Amsterdam Admirals
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The Amsterdam Admirals are a team in NFL Europe, a league of American football operated in Europe primarily as a developmental league for the National Football League. The Europe League plays their games in Spring as not to complete with the NFL season and with Summer training camp. Most of the players are Americans assigned by the NFL to teams for the springtime season, with the league picking up their living expenses in addition to their salaries, as well as those of their American coaches.
The Admirals was formed in 1995 as part of the NFL's plan to restart the World League of American Football, to be based entirely in Europe. The Admirals were one of three new teams, the others being: the Scottish Claymores based in Edinburgh and the Rhein Fire based in Dusseldorf Germany, to join the old World League's European Division teams: the Barcelona Dragons, the Frankfurt Galaxy, and the London Monarchs.
The Amsterdam Admirals began play at the old Olympisch Stadion, built in 1928 for the Summer Games. They played there for two years until the Amsterdam ArenA was built in 1996.
As of the 2005 season, the Admirals are the only non-German NFL Europe team left. The Admirals qualified for the 1995 World Bowl, but lost to the Scottish Claymores by a score of 26-22. Ten years later, the Admirals won their first World Bowl by defeating the Berlin Thunder 27-21 in the championship game's 13th edition.
External links
- Amsterdam Admirals web site (http://www.admirals.nl/) (Dutch)
- NFL Europe: Amsterdam Admirals (http://www.nfleurope.com/teams/AMS) (English)