The Stuttgart Surge – The ELF’s greatest turnaround

The Surge were one of the founding eight members of the European league of Football in 2021. Like many of the ELF’s teams the Surge also brought NFL Europe nostalgia back as they share a name with the Sacramento Surge who were part of the World League in 1990’s. The team plays its home games at the Waldau-Stadion in South West Germany.

Early days of the Surge – 2021 & 2022

Under the guidance of head coach Martin Hanselmann the Surge won their first game in the ELF defeating the Barcelona Dragons, however the Surge ended the season with a 2-8 record and didn’t qualify for the playoffs.

In February of 2022, NFL fullback and Stuttgart Native Jakob Johnson became a co-owner of the franchise. On the field the Surge endured a long season going winless in twelve games. However they were still able to increase attendance to an average of over 2k fans a game.

Jordan Neuman Era 2023-Present

In the fall of 2022, Joran Neuman was named the head coach of the Stuttgart Surge. The veteran coach had won three German Bowls in the German Football League with the nearby Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns.

The move was easily the best in the team’s history as Neuman brought not only a winning culture to Stuttgart but many of his former players rejoined him in the ELF.

Just one year after the Surge went 0-12, Neumann and his players went 10-2 in the regular season qualifying for the playoffs. Stuttgart went on to beat the undefeated Vienna Vikings on the road and go to the Championship game. Unfortunately for Surge fans, the Cinderella story ended there as they lost to the Rhein Fire.

This past season the Surge were once again title contenders finishing the regular season with a 11-1 record. This time the Surge hosted the Rhein Fire in the semifinals but lost in an epic overtime game.

Perhaps 2025 is the season we see the Surge finally break through and complete the journey from worst to first.