per km2 –507 if water is excluded – the Netherlands is classified as a very densely populated country. Only Bangladesh, South Korea, and Taiwan have both a population and higher population density. Nevertheless, the Netherlands is the worlds second-largest exporter of food and agricultural products and this is partly due to the fertility of the soil and the mild climate. In 2001, it became the worlds first country to legalise same-sex marriage, the Netherlands is a founding member of the EU, Eurozone, G-10, NATO, OECD and WTO, as well as being a part of the Schengen Area and the trilateral Benelux Union. The first four are situated in The Hague, as is the EUs criminal intelligence agency Europol and this has led to the city being dubbed the worlds legal capital. The country also ranks second highest in the worlds 2016 Press Freedom Index, the Netherlands has a market-based mixed economy, ranking 17th of 177 countries according to the Index of Economic Freedom. It had the thirteenth-highest per capita income in the world in 2013 according to the International Monetary Fund, in 2013, the United Nations World Happiness Report ranked the Netherlands as the seventh-happiest country in the world, reflecting its high quality of life. The Netherlands also ranks joint second highest in the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index, the region called Low Countries and the country of the Netherlands have the same toponymy. Place names with Neder, Nieder, Nether and Nedre and Bas or Inferior are in use in all over Europe. They are sometimes used in a relation to a higher ground that consecutively is indicated as Upper, Boven, Oben. In the case of the Low Countries / the Netherlands the geographical location of the region has been more or less downstream. The geographical location of the region, however, changed over time tremendously
7.
Spain
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By population, Spain is the sixth largest in Europe and the fifth in the European Union. Spains capital and largest city is Madrid, other urban areas include Barcelona, Valencia, Seville, Bilbao. Modern humans first arrived in the Iberian Peninsula around 35,000 years ago, in the Middle Ages, the area was conquered by Germanic tribes and later by the Moors. Spain is a democracy organised in the form of a government under a constitutional monarchy. It is a power and a major developed country with the worlds fourteenth largest economy by nominal GDP. Jesús Luis Cunchillos argues that the root of the span is the Phoenician word spy. Therefore, i-spn-ya would mean the land where metals are forged, two 15th-century Spanish Jewish scholars, Don Isaac Abravanel and Solomon ibn Verga, gave an explanation now considered folkloric. Both men wrote in two different published works that the first Jews to reach Spain were brought by ship by Phiros who was confederate with the king of Babylon when he laid siege to Jerusalem. This man was a Grecian by birth, but who had given a kingdom in Spain. He became related by marriage to Espan, the nephew of king Heracles, Heracles later renounced his throne in preference for his native Greece, leaving his kingdom to his nephew, Espan, from whom the country of España took its name. Based upon their testimonies, this eponym would have already been in use in Spain by c.350 BCE, Iberia enters written records as a land populated largely by the Iberians, Basques and Celts. Early on its coastal areas were settled by Phoenicians who founded Western Europe´s most ancient cities Cadiz, Phoenician influence expanded as much of the Peninsula was eventually incorporated into the Carthaginian Empire, becoming a major theater of the Punic Wars against the expanding Roman Empire. After an arduous conquest, the peninsula came fully under Roman Rule, during the early Middle Ages it came under Germanic rule but later, much of it was conquered by Moorish invaders from North Africa. In a process took centuries, the small Christian kingdoms in the north gradually regained control of the peninsula. The last Moorish kingdom fell in the same year Columbus reached the Americas, a global empire began which saw Spain become the strongest kingdom in Europe, the leading world power for a century and a half, and the largest overseas empire for three centuries. Continued wars and other problems led to a diminished status. The Napoleonic invasions of Spain led to chaos, triggering independence movements that tore apart most of the empire, eventually democracy was peacefully restored in the form of a parliamentary constitutional monarchy. Spain joined the European Union, experiencing a renaissance and steady economic growth
8.
United Kingdom
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The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom or Britain, is a sovereign country in western Europe. Lying off the north-western coast of the European mainland, the United Kingdom includes the island of Great Britain, Northern Ireland is the only part of the United Kingdom that shares a land border with another sovereign state—the Republic of Ireland. The Irish Sea lies between Great Britain and Ireland, with an area of 242,500 square kilometres, the United Kingdom is the 78th-largest sovereign state in the world and the 11th-largest in Europe. It is also the 21st-most populous country, with an estimated 65.1 million inhabitants, together, this makes it the fourth-most densely populated country in the European Union. The United Kingdom is a monarchy with a parliamentary system of governance. The monarch is Queen Elizabeth II, who has reigned since 6 February 1952, other major urban areas in the United Kingdom include the regions of Birmingham, Leeds, Glasgow, Liverpool and Manchester. The United Kingdom consists of four countries—England, Scotland, Wales, the last three have devolved administrations, each with varying powers, based in their capitals, Edinburgh, Cardiff and Belfast, respectively. The relationships among the countries of the UK have changed over time, Wales was annexed by the Kingdom of England under the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. A treaty between England and Scotland resulted in 1707 in a unified Kingdom of Great Britain, which merged in 1801 with the Kingdom of Ireland to form the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. Five-sixths of Ireland seceded from the UK in 1922, leaving the present formulation of the United Kingdom of Great Britain, there are fourteen British Overseas Territories. These are the remnants of the British Empire which, at its height in the 1920s, British influence can be observed in the language, culture and legal systems of many of its former colonies. The United Kingdom is a country and has the worlds fifth-largest economy by nominal GDP. The UK is considered to have an economy and is categorised as very high in the Human Development Index. It was the worlds first industrialised country and the worlds foremost power during the 19th, the UK remains a great power with considerable economic, cultural, military, scientific and political influence internationally. It is a nuclear weapons state and its military expenditure ranks fourth or fifth in the world. The UK has been a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council since its first session in 1946 and it has been a leading member state of the EU and its predecessor, the European Economic Community, since 1973. However, on 23 June 2016, a referendum on the UKs membership of the EU resulted in a decision to leave. The Acts of Union 1800 united the Kingdom of Great Britain, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland have devolved self-government
9.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
10.
Hamburg Sea Devils
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The Hamburg Sea Devils were an American football team that played in NFL Europa from 2005 to 2007. They played their games at Hamburgs AOL Arena. They played their first game on April 2,2005 losing 24–23 to the Cologne Centurions, the Sea Devils very first ever win came in Week 3 of the 2005 season, with a 31–24 home victory over the then-struggling Rhein Fire. Their first head coach was Jack Bicknell, previously coach of the defunct Barcelona Dragons. The Sea Devils had directly replaced the Claymores after the 2004 season, on April 1,2006, the Sea Devils recorded first tie in franchise history. At home, they scored 17 points in the second quarter and they had blown their 17-point lead before regulation ended. When no one scored in overtime, the game ended in a draw and this was only the second tie in the NFL Europa history. The previous tie came in the 1992 season between the Rhein Fire and the London Monarchs, the final score for that game was also 17–17. On March 29,2007, Bicknell resigned, citing health issues as the reason and he was replaced by offensive coordinator Vince Martino. On June 23,2007, the Sea Devils won their first World Bowl championship with a 37–28 victory over the defending champion Frankfurt Galaxy and it was also their last, as NFL Europa disbanded almost immediately following the game. As a result, the Sea Devils are the last team to win a WLAF/NFL Europe/NFL Europa game ever, the Sea Devils were brought to American media attention again on July 14,2007, when 2006 team member Mike Jemison was arrested in Pennsylvania for robbery. Previously Thomas Herrion, an offensive tackle allocated to the team by the San Francisco 49ers, current Tampa Bay Buccaneers cornerback Brent Grimes also played for the Sea Devils
11.
Frankfurt Galaxy
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The Frankfurt Galaxy was a professional American football team that originally played in the World League of American Football and later in the resurrected NFL Europe. The team was based in Frankfurt, Germany and played in the Commerzbank-Arena, the Galaxy was the only team in the league to have remained in operation and in the same city throughout the leagues existence. In September 2014 it was announced that the Frankfurt Football Betriebs GmbH had purchased the rights for the Frankfurt Galaxy from the NFL. It plans to rename the Frankfurt Universe, playing in the German Football League 2 into Frankfurt Galaxy, an attempt to do the same in 2007 had failed because the naming rights then lay with the NFL. In 1991, the Galaxy was a member of the World League of American Football. They hosted the first ever WLAF game against the London Monarchs at the Waldstadion on March 23,1991 and scored the first ever WLAF points with a safety, but lost the game. When the World League resumed in 1995, the Galaxy, the Monarchs, before it folded, Frankfurt Galaxy was the oldest pro football team outside of the NFL and CFL. Frankfurt also played in the last NFL Europa game, losing the 2007 World Bowl to Hamburg, the Frankfurt Galaxys record eight appearances in the 15 World Bowl games were evenly split in the composite standings with four wins and four losses
12.
World Bowl
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The World Bowl was an annual American football Championship game, to decide the winning team in each season of the World League of American Football/NFL Europe. The World Bowl was played between 1991 and 2007 each year, the game was conceived as the final of the NFL-related spring league, the World League. The first World Bowl was played in 1991 in London,1995 saw a relaunch of the World League, with the North American teams removed, as it had been unsuccessful there. All subsequent World Bowls were played in Europe between European clubs, the league was renamed NFL Europe in 1998. Thus the only World Bowl to take place outside of Europe was World Bowl 92 in Montreal, the World Bowl trophy itself was a globe made of glass measuring 35.5 cm in diameter and weighing 18.6 kg. When the World League of American Football was founded in 1991, with teams in North America and Europe as well as plans for Asia. The name was kept after 1995 when the league limited itself exclusively to Europe, from 1995 to 1997, the World Bowl venue was decided by the standings after 5 weeks of the 10-week season. All venues before, and since, were predetermined before the season, the 2002 World Bowl was hosted in Rhein Fire home town of Düsseldorf as a farewell to the old Rheinstadion. After the new LTU arena was completed, the 2005 World Bowl was hosted there again and it would return in 2006, as a first ever back to back WB site. As Fortuna Düsseldorf spent much of time in lower tiers of the German soccer pyramid. Nine World Bowls were played on Saturdays and 6 World Bowls were played on Sundays, note, Roman Numerals were not officially used by NFL Europa until World Bowl IX. Before 2001, the games were billed as World Bowl 99, World Bowl 2000, while the Olympic stadiums in Montreal, Amsterdam and Barcelona hosted World Bowls, the league never selected Berlin as a host town, where the Thunder played in the Olympiastadion from 2003 to 2007. The former World Football League, a short-lived 1970s competitor to the NFL, was the first to name its championship game the World Bowl. In World Bowl I, the only WFL World Bowl contested, the proposed World Indoor Football League that was to begin play in 1988 also intended on calling its championship the World Bowl. It would have played on August 29,1988. The WIFL, however, disbanded eleven days before its season was to begin
13.
Spring (season)
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Spring is one of the four conventional temperate seasons, following winter and preceding summer. There are various definitions of spring, but local usage of the term varies according to local climate, cultures. When it is spring in the Northern Hemisphere, it will be autumn in the Southern Hemisphere, at the spring equinox, days are approximately 12 hours long with day length increasing as the season progresses. Spring and springtime refer to the season, and also to ideas of rebirth, rejuvenation, renewal, resurrection, subtropical and tropical areas have climates better described in terms of other seasons, e. g. dry or wet, monsoonal or cyclonic. Often, cultures have locally defined names for seasons which have little equivalence to the terms originating in Europe, Spring is the time when many plants begin to grow and flower. Meteorologists generally define four seasons in many areas, spring, summer, autumn. These are demarcated by the values of their average temperatures on a monthly basis, the three warmest months are by definition summer, the three coldest months are winter and the intervening gaps are spring and autumn. Spring, when defined in this manner, can start on different dates in different regions, in most Northern Hemisphere, temperate locations, spring months are March, April and May, although differences exist from country to country. Most Southern Hemisphere, temperate locations have opposing seasons with spring in September, October and November, in Australia and New Zealand, spring conventionally begins on 1 September and ends 30 November. In some cultures in the Northern Hemisphere, the astronomical Vernal equinox is taken to mark the first day of spring, in Persian culture the first day of spring is the first day of the first month which begins on 20 or 21 March. In other traditions, the equinox is taken as mid-spring, similarly, according to the Celtic tradition, which is based solely on daylight and the strength of the noon sun, spring begins in early February and continues until early May. In Ireland, spring traditionally starts on February 1, St Brigids Day, the beginning of spring is not always determined by fixed calendar dates. These indicators, along with the beginning of spring, vary according to the local climate, most ecologists divide the year into six seasons that have no fixed dates. In addition to spring, ecological reckoning identifies an earlier separate prevernal season between the hibernal and vernal seasons and this is a time when only the hardiest flowers like the crocus are in bloom, sometimes while there is still some snowcover on the ground. During early spring, the axis of the Earth is increasing its tilt relative to the Sun, the hemisphere begins to warm significantly, causing new plant growth to spring forth, giving the season its name. Any snow begins to melt, swelling streams with runoff and any frosts become less severe, in climates that have no snow, and rare frosts, air and ground temperatures increase more rapidly. Many flowering plants bloom at this time of year, in a succession, sometimes beginning when snow is still on the ground. In normally snowless areas, spring may begin as early as February, heralded by the blooming of deciduous magnolias, cherries, and quince, or August in the same way
14.
North America
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North America is a continent entirely within the Northern Hemisphere and almost all within the Western Hemisphere. It can also be considered a subcontinent of the Americas. It is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the west and south by the Pacific Ocean, and to the southeast by South America and the Caribbean Sea. North America covers an area of about 24,709,000 square kilometers, about 16. 5% of the land area. North America is the third largest continent by area, following Asia and Africa, and the fourth by population after Asia, Africa, and Europe. In 2013, its population was estimated at nearly 565 million people in 23 independent states, or about 7. 5% of the worlds population, North America was reached by its first human populations during the last glacial period, via crossing the Bering land bridge. The so-called Paleo-Indian period is taken to have lasted until about 10,000 years ago, the Classic stage spans roughly the 6th to 13th centuries. The Pre-Columbian era ended with the migrations and the arrival of European settlers during the Age of Discovery. Present-day cultural and ethnic patterns reflect different kind of interactions between European colonists, indigenous peoples, African slaves and their descendants, European influences are strongest in the northern parts of the continent while indigenous and African influences are relatively stronger in the south. Because of the history of colonialism, most North Americans speak English, Spanish or French, the Americas are usually accepted as having been named after the Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci by the German cartographers Martin Waldseemüller and Matthias Ringmann. Vespucci, who explored South America between 1497 and 1502, was the first European to suggest that the Americas were not the East Indies, but a different landmass previously unknown by Europeans. In 1507, Waldseemüller produced a map, in which he placed the word America on the continent of South America. He explained the rationale for the name in the accompanying book Cosmographiae Introductio, for Waldseemüller, no one should object to the naming of the land after its discoverer. He used the Latinized version of Vespuccis name, but in its feminine form America, following the examples of Europa, Asia and Africa. Later, other mapmakers extended the name America to the continent, In 1538. Some argue that the convention is to use the surname for naming discoveries except in the case of royalty, a minutely explored belief that has been advanced is that America was named for a Spanish sailor bearing the ancient Visigothic name of Amairick. Another is that the name is rooted in a Native American language, the term North America maintains various definitions in accordance with location and context. In Canadian English, North America may be used to refer to the United States, alternatively, usage sometimes includes Greenland and Mexico, as well as offshore islands
15.
Europe
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Europe is a continent that comprises the westernmost part of Eurasia. Europe is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, yet the non-oceanic borders of Europe—a concept dating back to classical antiquity—are arbitrary. Europe covers about 10,180,000 square kilometres, or 2% of the Earths surface, politically, Europe is divided into about fifty sovereign states of which the Russian Federation is the largest and most populous, spanning 39% of the continent and comprising 15% of its population. Europe had a population of about 740 million as of 2015. Further from the sea, seasonal differences are more noticeable than close to the coast, Europe, in particular ancient Greece, was the birthplace of Western civilization. The fall of the Western Roman Empire, during the period, marked the end of ancient history. Renaissance humanism, exploration, art, and science led to the modern era, from the Age of Discovery onwards, Europe played a predominant role in global affairs. Between the 16th and 20th centuries, European powers controlled at times the Americas, most of Africa, Oceania. The Industrial Revolution, which began in Great Britain at the end of the 18th century, gave rise to economic, cultural, and social change in Western Europe. During the Cold War, Europe was divided along the Iron Curtain between NATO in the west and the Warsaw Pact in the east, until the revolutions of 1989 and fall of the Berlin Wall. In 1955, the Council of Europe was formed following a speech by Sir Winston Churchill and it includes all states except for Belarus, Kazakhstan and Vatican City. Further European integration by some states led to the formation of the European Union, the EU originated in Western Europe but has been expanding eastward since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. The European Anthem is Ode to Joy and states celebrate peace, in classical Greek mythology, Europa is the name of either a Phoenician princess or of a queen of Crete. The name contains the elements εὐρύς, wide, broad and ὤψ eye, broad has been an epithet of Earth herself in the reconstructed Proto-Indo-European religion and the poetry devoted to it. For the second part also the divine attributes of grey-eyed Athena or ox-eyed Hera. The same naming motive according to cartographic convention appears in Greek Ανατολή, Martin Litchfield West stated that phonologically, the match between Europas name and any form of the Semitic word is very poor. Next to these there is also a Proto-Indo-European root *h1regʷos, meaning darkness. Most major world languages use words derived from Eurṓpē or Europa to refer to the continent, in some Turkic languages the originally Persian name Frangistan is used casually in referring to much of Europe, besides official names such as Avrupa or Evropa
16.
Barcelona
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Founded as a Roman city, in the Middle Ages Barcelona became the capital of the County of Barcelona. Barcelona has a cultural heritage and is today an important cultural centre. Particularly renowned are the works of Antoni Gaudí and Lluís Domènech i Montaner. The headquarters of the Union for the Mediterranean is located in Barcelona, the city is known for hosting the 1992 Summer Olympics as well as world-class conferences and expositions and also many international sport tournaments. It is a cultural and economic centre in southwestern Europe, 24th in the world. In 2008 it was the fourth most economically powerful city by GDP in the European Union, in 2012 Barcelona had a GDP of $170 billion, it is leading Spain in both employment rate and GDP per capita change. In 2009 the city was ranked Europes third and one of the worlds most successful as a city brand, since 2011 Barcelona has been a leading smart city in Europe. During the Middle Ages, the city was known as Barchinona, Barçalona, Barchelonaa. Internationally, Barcelonas name is abbreviated to Barça. However, this refers only to FC Barcelona, the football club. The common abbreviated form used by locals is Barna, another common abbreviation is BCN, which is also the IATA airport code of the Barcelona-El Prat Airport. The city is referred to as the Ciutat Comtal in Catalan. The origin of the earliest settlement at the site of present-day Barcelona is unclear, the ruins of an early settlement have been excavated in the El Raval neighbourhood, including different tombs and dwellings dating to earlier than 5000 BC. The founding of Barcelona is the subject of two different legends, the first attributes the founding of the city to the mythological Hercules. In about 15 BC, the Romans redrew the town as a castrum centred on the Mons Taber, under the Romans, it was a colony with the surname of Faventia, or, in full, Colonia Faventia Julia Augusta Pia Barcino or Colonia Julia Augusta Faventia Paterna Barcino. It enjoyed immunity from imperial burdens, the city minted its own coins, some from the era of Galba survive. Some remaining fragments of the Roman walls have incorporated into the cathedral. The cathedral, also known as the Basilica La Seu, is said to have founded in 343
17.
Rome
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Rome is a special comune and the capital of Italy. Rome also serves as the capital of the Lazio region, with 2,873,598 residents in 1,285 km2, it is also the countrys largest and most populated comune and fourth-most populous city in the European Union by population within city limits. It is the center of the Metropolitan City of Rome, which has a population of 4.3 million residents, the city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, within Lazio, along the shores of the Tiber. Romes history spans more than 2,500 years, while Roman mythology dates the founding of Rome at only around 753 BC, the site has been inhabited for much longer, making it one of the oldest continuously occupied sites in Europe. The citys early population originated from a mix of Latins, Etruscans and it was first called The Eternal City by the Roman poet Tibullus in the 1st century BC, and the expression was also taken up by Ovid, Virgil, and Livy. Rome is also called the Caput Mundi, due to that, Rome became first one of the major centres of the Italian Renaissance, and then the birthplace of both the Baroque style and Neoclassicism. Famous artists, painters, sculptors and architects made Rome the centre of their activity, in 1871 Rome became the capital of the Kingdom of Italy, and in 1946 that of the Italian Republic. Rome has the status of a global city, Rome ranked in 2014 as the 14th-most-visited city in the world, 3rd most visited in the European Union, and the most popular tourist attraction in Italy. Its historic centre is listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site, monuments and museums such as the Vatican Museums and the Colosseum are among the worlds most visited tourist destinations with both locations receiving millions of tourists a year. Rome hosted the 1960 Summer Olympics and is the seat of United Nations Food, however, it is a possibility that the name Romulus was actually derived from Rome itself. As early as the 4th century, there have been alternate theories proposed on the origin of the name Roma. There is archaeological evidence of occupation of the Rome area from approximately 14,000 years ago. Evidence of stone tools, pottery and stone weapons attest to about 10,000 years of human presence, several excavations support the view that Rome grew from pastoral settlements on the Palatine Hill built above the area of the future Roman Forum. Between the end of the age and the beginning of the Iron age. However, none of them had yet an urban quality, nowadays, there is a wide consensus that the city was gradually born through the aggregation of several villages around the largest one, placed above the Palatine. All these happenings, which according to the excavations took place more or less around the mid of the 8th century BC. Despite recent excavations at the Palatine hill, the view that Rome has been indeed founded with an act of will as the legend suggests in the middle of the 8th century BC remains a fringe hypothesis. Traditional stories handed down by the ancient Romans themselves explain the earliest history of their city in terms of legend and myth
18.
West Berlin
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West Berlin was an enclave which comprised the western part of the city of Berlin during the Cold War. It was formally controlled by the Western Allies and formed a de facto part of West Germany, and was entirely surrounded by the Soviet-controlled East Berlin and East Germany. West Berlin had great significance during the Cold War, as it was widely considered by westerners as an island of freedom. A wealthy city, West Berlin was noted for its liberal and cosmopolitan character. With about two million inhabitants, West Berlin had the biggest population of any city in Cold War Germany and it was 100 miles east of the Inner German border and only accessible by land from West Germany by narrow rail and highway corridors. It consisted of the American, British, and French occupation sectors established in 1945 and was de facto part of West Germany and it had a special and unique legal status because its administration was formally conducted by the Western Allies. East Berlin, de jure occupied and administered by the Soviet Union, was the de facto capital of East Germany, the Berlin Wall, built in 1961, physically divided West Berlin from its East German surroundings until it fell in 1989. The Potsdam Agreement established the framework for the occupation of Germany in the wake of World War II. The territory of Germany, as it existed in 1937, would be reduced by most of Eastern Germany thus creating the former territories of Germany. The remaining territory would be divided into four zones, each administered by one of the allied countries, according to the agreement, the occupation of Berlin would end only as a result of a quadripartite agreement. The Western Allies were guaranteed three air corridors to their sectors of Berlin, and the Soviets also informally allowed road, at first, this arrangement was intended to be only a temporary administrative structure, with all parties declaring that Germany and Berlin would soon be reunited. However, as the relations between the allies and the Soviet Union soured and the Cold War began, the joint administration of Germany. Soon, Soviet-occupied Berlin and western-occupied Berlin had separate city administrations, in 1948, the Soviets tried to force the Western Allies out of Berlin by imposing a land blockade on the western sectors—the Berlin Blockade. The West responded by using its air corridors for supplying their part of the city with food, in May 1949, the Soviets lifted the blockade, and West Berlin as a separate city with its own jurisdiction was maintained. Following the Berlin Blockade, normal contacts between East and West Berlin resumed, however, in cases this proved only temporary. In 1952, the East German government began sealing its borders, as a direct result the electrical grids were separated and phone lines were cut. However, the culmination of the schism did not occur until 1961 with the construction of the Berlin Wall. From the legal theory followed by the Western Allies, the occupation of most of Germany ended in 1949 with the declaration of the Federal Republic of Germany and the German Democratic Republic
19.
Munich
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Munich is the capital and largest city of the German state of Bavaria, on the banks of River Isar north of the Bavarian Alps. Munich is the third largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Hamburg, the Munich Metropolitan Region is home to 5.8 million people. According to the Globalization and World Rankings Research Institute Munich is considered an alpha-world city, the name of the city is derived from the Old/Middle High German term Munichen, meaning by the monks. It derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who ran a monastery at the place that was later to become the Old Town of Munich, Munich was first mentioned in 1158. From 1255 the city was seat of the Bavarian Dukes, black and gold—the colours of the Holy Roman Empire—have been the citys official colours since the time of Ludwig the Bavarian, when it was an imperial residence. Following a final reunification of the Wittelsbachian Duchy of Bavaria, previously divided and sub-divided for more than 200 years, like wide parts of the Holy Roman Empire, the area recovered slowly economically. In 1918, during the German Revolution, the house of Wittelsbach, which governed Bavaria since 1180, was forced to abdicate in Munich. In the 1920s, Munich became home to political factions, among them the NSDAP. During World War II, Munich was heavily bombed and more than 50% of the entire city, the postwar period was characterised by American occupation until 1949 and a strong increase of population and economic power during the years of the Wirtschaftswunder after 1949. The city is home to corporations like BMW, Siemens, MAN, Linde, Allianz and MunichRE as well as many small. Munich is home to national and international authorities, major universities, major museums. Its numerous architectural attractions, international events, exhibitions and conferences. Munich is one of the most prosperous and fastest growing cities in Germany and it is a top-ranked destination for migration and expatriate location, despite being the municipality with the highest density of population in Germany. Munich nowadays hosts more than 530,000 people of foreign background, the year 1158 is assumed to be the foundation date, which is the earliest date the city is mentioned in a document. The document was signed in Augsburg, by that time the Guelph Henry the Lion, Duke of Saxony and Bavaria, had built a bridge over the river Isar next to a settlement of Benedictine monks—this was on the Old Salt Route and a toll bridge. In 1175, Munich was officially granted city status and received fortification, in 1180, with the trial of Henry the Lion, Otto I Wittelsbach became Duke of Bavaria and Munich was handed over to the Bishop of Freising. In 1240, Munich was transferred to Otto II Wittelsbach and in 1255, Duke Louis IV, a native of Munich, was elected German king in 1314 and crowned as Holy Roman Emperor in 1328. He strengthened the position by granting it the salt monopoly
20.
Vienna
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Vienna is the capital and largest city of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austrias primary city, with a population of about 1.8 million, and its cultural, economic and it is the 7th-largest city by population within city limits in the European Union. Today, it has the second largest number of German speakers after Berlin, Vienna is host to many major international organizations, including the United Nations and OPEC. The city is located in the part of Austria and is close to the borders of the Czech Republic, Slovakia. These regions work together in a European Centrope border region, along with nearby Bratislava, Vienna forms a metropolitan region with 3 million inhabitants. In 2001, the city centre was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site, apart from being regarded as the City of Music because of its musical legacy, Vienna is also said to be The City of Dreams because it was home to the worlds first psycho-analyst – Sigmund Freud. The citys roots lie in early Celtic and Roman settlements that transformed into a Medieval and Baroque city and it is well known for having played an essential role as a leading European music centre, from the great age of Viennese Classicism through the early part of the 20th century. The historic centre of Vienna is rich in architectural ensembles, including Baroque castles and gardens, Vienna is known for its high quality of life. In a 2005 study of 127 world cities, the Economist Intelligence Unit ranked the city first for the worlds most liveable cities, between 2011 and 2015, Vienna was ranked second, behind Melbourne, Australia. Monocles 2015 Quality of Life Survey ranked Vienna second on a list of the top 25 cities in the world to make a base within, the UN-Habitat has classified Vienna as being the most prosperous city in the world in 2012/2013. Vienna regularly hosts urban planning conferences and is used as a case study by urban planners. Between 2005 and 2010, Vienna was the worlds number-one destination for international congresses and it attracts over 3.7 million tourists a year. The English name Vienna is borrowed from the homonymous Italian version of the name or the French Vienne. The etymology of the name is still subject to scholarly dispute. Some claim that the name comes from Vedunia, meaning forest stream, which produced the Old High German Uuenia. A variant of this Celtic name could be preserved in the Czech and Slovak names of the city, the name of the city in Hungarian, Serbo-Croatian and Ottoman Turkish has a different, probably Slavonic origin, and originally referred to an Avar fort in the area. Slovene-speakers call the city Dunaj, which in other Central European Slavic languages means the Danube River, evidence has been found of continuous habitation since 500 BC, when the site of Vienna on the Danube River was settled by the Celts. In 15 BC, the Romans fortified the city they called Vindobona to guard the empire against Germanic tribes to the north
21.
Istanbul
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Istanbul, historically known as Constantinople and Byzantium, is the most populous city in Turkey and the countrys economic, cultural, and historic center. Istanbul is a city in Eurasia, straddling the Bosphorus strait between the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Its commercial and historical center lies on the European side and about a third of its population lives on the Asian side, the city is the administrative center of the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality, both hosting a population of around 14.7 million residents. Istanbul is one of the worlds most populous cities and ranks as the worlds 7th-largest city proper, founded under the name of Byzantion on the Sarayburnu promontory around 660 BCE, the city developed to become one of the most significant in history. After its reestablishment as Constantinople in 330 CE, it served as a capital for almost 16 centuries, during the Roman and Byzantine, the Latin. Overlooked for the new capital Ankara during the period, the city has since regained much of its prominence. The population of the city has increased tenfold since the 1950s, as migrants from across Anatolia have moved in, arts, music, film, and cultural festivals were established at the end of the 20th century and continue to be hosted by the city today. Infrastructure improvements have produced a complex transportation network, considered a global city, Istanbul has one of the fastest-growing metropolitan economies in the world. It hosts the headquarters of many Turkish companies and media outlets and accounts for more than a quarter of the gross domestic product. Hoping to capitalize on its revitalization and rapid expansion, Istanbul has bid for the Summer Olympics five times in twenty years, the first known name of the city is Byzantium, the name given to it at its foundation by Megarean colonists around 660 BCE. The name is thought to be derived from a personal name, ancient Greek tradition refers to a legendary king of that name as the leader of the Greek colonists. Modern scholars have hypothesized that the name of Byzas was of local Thracian or Illyrian origin. He also attempted to promote the name Nova Roma and its Greek version Νέα Ῥώμη Nea Romē, the use of Constantinople to refer to the city during the Ottoman period is now considered politically incorrect, even if not historically inaccurate, by Turks. By the 19th century, the city had acquired other names used by foreigners or Turks. Europeans used Constantinople to refer to the whole of the city, pera was used to describe the area between the Golden Horn and the Bosphorus, but Turks also used the name Beyoğlu. The name İstanbul is commonly held to derive from the Medieval Greek phrase εἰς τὴν Πόλιν and this reflected its status as the only major city in the vicinity. The importance of Constantinople in the Ottoman world was reflected by its Ottoman name Der Saadet meaning the gate to Prosperity in Ottoman. An alternative view is that the name evolved directly from the name Constantinople, with the first, a Turkish folk etymology traces the name to Islam bol plenty of Islam because the city was called Islambol or Islambul as the capital of the Islamic Ottoman Empire
22.
List of NFL franchise owners
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The following is a list of current National Football League franchise owners. † Majority or plurality owner, rather than outright owner, ‡ Family ownership of club has been passed on/split by descendant of previous owner. Mark H. Murphy represents the team as President and CEO.6 This owner is not active in day-to-day operations, kansas City Chiefs, Clark Hunt, one of four co-owning siblings, represents the team in league affairs. Tampa Bay Buccanners, Bryan Glazer represents the four co-owning siblings, tennessee Titans, Amy Strunk represents the five co-owning siblings -- two sisters, and the widow of their brother, and his sons. The NFL forbids religious groups, governments, and non-profit organizations owning a team, the NFLs constitution also forbids its owners from owning any other professional football teams, except for Arena Football League teams located in the NFL teams home market
23.
History of the NFL Commissioner
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The Commissioner of the NFL is the chief executive of the National Football League. This article details the history of the chief NFL executive. In 1920, the Canton Bulldogs were one of 14 teams to form the American Professional Football Association, Bulldogs owner Ralph Hay was named the first head of the league until a permanent president could be chosen. Hay did make one notable contribution in his tenure as Temporary Secretary. Vernon Maginnis, who operated one of Akrons professional teams in 1919, griffiths and Cupid Black either balked at or ignored overtures to run the Tigers in 1920. The Tigers, while listed as a charter member of the league, never played in it. Hay chose his own running back, Jim Thorpe, as the leagues inaugural President, Hay believed Thorpes status, Thorpe was nominally the APFAs first president, however, he spent most of the year playing for Canton. League teams regularly played those outside the league, and Thorpe allowed those games to be counted in the standings, as a result, there is some dispute whether a handful of teams, including the Chicago Tigers and Buffalo All-Americans, ever actually joined the league at all. Thorpe was missing from that meeting, never to return to his post, as was vice-president Stan Cofall, at the same meeting where this dispute was resolved in favor of Ranneys own Akron Pros, Joseph Carr was named as the leagues new president. The Associations membership increased to 22 teams, Carr first set a deadline for the season to be completed and a minimum number of league games to be played in order to win the league championship. This led to standardized schedules and prevented teams from scheduling non-league teams to pad their win columns, after taking office as President of the NFL, Carr began cleaning up the problems surrounding professional football. By 1925, he introduced a standard contract, fashioned after the ones being used in pro baseball. In the early days of football, the game was shunned upon by many in the college area. Fearing that the pro game tainted the game, many college administrators barred players from having anything to do with the pros. Carr would try to attack this problem and bring a peace between the pros and amateur ranks, the first major challenge to Carrs authority came at the end of the 1921 season. The Green Bay Packers admitted to having used college players under assumed names, Carr proclaimed the act not only a violation of association rules but a breach of the publics trust. The Packers were forced to withdraw from the league, however, a few months later, a group headed by future Hall of Famer Curly Lambeau applied for and was granted the Green Bay franchise. Ernie Nevers, another All-American player, did the thing a few days later
24.
Paul Tagliabue
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Paul John Tagliabue is the former Commissioner of the National Football League. He took the position in 1989 and was succeeded by Roger Goodell, tagliabues retirement took effect on September 1,2006. He had previously served as a lawyer for the NFL, Tagliabue served as Chairman of Board of Directors of Georgetown University from 2008 to 2015. Tagliabue was born in Jersey City, New Jersey, the third of four sons of Charles, Tagliabue received an athletic scholarship to play basketball at Georgetown University and was captain of the 1961-1962 team. He graduated in 1962 as president of his class, a Rhodes Scholar finalist. Tagliabue graduated from New York University School of Law in 1965 and he has received honorary degrees from Colgate University and Northeastern University. From 1969 to 1989, Tagliabue practiced law with the Washington, after serving as a lawyer for the NFL, Tagliabue was selected by NFL owners to succeed Pete Rozelle as Commissioner of the NFL in 1989. During his tenure as commissioner, the NFL expanded from 28 teams to 32, New franchises were announced in 1993 to begin play in 1995 in Charlotte and Jacksonville. The 32nd franchise was the Houston Texans, added in 2002, the NFL continued to play pre-season games in Europe with the American Bowl series. Paul Tagliabue started a developmental league, the World League of American Football, with seven teams in North America. The European teams dominated in 1991, the first season, after the second season,1992, in which US-based teams played in the World Bowl, the World League was shut down as it was no success in the US. In 1995, the league returned as the NFL Europe with six teams in Europe. When Tagliabue retired, five teams were based in Germany, tagliabues successor Roger Goodell shut down the NFL Europe after the 2007 season. On the other hand, the NFL International Series began in October 2007 with regular games in London. In 1995, Los Angeles lost both its franchises, as the Los Angeles Rams relocated to St. Louis, and the Raiders returned to Oakland, in 1996, the Browns moved to Baltimore, under a new name, as indicated above. In 1997, the Houston Oilers relocated to Tennessee, for one year in Memphis and it was the first time the league canceled an entire weeks slate of games since the 1987 NFL strike. A week later, it was announced that the games would be added to the end of the regular season. In 1993, Super Bowl XXVII was to be held for the first time in Arizona, subsequently, Tagliabue moved the Super Bowl to Pasadena
25.
London
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London /ˈlʌndən/ is the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdom. Standing on the River Thames in the south east of the island of Great Britain and it was founded by the Romans, who named it Londinium. Londons ancient core, the City of London, largely retains its 1. 12-square-mile medieval boundaries. London is a global city in the arts, commerce, education, entertainment, fashion, finance, healthcare, media, professional services, research and development, tourism. It is crowned as the worlds largest financial centre and has the fifth- or sixth-largest metropolitan area GDP in the world, London is a world cultural capital. It is the worlds most-visited city as measured by international arrivals and has the worlds largest city airport system measured by passenger traffic, London is the worlds leading investment destination, hosting more international retailers and ultra high-net-worth individuals than any other city. Londons universities form the largest concentration of education institutes in Europe. In 2012, London became the first city to have hosted the modern Summer Olympic Games three times, London has a diverse range of people and cultures, and more than 300 languages are spoken in the region. Its estimated mid-2015 municipal population was 8,673,713, the largest of any city in the European Union, Londons urban area is the second most populous in the EU, after Paris, with 9,787,426 inhabitants at the 2011 census. The citys metropolitan area is the most populous in the EU with 13,879,757 inhabitants, the city-region therefore has a similar land area and population to that of the New York metropolitan area. London was the worlds most populous city from around 1831 to 1925, Other famous landmarks include Buckingham Palace, the London Eye, Piccadilly Circus, St Pauls Cathedral, Tower Bridge, Trafalgar Square, and The Shard. The London Underground is the oldest underground railway network in the world, the etymology of London is uncertain. It is an ancient name, found in sources from the 2nd century and it is recorded c.121 as Londinium, which points to Romano-British origin, and hand-written Roman tablets recovered in the city originating from AD 65/70-80 include the word Londinio. The earliest attempted explanation, now disregarded, is attributed to Geoffrey of Monmouth in Historia Regum Britanniae and this had it that the name originated from a supposed King Lud, who had allegedly taken over the city and named it Kaerlud. From 1898, it was accepted that the name was of Celtic origin and meant place belonging to a man called *Londinos. The ultimate difficulty lies in reconciling the Latin form Londinium with the modern Welsh Llundain, which should demand a form *lōndinion, from earlier *loundiniom. The possibility cannot be ruled out that the Welsh name was borrowed back in from English at a later date, and thus cannot be used as a basis from which to reconstruct the original name. Until 1889, the name London officially applied only to the City of London, two recent discoveries indicate probable very early settlements near the Thames in the London area
26.
Wembley Stadium (1923)
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The Original Wembley Stadium was a football stadium located in Wembley Park, London. It stood on the now occupied by its successor, the new Wembley Stadium. The great Brazilian footballer Pelé once said of the stadium, Wembley is the cathedral of football and it is the capital of football and it is the heart of football in recognition of its status as the worlds best-known football stadium. It also hosted music events, including the 1985 Live Aid charity concert. The twin towers were an icon for England and Wembley, debris from the Original Wembley Stadium was used to make the award-winning Northala Fields in Northolt, Ealing. The stadiums first turf was cut by King George V, much of Humphrey Reptons original Wembley Park landscape was transformed in 1922–23 during preparations for the British Empire Exhibition of 1924–25. First known as the British Empire Exhibition Stadium or simply Empire Stadium, the stadium cost £750,000, and was constructed on the site of an earlier folly called Watkins Tower. The architects were Sir John Simpson and Maxwell Ayrton and the Head Engineer Sir Owen Williams, the stadium had gone into liquidation, after it was pronounced financially unviable. Elvin offered to buy the stadium for £127,000, using a £12,000 downpayment and they then immediately bought it back from Elvin, leaving him with a healthy profit. Instead of cash he received shares, which gave him the largest stake in Wembley Stadium, the electric scoreboard and the all-encircling roof, made from aluminium and translucent glass, were added in 1963. The stadiums distinctive Twin Towers became its trademark and nickname, also well known were the 39 steps needed to be climbed to reach the Royal box and collect a trophy. Wembley was the first pitch to be referred to as Hallowed Turf, in 1934, the Empire Pool was built nearby. The Wembley Stadium Collection is held by the National Football Museum, the stadium closed in October 2000, and demolition commenced in December 2002, completing in 2003 for redevelopment. The top of one of the towers was erected as a memorial in the park on the north side of Overton Close in the Saint Raphaels Estate. Wembley is best known for hosting football matches, having hosted the FA Cup Final annually as well as numerous England International fixtures, the Empire Stadium was built in exactly 300 days at the cost of £750,000. Described as the worlds greatest sporting arena, it was ready only 4 days before the White Horse Final in 1923, the FA had not considered admission by ticket, grossly underestimating the number of fans who arrived at the 104 gates on match day. However, after the game, every event, apart from the 1982 replay, was ticketed, the first event held at the stadium was the FA Cup Final on 28 April 1923 between Bolton Wanderers and West Ham United. This is known as the White Horse Final, the crowds overflowed onto the pitch as there was no room on the terraces
27.
Barcelona Dragons
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The Barcelona Dragons were a team originally in the World League of American Football and later in the resurrected NFL Europe. Their home field in Barcelona was the Estadi Olímpic de Montjuic, the 1992 Olympic Stadium, the Dragons were successful on the field, making it to 4 World Bowls and winning World Bowl V in 1997. The team was part of the FC Barcelona organization in 2002 as the FC Barcelona Dragons. Despite these efforts, the fan support decreased and the team began to struggle financially. After the 2003 season, the Dragons were discontinued and they were replaced in the league by the Cologne Centurions, for the entire duration of the Dragons history they had only one head coach, Cowboy Jack Bicknell. His nickname was roughly translated by his city to El Caballero. From 1991–2002, Seymour Red Kelin was responsible for Defensive Coordinating duties, Bicknell and Kelin had been coaching together since their days at Boston College, where they helped lead the Eagles to a Cotton Bowl Classic victory in 1984. The Barcelona Dragons on FunWhileItLasted. net The Football Database
28.
London Monarchs
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The London Monarchs were a professional American football team in NFL Europe and its predecessor league, the World League of American Football. The Monarchs played their season in 1998 as the England Monarchs. In 1999, they were replaced by the new Berlin Thunder, the WLAF operated in 1991 and 1992 and included six US teams, one Canadian team, and three European-based teams, including the Monarchs, that was organised in three divisions. The WLAF suspended operations prior to the 1993 season, but was revived in 1995 as the World League, featuring six European-based teams, the World League was renamed NFL Europe League in 1998. This league played its games in the spring so as not to conflict with the traditional American football season of autumn, in 1991 and 1992 the Monarchs played their home games at the famed Wembley Stadium. In the 1991 season the team won the first World Bowl at Wembley, beating the Barcelona Dragons 21–0, in the first season of the World League, crowds at Wembley averaged 40,483 for the five games. C. When the league resumed play in 1995, and that average attendance fell to 16,343. In 1996, the Monarchs were forced to find a venue for their final home game and chose Stamford Bridge. Towards the end of the 1997 season, the WLAF was starting to re-evaluate the teams situation in its market and this venture divided opinion dramatically amongst the Monarchs support and rather than increase interest in the team, attendances slumped to an average of 5,944. Confirmation that the Monarchs were to close came in July that year. Like other WLAF/NFL Europe teams, most of the Monarchs players were young American developmental players assigned from teams in the National Football League, the leagues points leader in 1991 was Phil Alexander, kicker with the Monarchs, who is currently Chief Executive of Crystal Palace football club. One exception to the phenomenon was Victor Ebubedike who played as running back for the Monarchs for a number of years. Also of note was Dedrick Dodge, a special teams maven, who went on to win a number of Super Bowl rings with teams including the Denver Broncos
29.
Moscow
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Moscow is the capital and most populous city of Russia, with 13.2 million residents within the city limits and 17.8 million within the urban area. Moscow has the status of a Russian federal city, Moscow is a major political, economic, cultural, and scientific center of Russia and Eastern Europe, as well as the largest city entirely on the European continent. Moscow is the northernmost and coldest megacity and metropolis on Earth and it is home to the Ostankino Tower, the tallest free standing structure in Europe, the Federation Tower, the tallest skyscraper in Europe, and the Moscow International Business Center. Moscow is situated on the Moskva River in the Central Federal District of European Russia, the city is well known for its architecture, particularly its historic buildings such as Saint Basils Cathedral with its brightly colored domes. Moscow is the seat of power of the Government of Russia, being the site of the Moscow Kremlin, the Moscow Kremlin and Red Square are also one of several World Heritage Sites in the city. Both chambers of the Russian parliament also sit in the city and it is recognized as one of the citys landmarks due to the rich architecture of its 200 stations. In old Russian the word also meant a church administrative district. The demonym for a Moscow resident is москвич for male or москвичка for female, the name of the city is thought to be derived from the name of the Moskva River. There have been proposed several theories of the origin of the name of the river and its cognates include Russian, музга, muzga pool, puddle, Lithuanian, mazgoti and Latvian, mazgāt to wash, Sanskrit, majjati to drown, Latin, mergō to dip, immerse. There exist as well similar place names in Poland like Mozgawa, the original Old Russian form of the name is reconstructed as *Москы, *Mosky, hence it was one of a few Slavic ū-stem nouns. From the latter forms came the modern Russian name Москва, Moskva, in a similar manner the Latin name Moscovia has been formed, later it became a colloquial name for Russia used in Western Europe in the 16th–17th centuries. From it as well came English Muscovy, various other theories, having little or no scientific ground, are now largely rejected by contemporary linguists. The surface similarity of the name Russia with Rosh, an obscure biblical tribe or country, the oldest evidence of humans on the territory of Moscow dates from the Neolithic. Within the modern bounds of the city other late evidence was discovered, on the territory of the Kremlin, Sparrow Hills, Setun River and Kuntsevskiy forest park, etc. The earliest East Slavic tribes recorded as having expanded to the upper Volga in the 9th to 10th centuries are the Vyatichi and Krivichi, the Moskva River was incorporated as part of Rostov-Suzdal into the Kievan Rus in the 11th century. By AD1100, a settlement had appeared on the mouth of the Neglinnaya River. The first known reference to Moscow dates from 1147 as a place of Yuri Dolgoruky. At the time it was a town on the western border of Vladimir-Suzdal Principality
30.
Japan
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Japan is a sovereign island nation in Eastern Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies off the eastern coast of the Asia Mainland and stretches from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea, the kanji that make up Japans name mean sun origin. 日 can be read as ni and means sun while 本 can be read as hon, or pon, Japan is often referred to by the famous epithet Land of the Rising Sun in reference to its Japanese name. Japan is an archipelago consisting of about 6,852 islands. The four largest are Honshu, Hokkaido, Kyushu and Shikoku, the country is divided into 47 prefectures in eight regions. Hokkaido being the northernmost prefecture and Okinawa being the southernmost one, the population of 127 million is the worlds tenth largest. Japanese people make up 98. 5% of Japans total population, approximately 9.1 million people live in the city of Tokyo, the capital of Japan. Archaeological research indicates that Japan was inhabited as early as the Upper Paleolithic period, the first written mention of Japan is in Chinese history texts from the 1st century AD. Influence from other regions, mainly China, followed by periods of isolation, from the 12th century until 1868, Japan was ruled by successive feudal military shoguns who ruled in the name of the Emperor. Japan entered into a period of isolation in the early 17th century. The Second Sino-Japanese War of 1937 expanded into part of World War II in 1941, which came to an end in 1945 following the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Japan is a member of the UN, the OECD, the G7, the G8, the country has the worlds third-largest economy by nominal GDP and the worlds fourth-largest economy by purchasing power parity. It is also the worlds fourth-largest exporter and fourth-largest importer, although Japan has officially renounced its right to declare war, it maintains a modern military with the worlds eighth-largest military budget, used for self-defense and peacekeeping roles. Japan is a country with a very high standard of living. Its population enjoys the highest life expectancy and the third lowest infant mortality rate in the world, in ancient China, Japan was called Wo 倭. It was mentioned in the third century Chinese historical text Records of the Three Kingdoms in the section for the Wei kingdom, Wa became disliked because it has the connotation of the character 矮, meaning dwarf. The 倭 kanji has been replaced with the homophone Wa, meaning harmony, the Japanese word for Japan is 日本, which is pronounced Nippon or Nihon and literally means the origin of the sun. The earliest record of the name Nihon appears in the Chinese historical records of the Tang dynasty, at the start of the seventh century, a delegation from Japan introduced their country as Nihon
31.
Birmingham Fire
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The Birmingham Fire were a professional American football team based in Birmingham, Alabama. They were a member of the North American West of the World League of American Football, the club was a charter member of the WLAF, and was under the ownership of Gavin Maloof. Led by head coach Chan Gailey, the Fire saw moderate success as they compiled an record of twelve wins, nine losses and one tie. The franchise folded in September 1992 when the NFL placed the league on an indefinite hiatus, in June 1989, WLAF president Tex Schramm and other league officials met with Birmingham leaders to discuss the possibility of fielding a team at Legion Field. The following July, the National Football League owners voted to approve the formation of the WLAF in an effort to expand the sport outside of the United States, Birmingham was identified as a contender for one of the final four franchises along with Nashville, San Antonio and Orlando. On April 18,1990, Birmingham became the city in the United States officially awarded a franchise after the Orlando Thunder to compete in the inaugural WLAF season. At the time of the announcement, Schramm reiterated past support for football in Birmingham was a major reason for its selection for a franchise. An group headed by former Houston Rockets president Gavin Maloof was revealed as owners of the Birmingham franchise in November 1990. On December 6, Michael Huyghue was introduced as general manager, on December 21,1990, Chan Gailey was introduced as the first head coach of the Fire. In February 1991, the WLAF held its inaugural draft, and unlike the NFL Draft, the most notable player drafted by the Fire was when they selected Brent Pease with the first overall selection in the quarterbacks draft. Training camp started shortly thereafter, and in mid-March the Fire lost to San Antonio in a scrimmage at San Marcos. The Fire played their first game on March 23 against the Montreal Machine at Legion Field. Although they lost 20–5, an attendance of over 53,000 resulted in the start of the game being delayed 21 minutes to allow fans into the stadium as only two gates were open at the time. The next week, the Fire won their first game against the Sacramento Surge, the 17–10 win only drew 16,000 spectators, but the featured a 99-yard interception return for a touchdown by John Miller. The team then alternated pairs of wins and losses over their remaining eight regular season games, the first pair of losses came on the road against Montreal and at home against the London Monarchs. In their first all-time road game, Birmingham lost to the Machine 23–10 before 27,766 fans at Olympic Stadium, one week later, they suffered their only shutout of the season in their 27–0 loss against eventual World Bowl champion London. Birmingham then rebounded with a 31–6 road win at the Orlando Thunder, the Fire then lost both of the games played in Europe, and as a result their record dropped to 3–5. The first loss came against the Barcelona Dragons in an 11–6 defeat, in their regular season finale the Fire defeated the Raleigh–Durham Skyhawks 28–7, and clinched a spot in the first WLAF playoffs as the winners of the North American West division with a 5–5 record
32.
Sacramento Surge
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The Sacramento Surge was a professional American football team that played in the World League of American Football in 1991 and 1992. The team played its first season at Hughes Stadium in Sacramento, and it was owned by Managing General Partner Fred Anderson and the General Manager was Michael F. Keller. In charge of Special Projects was Jack Youngblood, who partnered with Joe Starkey. The team was coached by former Buffalo Bills quarterback–head coach Kay Stephenson, charlie Sumner was the defensive coordinator and Jim Haslett was a defensive assistant coach. The Surge won the World Bowl in 1992, the only American team to do so, on this championship team was future professional wrestler Bill Goldberg. The new team was named the Sacramento Gold Miners, Stephenson and several Surge players were retained in the change, as were the colors of aqua. Sacramento Surge on FunWhileItLasted. net 1991 Sacramento Surge stats on FootballDB. com 1991 Sacramento Surge stats on FootballDB. com
33.
San Antonio Riders
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The San Antonio Riders were a professional American football team that played in the WLAF in 1991 and 1992. In return, Riders ownership scrapped plans to fund $235,000 in renovations to the Stadium, in June 1991, SAISD officials announced plans for a rent increase on the Riders for the 1992 season. The relationship would last for one season. The team was owned by Larry Benson, the brother of Tom Benson, the general managers were Tom Landry and Tom Landry, Jr. The head coach for both seasons was Mike Riley, the teams record in 1991 was 4-6. San Antonio turned things around in 1992 with a mark of 7-3, after the 1992 season saw the suspension of the WLAF, Benson applied to the Canadian Football League to have the Riders join that league instead for the 1993 season. The CFL accepted, and admitted the Riders and the Sacramento Surge/Gold Miners to the CFL, the Riders were to change names to the San Antonio Texans, but the team folded abruptly prior to the 1993 season
34.
New York/New Jersey Knights
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New York/New Jersey Knights was a franchise in the World League of American Football for the 1991 and 1992 seasons. They played in the North American East division, which won in the 1991 season. They were coached by Mouse Davis, an architect of the Run, after 1992 the NFL suspended the WLAFs operations. When the WLAF returned in the 1995 season the league was concentrated in Europe and they played their home games at Giants Stadium, also the former home to the NFLs New York Giants and New York Jets. Mar.24 - NY/NJ Knights 7 @ Barcelona Dragons 19 Week 2, mar.31 - NY/NJ Knights 18 @ London Monarchs 22 Week 3, Sat. Apr.6 - NY/NJ KNIGHTS17 VS FRANKFURT GALAXY27 Week 4, apr.13 - NY/NJ Knights 44 @ Montreal Machine 0 Week 5, Mon. Apr.22 - NY/NJ KNIGHTS28 VS SACRAMENTO SURGE20 Week 6, apr.27 - NY/NJ KNIGHTS42 VS ORLANDO THUNDER6 Week 7, Sun. 5 - NY/NJ Knights 42 @ Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks 6 Week 8,11 - NY/NJ KNIGHTS7 VS LONDON MONARCHS22 Week 9, Mon. 20 - NY/NJ Knights 14 @ Birmingham Fire 24 Week 10,25 - NY/NJ KNIGHTS38 VS SAN ANTONIO RIDERS9 Semifinals, Sun. net
35.
Orlando Thunder
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The Orlando Thunder was a member of the World League of American Football from 1991 to 1992. The team played their games in the 70,000 seat Citrus Bowl, the teams general managers were Lee Corso and Dick Beam. In 1991 the team played to a 5–5 record, and in 1992 the team had an outstanding 8–2 record, the Thunders attendance figures fell from over 19,000 per game in its first year to just over 16,000 per game in 1992. The team folded after the 1992 season with the rest of the WLAFs North American operations, notable players include Kerwin Bell and Scott Mitchell, a left-handed quarterback who went on to play in the NFL for the Miami Dolphins and Detroit Lions. In 2006, readers of ESPNs Uni Watch column voted the teams jersey 2nd worst football jersey of all-time
36.
Ohio Glory
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The Ohio Glory played one season in the World League of American Football, which later became NFL Europe. Columbus, Ohio was awarded the WLAF franchise after the Raleigh-Durham Skyhawks posted an 0-10 season, Ohio didnt do much better, posting a 1-9 record after one season of play. The sole win came at the expense of the Frankfurt Galaxy in week 7, the Glory played their home games in Ohio Stadium on Ohio State Universitys campus, which at the time had a seating capacity of 91,470. Their head coach was Larry Little, and they participated in the North American East division and their first draft pick was former NFL quarterback Babe Laufenberg. net Ohio Glory Information
37.
1994 NFL season
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The 1994 NFL season was the 75th regular season of the National Football League. To honor the NFLs 75th season, a special logo was designed. Also, a committee of media and league personnel named a special NFL 75th Anniversary All-Time Team. The Phoenix Cardinals changed their name to Arizona Cardinals in an attempt to widen their appeal to the state of Arizona instead of just the Phoenix area. The name was initially resisted by Bill Bidwill, the Seattle Seahawks played their first three regular season home games at Husky Stadium because the Kingdome, the Seahawks regular home field, was undergoing repairs for damaged tiles on its roof. The Seahawks returned for the 2000 and 2001 seasons while their new stadium was under construction, the 1994 season marked the last one until 2016 that the city of Los Angeles had an NFL team and the last one until 2017 that the city had two. Both the Rams and the Raiders left the city following the season. The Rams moved east to St. Louis, Missouri, after being in Los Angeles for 49 years, while the Raiders left Los Angeles after 12 years to return to their previous home in Oakland, California. The Rams eventually returned to Los Angeles in 2016 after failing to reach an agreement with St. Louis on a new stadium and this was also the first season that the then-fledgling Fox Network televised NFL games. Fox took over the National Football Conference package from CBS, who would return to televising the NFL in 1998, today the package remains exclusive to DirecTV. The season ended with Super Bowl XXIX when the San Francisco 49ers defeated the San Diego Chargers 49–26 at Joe Robbie Stadium, both teams had met that regular season, the second straight season that had happened, and ninth time overall. This was also the first year of the current practice of whenever Christmas Day falls on a Sunday that most of that games were played on the Saturday afternoon of Christmas Eve. Every NFL season afterwards with Christmas Day on a Sunday has followed this same scheduling format, a package of changes were adopted to increase offensive production and scoring, The two-point conversion after touchdowns is adopted. The spot of the kickoff is moved from the 35-yard line to the 30-yard line and this would remain intact through the 2010 season. The Neutral zone infraction foul is adopted, a play is automatically dead before the snap when a defensive player enters the neutral zone and causes an offensive player to react. After a field goal is missed, the team takes possession of the ball at the spot of the kick or the 30-yard line. During field goal attempts and extra point tries, players on the team cannot block below the waist. The league also honored its 75th season by having each team wear throwback uniforms during selected games, all jerseys displayed the players last names on the back, though this practice did not become standard until 1970
38.
Helmet camera
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Archives containing photos of helmet cameras have surfaced over the last decade. One shows Denver Broncos backup quarterback Jacky Lee wearing a helmet camera at football practice in 1965, at this time the helmet camera was used commercially. For the first time, images were transmitted live from this camera by AVS via portable microwave to the ABC broadcast truck and this innovative system showed viewers the riders Point of View of the race as it unfolded. Another early innovator of video camera technology was Mark Schulze. Schulze stripped-down a red helmet and jury-rigged a mounting for the first consumer color video chip camera. A cable ran from the camera to a backpack that contained a Panasonic VHS portable video recorder and a DC-lead-acid battery for power, which made the rig heavy, unwieldy. This pioneering technology brought an engaging perspective to live television and action sports videos and eventually gave way to button. In 1991, the World League of American Football introduced the innovation of a camera mounted on the right side of the VSR-3 Riddell helmet worn by quarterbacks. This rig was developed by USA Network and Aerial Video Systems, an antenna was placed in the crown of the helmet between an inflatable pad and the shell. Each of these Helmet-Cams cost $20,000 and transmitted live game action and these helmet cams were briefly used to provide live players-eye-view footage in professional American football. However, their use was discontinued after players complained of the extra weight, in 2002, after graduating with a degree in Visual Arts from UCSD, Nick Woodman, a long-time surfer, created the GoPro camera. This was a small, wearable camera with a housing for people to share their personal experiences in sports. Helmet cameras generally fall into two categories, CMOS and CCD type. Although helmet cameras take on a variety of forms the majority are small cylindrical cameras resembling a tube of lipstick or a bullet, coining the name lipstick and bullet cameras. Helmet cameras may be connected to a recording device with video input capability, such as a handheld camcorder. CCD helmet cameras are based upon the charge-coupled device image sensor and they typically operate on 12VDC power and output an analog type signal. These cameras draw more power than CMOS cameras but offer superior picture quality, CMOS helmet cameras are based upon the complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor image sensor. They typically operate on 5VDC and draw very little power, CMOS cameras are also generally smaller than the CCD type
39.
Los Angeles Times
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The Los Angeles Times, commonly referred to as the Times or LA Times, is a paid daily newspaper published in Los Angeles, California, since 1881. It was the largest metropolitan newspaper in circulation in the United States in 2008, the Times is owned by tronc. The Times was first published on December 4,1881, as the Los Angeles Daily Times under the direction of Nathan Cole Jr. and it was first printed at the Mirror printing plant, owned by Jesse Yarnell and T. J. Unable to pay the bill, Cole and Gardiner turned the paper over to the Mirror Company. Mathes had joined the firm, and it was at his insistence that the Times continued publication, in July 1882, Harrison Gray Otis moved from Santa Barbara to become the papers editor. Otis made the Times a financial success, in an era where newspapers were driven by party politics, the Times was directed at Republican readers. As was typical of newspapers of the time, the Times would sit on stories for several days, historian Kevin Starr wrote that Otis was a businessman capable of manipulating the entire apparatus of politics and public opinion for his own enrichment. Otiss editorial policy was based on civic boosterism, extolling the virtues of Los Angeles, the efforts of the Times to fight local unions led to the October 1,1910 bombing of its headquarters, killing twenty-one people. Two union leaders, James and Joseph McNamara, were charged, the American Federation of Labor hired noted trial attorney Clarence Darrow to represent the brothers, who eventually pleaded guilty. Upon Otiss death in 1917, his son-in-law, Harry Chandler, Harry Chandler was succeeded in 1944 by his son, Norman Chandler, who ran the paper during the rapid growth of post-war Los Angeles. Family members are buried at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery near Paramount Studios, the site also includes a memorial to the Times Building bombing victims. The fourth generation of family publishers, Otis Chandler, held that position from 1960 to 1980, Otis Chandler sought legitimacy and recognition for his familys paper, often forgotten in the power centers of the Northeastern United States due to its geographic and cultural distance. He sought to remake the paper in the model of the nations most respected newspapers, notably The New York Times, believing that the newsroom was the heartbeat of the business, Otis Chandler increased the size and pay of the reporting staff and expanded its national and international reporting. In 1962, the paper joined with the Washington Post to form the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service to syndicate articles from both papers for news organizations. During the 1960s, the paper won four Pulitzer Prizes, more than its previous nine decades combined, eventually the coupon-clipping branches realized that they could make more money investing in something other than newspapers. Under their pressure the companies went public, or split apart, thats the pattern followed over more than a century by the Los Angeles Times under the Chandler family. The papers early history and subsequent transformation was chronicled in an unauthorized history Thinking Big and it has also been the whole or partial subject of nearly thirty dissertations in communications or social science in the past four decades. In 2000, the Tribune Company acquired the Times, placing the paper in co-ownership with then-WB -affiliated KTLA, which Tribune acquired in 1985
40.
United States Football League
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The United States Football League was an American football league that played for three seasons,1983 through 1985. The league played a schedule in each of its active seasons. The 1986 season was scheduled to be played in the autumn/winter, however, the USFL ceased operations before its fourth season was scheduled to begin. Dixon had been a key player in the construction of the Louisiana Superdome and he developed The Dixon Plan—a blueprint for the USFL based upon securing NFL-caliber stadiums in top TV markets, securing a TV deal, and controlling spending—and found investors willing to buy in. The USFL had no salary cap, and some teams quickly escalated player payrolls to unsustainable levels despite pledges to keep costs under control. These problems were worsened as some owners began engaging in bidding wars for star players against NFL teams and each other, on the field, the USFL was regarded as a relatively good product. The Michigan Panthers won the first USFL championship in 1983, in 1985, the USFL voted to move from a spring to a fall schedule in 1986 to compete directly with the NFL. This was done at the urging of New Jersey Generals majority owner Donald Trump, as part of this strategy, the USFL filed an anti-trust lawsuit against the National Football League in 1986, and a jury ruled that the NFL had violated anti-monopoly laws. However, in a victory in only, the USFL was awarded a judgment of just $1. This court decision effectively ended the USFL, the league never played the 1986 season, and by the time it folded, it had lost over US$163 million. The USFL is historically significant in part for the level of talent that played in the league, a number of NFL veterans of all talent levels played in the USFL. It is true that some NFL backups such as quarterbacks Chuck Fusina and Cliff Stoudt, G Buddy Aydelette, however, many NFL backups struggled or did not make it in the USFL. The USFL was the brainchild of David Dixon, a New Orleans antiques dealer, in 1965, he envisioned football as a possible spring and summer sport. Over the next 15 years, he studied the last two challengers to the NFLs dominance of pro football—the American Football League and the World Football League, in 1980, he commissioned a study by Frank Magid Associates that found promising results for a spring and summer football league. He also assembled a list of prospective franchises located in markets attractive to a television partner. With respected college and NFL coach John Ralston as the first employee, Dixon signed up 12 cities—nine where there already were NFL teams, the Dixon Plan called for teams in top TV markets to entice the networks into offering the league a TV deal. All but two of the 12 initial teams were located in the top 13 media markets in the US. After almost two years of preparation, Dixon formally announced the USFLs formation at the 21 Club in New York City on May 11,1982, ESPN president Chet Simmons was named the leagues first commissioner in June 1982
41.
Orlando Renegades
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The Orlando Renegades were a professional American football team that played in the United States Football League in the mid-1980s. The Renegades started out in 1983 as the Washington Federals and played in Washington, the team lured Ray Jauch to be its head coach, he had previously guided the Winnipeg Blue Bombers to success in the Canadian Football League. At the time he was the fourth-winningest coach in CFL history, the Federals finished 4–14, tied for the worst record in the league. However, they were far more competitive than their record indicated, eight of their losses were by a touchdown or less. They had an amount of offensive talent and skill players with comparatively good depth. More than any team in the league, the Federals seemed dogged by inconsistency, bad timing. A week before the season began, their player personnel expert bolted to the NFLs New York Jets. The game was played on March 6,1983, just five weeks after the Redskins defeated the Miami Dolphins in Super Bowl XVII, the Blitz, led by former Lions and Colts Quarterback Greg Landry, raced out to a 28–0 lead. The Federals were so terrible in the game, the Blitz held Washington to only one first down, chicago led 21–0 before the Federals ever recorded a second first down. By that time, Landry hit 15 of his first 17 pass attempts, Kim McQuilken had a horrible debut as the Federals quarterback, and was replaced by back up Mike Hohensee. Hohensee accounted for the Federals only score, a 19-yard pass to Walker Lee, the next week went ever worse for Washington, as quarterback Hohensee, Running back Craig James and wide receiver Reggie Smith all were injured. McQuilken could only muster 3 points of offense, while throwing two more interceptions, in week 3, the Federals led the Boston Breakers 16–9 with less than five minutes to go in regulation. However, two bad snaps on special teams led to a 19–16 loss, playing at home week three, the Federals finally got a victory. They managed to defeat the Michigan Panthers, one of the teams in the USFL. The Panthers were led by future NFL quarterback Bobby Hebert, and wide receiver Anthony Carter, Federals QB Kim McQuilken had one of his better games, completing 24 of 48 passes and throwing for 324 yards. He threw three touchdowns compared to one interceptions, Panthers Lineback Robert Pennywell intercepted McQuilken, which led to a game trying score on a pass play from Hebert to Derek Holloway. The game went into overtime, where Washington won on a 22-yard pass from McQuilken to Joey Walters, in week 6, the Federals led the Arizona Wranglers 21–16, only to have a potential game-sealing drive stall on the 2-yard-line. The Wranglers first play from scrimmage after that was a 98-yard touchdown pass—the longest in league history, the Federals saved their best game for last in the 1983 season
42.
Birmingham Stallions
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They played their home games at Birmingham, Alabamas Legion Field. They competed in all three USFL seasons, 1983–1985, during their run, they were one of the USFLs more popular teams, and seemed to have a realistic chance of being a viable venture had the USFL been better run. The teams coach was Rollie Dotsch, who was previously an assistant with the Pittsburgh Steelers during its Super Bowl years, the Stallions starting QB in 1984 &1985 was Cliff Stoudt, a long-time backup to Terry Bradshaw with the Steelers. After the season, Stoudt quickly decided it wasnt worth staying in Pittsburgh and signed with the Stallions. In Birmingham, Stoudt proved to be an excellent QB, finishing in the leagues top 5 in 1984 and 1985, among such peers as Jim Kelly and Chuck Fusina, the Stallions also added Bills star HB Joe Cribbs in 1984. Cribbs led the league in rushing in 1984 and finished 6th in 1985, former Steeler WR Jim Smith was another of the teams stars. Many other Stallions players would play in the NFL once the USFL went out of existence, the Stallions scrambled to put a roster together after training camp and signed or claimed approximately 20 players via trades or waivers in the week prior to their first game. However, Dotsch managed to mold them into a competitive team that finished 9-9. One of the few the pro veterans signed center Tom Banks, Banks played 116 NFL games while with the Cardinals and was brought in by coach Rollie Dotsch to serve as a mentor to a very young club. Banks eventually retired after the 1984 Stallions season and became an assistant coach on the Birmingham staff in 1985, guard Pat Saindon, nose tackle Charles Martin and reserve guard Mike Turner. Martin would go on to play for the Green Bay Packers and was involved in an infamous bodyslam tackle of Chicago Bears QB Jim McMahon in 1986 at Soldier Field. They also signed two key territorial draft selections in defensive end Jackie Cline from Alabama and offensive tackle Pat Phenix from Ole Miss. The Stallions also signed a free agent named Scott Norwood who would later be infamous as the Buffalo Bills kicker who missed a field goal in the dying minutes of the Super Bowl in 1990. However, the Stallions struggled out of the gate with a 2-5 record as Coach Rollie Dotsch and his staff put a patchwork, blue-collar, run-oriented club together. Prior to the Stallions sixth game of the season, former Pittsburgh Steelers wide receiver Jim Smith was signed by Dotsch to add punch to a listless receiving corps. Smith did not disappoint as his arrival helped the offense almost immediately, Dotsch was very familiar with Smith as they were members of two Super Bowl Championship clubs in the Steel City. Lanes heroics won the game vs. Oakland and the Stallions went on to win four subsequent games that improved their record to a 7–5 mark. However, the managed to only win two of their last six games to finish with a 9-9 mark and a fourth-place finish in the Central Division
Barcelona 10, 
Birmingham 3; 
London 42, 
