The American Football Madness in Düsseldorf was the first big football fair in Europe and made an attempt to be followed by Footballnerds and the mainstream fan. Did that work? A review.
American football has arrived in Germany. We know that at the latest since the first German Game in the Munich Allianz Arena in November 2022 with none other than Goat Tom Brady as the leading actor. This would also underline this in Frankfurt a year later when Patrick Mahomes came up with his Kansas City Chiefs and there were even two games. The second Munich Game followed in 2024 and this November look at the Berlin premiere for a regular Season Game of the NFL – the first of initially three appearances in the capital (2027, 2029 have already been determined).
What was still missing was another major event in this country to put the importance and range of this sport in Germany, where King continues to go on football, to put it in the right light. Now you cannot say that the “American Football Madness”, which was held last weekend in and around Merkur Spiel Arena in Düsseldorf, was already this signature event. Everything was too small for that too small, too tranquil. But it was a beginning. One where you can build up with the right conclusions and tricks in the future.
But what was that actually organized in the Düsseldorf exhibition area? sport.de-Tactor Marcus Blumberg was present on both days and describes his impressions of the combination of convention and festival, as the organizers baptized it.
Photo: © sport.de
American Football Madness: Friday for the specialist audience
The American Football Madness had already been announced with a large tamtam last autumn and should offer everything from NFL stars about coaches and sizes in the industry as well as a large fan event for everyone, whether big or small. That was the idea.
It started on Friday and you immediately noticed what to deal with here. Already on the arrival that for selected media representatives by an invitation to the brunch of the NFL – the largest sports league in the world was expressly not organizer of the event and only appealed to it and certainly gave the whole to the delight of the organizer even more credit – this friendly, familiar atmosphere was clear at 10 a.m. The motto “Football is Family” was lived here.
It should be mentioned here that NFL circles can be heard that the previous host cities of the German Games-Munich and Frankfurt-had been surprised and pleased with how peaceful things are in the football community. After all, it is unthinkable in football that fans of several clubs just understand each other and celebrate a big festival together. There are sometimes more of the hat when different fan groups meet in the wild. However, in football – even if this sport naturally also lives from its aggressiveness – you are much more respectable with each other. And that is expressly praise to the entire community!
There was – at least around the time and for us Medienheinis – no admission controls and only the hint, but please march through the parking garage. Somewhere inside the stadium, the check-in counter found itself for the accreditation bathing. Then it went to the informal brunch – networking was announced.
Coaching legend looks behind the scenes
The convention really started at 12 noon with Markus Kuhn as a moderator and then a whole series of mostly interesting speakers. Here you have to emphasize that Friday was clearly intended for the specialist audience. There were lectures on sports psychology and training. Here the focus was on the preparation for the combine at the former NFL player Christian Mohr. With him in the Gym in Aachen, the new Jets rookie Leander Wiegand made fit for the NFL. In general, Mohr can refer to an impressive summary – no other coach has led more NFL players from Europe to the NFL!
The sports scientist Dr. Simon Gavanda gave a lecture on the meaningfulness of the combine tests and showed what helps and what conclusions can be drawn at all when the college athletes in Indy. The following applies fundamentally: “Speed Kills” in so many positions, especially in the defense with defensive backs and line backers. Otherwise, however, there are only a few aspects of the combine from a purely statistical point of view that really help to predict later NFL success. And the much-quoted Wonderlic test seems to help very much.
The big highlight of the day was undoubtedly the legendary offensive line coach Dante Scarnecchia, who, among other things, worked for the New England Patriots for 34 years and made a lot of trouble, giving insight into his long -term and extremely successful work – he won five Super Bowls. Coach Dante even showed tape from the training of the Patriots and took the audience closer to the Great NFL world than hardly anyone else. This part of the event was indeed a trade fair. Perfect for people in the industry, especially for coaches and those who want to become one.
A personal highlight for me was also the appearance of the Running Backs Coach of the University of Alabama/Birmingham, Danny Mitchell. This not only sounded like Hollywood star Denis Lear -who played coach Penn in “Draft Day” -he also sprayed incredible energy and enthusiasm. He reported on his successful time as Head Coach of the Vienna Vikings in the eleven and his childhood when he played with Tom Brady Catch when he trained under quarterback guru Tom Martinez. His motto and his message: “Empower The Quarterback”, so give him trust, take him responsibility and give him the opportunity to make decisions himself. Put the game in his hand. This is more important than any play call.
But his most important approach was the emphasis on how important it is to explain the reasons for something for his players – and that should also apply to other areas of life. “Why are we doing something?” Sounds trivial, but this is the only way to convince people to do something. And: “Make failure acceptable.” Only if you see it as part of the game that something goes wrong does you have the necessary freedom to develop.
Michael Bennett brings the hardness in
The biggest came to the end: the former Seahawks-Super-Bowl winner Michael Bennett gave himself the honor-he traveled from Hawaii. He reported on his long and sometimes stony path as an undrafted free agent in the NFL with early painful discharge and what mentality he acquired. He summarized it martial: “You don’t have to care whether you hurt the opponent. I want to be the most violent player out there.” A sentence that sounds hard, but just belongs to business football.
Otherwise, however, it was a very relaxed and funny exchange with one who made it to the top and stayed there for a long time.
If Friday was the day for Footballnerds, the mainstream audience should be served on Saturday. And once again it became clear which clientele you had to do here. What becomes clear again and again is that this whole football family, the fans of all possible teams, all deal with each other peacefully and friendly. There was no large security presence, which was absolutely not necessary. Rather, there were jerseys from current and sometimes exotic former players. My highlight: a Packers jersey from Craig Heimburger, a guard with number 75, who played two games for Green Bay in 1999!
Several NFL teams had stands next to the arena and have games ready for fans. The NFL was represented with throwing and kick games, there were stands of Rhein Fire and the Vienna Vikings, who played their eleven game in the arena on Sunday. Sebastian Vollmer, who was also present on the Main Stage as a speaker and, so to speak, formed the day’s highlight there together with his former coach Scarnecchia, was ready for an autograph session. Kuhn was also found there.
Kuhn and coach Dante finally joked about Vollmer’s beginnings at the Patriots and what just needed to become a top O-liner. The coach remembered the imposing stature of the Düsseldorfer, which, as a Houston Cougar, still has a rather clear Texas accent in English. Kuhn had fun for fun: “Good looks are also important.” Scarnecchia replied dryly: “Not really. But Sebastian doesn’t look so good now …” Big laughter in the audience.
The German Football Association AFVD presented itself with its own booth in the exhibition area, including to present its new logo and Michael Bennett was there again and basically said the same as on Friday, just a little defused for a younger audience.
There was also a podcast stage on which various known podcasts gave live shows. It should be mentioned that the hall and the seating were much larger than the Main Stage, but less well attended.
AFM: Solid foundation stone with air up
If you want to draw a conclusion now, you can say that many influential and well -known faces of the German football scene were present and presented well. However, there were still a few big ones missing from the media and the sports area. Without knowing the exact number of visitors – in advance, 1500 guests were expected – but noticed that there was definitely room for improvement. Especially when you consider how big the terrain and this arena is.
This should not be a criticism of anything, but it is also clear that there is still a lot of space up. It was a solid foundation stone that was laid, but you can certainly improve a lot. And maybe then it will also be possible to move the even bigger names of being honored in Düsseldorf in the future if the next AFM will surely take place. The industry would certainly deserve to present itself even better and thus increase your own range.