Colts Berlin Bound: NFL Heads Back To Germany For The Fifth Time
By Peter Mann
The NFL returns to Germany later this year for what will be their fifth outing in the European nation best known for another ball sport, association football.
The Indianapolis Colts have been designated as the home team in the 2025 season, in Berlin, and will be hoping for a similar outcome to the last time they were there, back in 2023, when defeating New England Patriots, 10-6.
It’ll be the first time Berlin has hosted America’s Game, with previous visits to the country taking place much further south, in Munich, and Frankfurt, but Germany has a whole, it has a long association with American Football, a successful one at that.
There’s been a national league dating back to the late 1970s, with numerous divisional set-ups having been in place down the years, the current one however of just a North-South divide, it’s been in place since the early 1990s, sides going on to contest the German Bowl (there’s also a Junior Bowl, contested since 1982, and a Ladies Bowl, since 1990, among others).
The New Yorker Lions, founded in 1987, and based in Braunschweig, Lower Saxony, are by far the most successful on a national level, winning fifteen North titles, twelve German Bowl successes, and six Eurobowl championships, whilst the Schhwabisch Hall Unicorns lead the South in successful campaigns, winning fourteen South titles, and five German Bowls, they were also runners-up in the 2015 Eurobowl, losing to the New Yorker Lions, in Berlin.
Germany’s game however, goes higher than the national leagues, it being enjoyed across the country, for a number of years now, on a European stage also, through initially NFL Europe (1991 to 2007), and more recently, the European League of Football (ELF, 2021 to present).
Linked in name, and location, those from the NFL Europe days, and the current, ELF, are miles apart in everything else, although the forerunner of America’s Game, on a European stage, was certainly one to excite German crowds.
With a similar number of teams then as there is now, Germany dominated, with Frankfurt Galaxy, Rhein Fire, and Berlin Thunder, featuring heavily during the late 1990s, early 2000s, the Galaxy at the top of the pile with four NFL Europe titles, and four World Bowl success, alongside eight runners-up positions, Berlin Thunder picked up three of each, and Rhein Fire two of each, whilst for one, glorious season in 2007, the Hamburg Sea Devils would also get in on the act.
German sides even went back-to-back-to-back between 2002 and 2004 with Thunder-Fire, Galaxy-Fire, and Thunder-Galaxy finals, German sides featuring in the last thirteen finals, following the return in 1995 after a two-year, league suspension, winning ten of them.
The last of those finals, on 23 June 2007, took place at the Commerzbank-Arena, Frankfurt, in front of more than 48,000 spectators, the third highest Bowl attendance after the first final, back in 1991 (London Monarchs shut-out Barcelona Dragons 21-0 at Wembley in front of more than 61,000), and in the ten edition in 2002, the first of the three, all-German finals (Berlin Thunder defeated Rhien Fire 26-20 in Dusseldorf in front of over 53,000).
That 2007 final was to be the Sea Devils’ best season in NFL Europe, although twice they’ve finished as runners-up (2021 and 2022) in the ELF Championship game since the rebirth of the game on the continent.
Even more remarkable about the Sea Devils back then, they’d only be operation for the last three seasons of the league (2005 to 2007), losing their debut, narrowly, to Cologne Centurions, on 2 April 2005, before collecting their first win, over Rhein Fire, on week three of the regular season.
New Jersey native, Jack Bicknell, was at the helm of the Sea Devils for the majority of the time, only stepping down in late March 2007 due to health reasons, his offensive coordinator, Vince Martino, he a New York native, he leading them to glory with first, a 7-3 regular season record, before seeing off runners-up Frankfurt Galaxy, also 7-3, in World Bowl XV, pretty much dominating throughout to claim a 37-28 win.
Wyoming’s much-travelled quarterback, Casey Bramlet, led the Sea Devils to victory with an MVP showing, throwing four TD passes, including the opening and closing scores, for the win; Bramlet’s playing career would see him have spells on the rosters of several, NFL sides – Cincinnati Bengals, Washington Redskins, Atlanta Falcons, Miami Dolphins, San Diego Chargers, and Baltimore Ravens, between 2004 and 2008.
Fast-forward near fifteen years and the game, on the European stage, was again taking off, and continues to thrive via that of the ELF; granted there’s been plenty of changes during its short existence, but, how does that saying go –
The more things change, the more things stay the same.
Well, the same can be said here as well, with German dominance quickly rising to the top with franchises gaining an early stranglehold on the ELF.
The success of Austrian outfit, Vienna Vikings, in 2022, aside, the other three successes have belonged to German sides, in-fact, all four finals have involved a German side; Frankfurt Galaxy won the first championship game (2021), and Rhein Fire have gone back-to-back in the last two season (2023 and 2024).
Meanwhile, Hamburg Sea Devils, they were back-to-back runners-up (2021 and 2022), and Stuttgart Surge also made the final in 2023; alongside that quartet, and currently active in the ELF ahead of the upcoming, 2025 season, there are three other German outfits – Berlin Thunder, Cologne Centurions, and Munich Ravens.
An eighth German side, Leipzig Kings, took part between 2021 and 2023.
In the leagues’ inaugural season Galaxy posted a 9-1 regular season to claim the South division, with the Sea Devils finishing 7-3 to top the North, Centurions, along with Polish side, Wroclaw Panthers, making up the final four and the divisional finals; Sea Devils won 30-27 against Panthers, and Galaxy put Centurions to the sword with a 36-6 success, the latter edging the final by two, in Dusseldorf, on 26 September 2021, Galaxy quarterback, Jakeb Sullivan, taking home the games MVP award, posting 4TDs, 1 rushing TD, 324-yards.
South Dakota born, Sullivan has spent his playing career in Europe, from 2019 to present, with Marburg Mercenaries, Vienna Vikings, Frankfurt Galaxy, and most recently (since December 2023), with Berlin Thunder.
A year on would see the Vienna Vikings defeat the Hamburg Sea Devils, 27-15, in Klagenfurt, Austria, before Rhein Fire roared to back-to-back successes, in Duisburg and Gelsenkirchen respectively.
The first of those, in 2023, saw them brush aside Stuttgart Surge, 53-34, following a 12-0 regular season, and a 42-23 semi-final success over Galaxy; whilst last time out, in 2024, following an 11-1 regular season, the Fire picked up a 40-10 success over Madrid Bravos in the Wild Card round, before edging Surge 29-23 in the semis, then posting another 50-point score in the final, 51-20, against Vienna Vikings – Fire’s now former QB, Jadrian Clark (now with newcomers, Nordic Storm, alongside running back Glen Toonga), collecting back-to-back MVP awards.
With plenty of players of German nationality across the league, head coaches in the league at present stands at one, Shaun Fatah, who brings a winning mentality to the club – four-time World Bowl champion, six-time German Bowl champion, five-time Austrian champion, as well as time in charge of the German national team.
Seasons prior have seen Thomas Kosling at the helm of the Galaxy (since 2021), and Johnny Schmuck at Berlin Thunder (also since 2021), Martin Hanselmann has led the Surge, whilst there’s also been Frank Roser (Centurions) and Andreas Nommensen (Sea Devils)
So you see, despite the new format still being in its fledgling infancy, America’s Game is very much alive and kicking in Europe, even more in Germany, and recent visits from the NFLs International Series, in 2022, 2023, and 2024, have gone a long way to help push the sport to higher levels.

PETER MANN
NFL ANALYST
PETER IS A LIFELONG SPORTS FAN, JOURNALIST AND AUTHOR BASED IN COUNTY DURHAM. HE HAS FOLLOWED THE NFL AND THE RAIDERS SINCE THE 1980s, AND LOVES BOTH SPORTS AND FAMILY HISTORY. PETER HAS A DEGREE IN SPORT & EXERCISE PSYCHOLOGY, AND CAN BE FOUND ON TWITTER @petermannwriter