Canadian Football League 2021

References: [2] (Standings Calculated Automatically).

Japan X-League X1 Super 2021

References: [4, 5][Standings Calculated Automatically]

European League of Football 2021

References: [7, 8]

The Spring League 2021

The Spring League 2021	P	W	L	T	PF	PA	Pct
TSL North (Indianapolis)
Linemen (C)	6	5	1	0	177	117	.833
Conquerors	6	4	2	0	164	118	.667
Alphas	6	3	3	0	118	137	.500
Aviators	6	0	6	0	53	140	.000
TSL South (Houston)
Jousters (C)	6	4	2	0	121	62	.667
Generals	6	4	2	0	131	104	.667
Blues	6	3	3	0	78	107	.500
Sea Lions	6	1	5	0	90	141	.250

Date	Home Team		Away Team
	Mega Bowl Championship		Rice Stadium, Houston, TX
19/06/2021	Linemen	26	Jousters	23

Recap

The Major Alternative Football Leagues of 2021 were The Spring League which kicked off its 5th season this year, with a major expansion, adding a second hub city and four teams to its schedule, the European League of Football, Japan X-League X1 Super, and the Canadian Football League.

The Linemen won TSL North in Indianapolis with a 5-1 record and the Jousters were Champions of TSL South in Houston with a 4-2 record. In a close Mega Bowl Linemen defeated Jousters 26-23 [13-14]. Tadhg Leader, former Connacht Rugby player, who was born in Ireland, played kicker for the Aviators who finished 0-6 in the TSL North [8-10].

Following the TSL season, Tadhg Leader moved on to play for Panthers Wroclaw of Poland in the European League of Football, along with a young Tallaght, South Dublin County native Kevin Mayo. The Panthers finished the season 6-4 in the ELF North but lost the Semi-Final 27-30 at Hamburg Sea Devils, who finished runners-up to ELF South Champions Frankfurt Galaxy (9-1) who won the ELF Championship Game 32-30 in an even closer game than the TSL Mega Bowl [7-8].

By the Fall the Japan X-League had kicked off and the 6-1 Fujitsu Frontiers upset the 7-0 Panasonic Impulse 24-20 in the Rice Bowl [4-5]. This was the first year the JXL had sole ownership of the Rice Bowl, previously the X-League Champions contested the Rice Bowl with the College Champions in Japan.

The Canadian Football League, the biggest of the Major Alternative Football Leagues played a covid-shortened 14-game schedule, with newly renamed Edmonton Elks struggling to a 3-11 record, worst in the CFL. The big news on the Football field however was Winnipeg Blue Bombers who went 11-3 in winning the CFL West before triumphing 33-25 against Hamilton Tiger-Cats (8-6) who had upset CFL East Champions Toronto Argonauts 27-19 in the Eastern Final [2].

Tadhg Leader – Irish-born Player (Panthers Wroclaw ELF and Aviators TSL)

Former Connacht Rugby player Tadhg Leader was born in Galway, Ireland. At the age of 15 he and his brother Darragh headed out to kick some Rugby balls at their local pitch on Christmas Day. His dad, a former Galwegians RFC Rugby player made a bet with them that they could not kick the ball over the bars from the halfway line. Both Tadhg and his brother Darragh won €50 each.

Tadhg went on to play Rugby Professionally for Connacht and Darragh now lives in USA where he coaches at Clemson University Tigers. Tadhg suffered a number of injuries during his last few years at Connacht and after playing in Italy he ended up studying in USA and playing for both New England Free Jacks in Major League Rugby and making his Test debut for USA Eagles Rugby Union National Team.

Tadhg was signed up to play another year of Rugby Union in 2021 when the kicker started kicking American Footballs for fun. People took notice and said he should try out for American Football teams and so he went off to San Diego where he was kicking alongside Super Bowl-winning athletes. Unsure of his own ability he asked John Carney, who has 23 years of experience kicking Footballs and Carney said he could mix it with the NFL players.

Before long Leader found himself playing for the Aviators in The Spring League in USA. The Aviatiors, one of four teams based in Indianapolis, a COVID-19 Pod and one of two Pods in the 8-team league in 2021 finished with an 0-6 record in 2021. On May 7 versus Alphas Tadhg Leader scored the first points of his American Football career kicking a Field Goal to make the score Aviators 3 Alphas 7 at Halftime.

After spending Spring in Indianapolis with the Aviators Tadhg signed for Panthers Wroclaw in the European League of Football, making his debut on opening day in a 55-39 victory over Cologne Centurions. [References: 8-10]

Kevin Mayo – Irish Player (Panthers Wroclaw ELF)

Kevin Mayo, who is from Tallaght, South Dublin Co. in Ireland, and had previously played for the South Dublin Panthers in the American Football Ireland League joined the Panthers Wroclaw at the tail end of the season after being picked up by North Park University in Chicago, an NCAA Division III College.

CFL References

LOGOS

[1] Sports Logos (2021) 2757__canadian_football_league-primary-2016 [Internet] Available from: https://content.sportslogos.net/logos/8/2573/full/2757__canadian_football_league-primary-2016.png [Accessed 31 July 2021]

REFERENCES

[2] Canadian Football League (2021) Schedule 2021 [Internet] Available from: https://www.cfl.ca/schedule/2021/ [Accessed 31 July 2021]

Japan X-League References

IMAGES

[3] X-League (2020) logo_xleague [Internet] Available from: https://s3-ap-northeast-1.amazonaws.com/xleague/images/logo_xleague.jpg [Accessed 7 March 2021]

STANDINGS

[4] X-League (2021) Standings [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/standing [Accessed 13 December 2021]

[5] X-League (2021) Score [Internet] Available from: https://xleague.jp/score [Accessed 4 August 2021]

ELF References

[6] European League of Football Facebook Page (2021) Profile Picture, February 4, 2021 [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/europeanleagueoffootball/photos/a.100150555247238/159345569327736/ [Accessed 27 April 2021]

[7] European League of Football (2021) Stats [Internet] Available from: https://europeanleague.football/stats [Accessed 10 November 2021]

[8] European League of Football (2021) Schedule [Internet] Available from: https://europeanleague.football/schedule [Accessed 11 July 2021]

[9] South Dublin Panthers (2021) Post to Page 2 December 2021: “Great Interview!” [Internet] Available from: https://www.facebook.com/southdublinpanthers/posts/309142057879208 [Accessed 3 December 2021]

[10] The Liberty (2021) Leader and Mayo: Meet the two Irishmen with the NFL in their sights [Internet] Available from: https://www.theliberty.ie/2021/12/01/leader-and-mayo-meet-the-two-irishmen-with-the-nfl-in-their-sights/?fbclid=IwAR1g3KnLD1lmr5GsnTTOrYiBJpVYPuyZzhjcgWKz54lKAc1ychvTjBiYwqA [Accessed 3 December 2021]

[11] Rugby Players Ireland (2021) The Journey Continues for Tadhg Leader [Internet] Available from: [Accessed 3 December 2021]

The Spring League References

[12] The Spring League (2017) Profile Picture August 13, 2019 [Internet] Available from: https://scontent-dub4-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t1.0-9/68494309_2435273623417739_8497449137069883392_n.jpg?_nc_cat=101&_nc_ohc=osM0If13hRYAX9kbxYM&_nc_ht=scontent-dub4-1.xx&oh=3d2ef90b030c12beaf5c4be4b091d540&oe=5E9E9711%5BAccessed 25 January 2020]

[13] The Spring League (2021) Schedule [Internet] Available from: https://thespringleague.com/?page_id=5732 [Accessed 20 June 2021]

[14] The Spring League (2021) League [Internet] Available from: https://thespringleague.com/?page_id=136 [Accessed 6 May 2021]

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Thanks to Steve Hearn and Anton “Pippo” O’Grady, Bart Barden, Carmine, Tomasz and Todd Zboyan (Dublin Bay Raptors)

ABOUT THIS DOCUMENT

Researched, compiled and written by Enda Mulcahy for the

Eirball | Irish, North American & World Sports Archive

Last Updated: 7 January 2022

(c) Copyright Enda Mulcahy and Eirball 2021-2022

You may quote this document in part provided that proper acknowledgement is given to the authors. All Rights Reserved. The Logos and Photos used in this article remain the property of the organisations and individuals which own the copyright and are used here for educational and information purposes only.