BUAFL

since this is a general american football forum, rather than an NFL-specific one, thought we could get a thread going for those of us involved with BUAFL, since the season kicks off this weekend.


Best of luck to those of you that are playing today! If anyone here plays for Liverpool Fury, I apologise in advance for the beatdown my Outlaws are about to hand to you (only joking! just some good natured banter. we will win tho).

Good luck to everyone in their games today, unless you think you're "Bomber Strong" in which case the Sharks are going to beat you. I just wish I had a bit more money in the bank so I could help the Sharks out.

How's the season going for your Outlaws Gur?

how do you join a team and how high is he skill set reqiured

cherriesfan wrote:how do you join a team and how high is he skill set reqiured

If your university has one they'll be pretty easy to find, I think all uni's host a sports team fair during freshers week for you to find any teams you want to join easily, then you can try it out before signing up. I expect most teams aren't picky Cherries, just have to be prepared to put the work in. If you were meaning a team in the BAFA leagues then you can probably get in contact with them and they'll ask you to come down for training.

Anyone one here play for Southampton, Nottingham, Exeter or Coventry? I'll try and join one of those teams next year

Don't got to Coventry!

Which Nottingham Uni you looking at?

skins4ever wrote:Don't got to Coventry!

Which Nottingham Uni you looking at?

Hopefully the proper one and not the evil Trent :p
Edit: though if I remember the BUAFL Team is shared between the pair of rivals

skins4ever wrote:Don't got to Coventry!

Which Nottingham Uni you looking at?

Nottingham University, not Trent. Coventry's my backup but I haven't decided between Nottingham, Southampton and Exeter for my first choice

crazy_dave23 wrote:

skins4ever wrote:Don't got to Coventry!

Which Nottingham Uni you looking at?

Hopefully the proper one and not the evil Trent :p
Edit: though if I remember the BUAFL Team is shared between the pair of rivals

Crazy, if you are referring to a joint team, BUAFL does not allow this any more. 2 seasons ago they ruled that each team must belong to a single institution, wef the start of the 2010 season. Nottingham Uni and NTU now have separate teams.

TheBrownTown wrote:Nottingham University, not Trent.

Then yes, Gur plays for the Nottingham Outlaws if I'm not mistaken, Nottingham Trent's team are called the Renegades. Clearly though neither are as good as the SHARKS!

I wish i'd had the opportunity to get involved in playing American Football when i was younger. I'm not old now - only 27 - but i feel like i've missed my chance now really.

Is it common for people over not to pick it up until later or is it very much something you have to get into when you're younger?

dancingweeman wrote:I wish i'd had the opportunity to get involved in playing American Football when i was younger. I'm not old now - only 27 - but i feel like i've missed my chance now really.

Is it common for people over not to pick it up until later or is it very much something you have to get into when you're younger?

Well unless you're at university I don't think you can join a BUAFL team, but your local area should have a team I'm pretty sure people of all ages play. If Brett Favre can make the NFL at 40 you can make the British leagues at 27.

If you are at Uni and are eligible to play age is irrelevant. As for senior, I played into my late 30's and could probably have played longer if I hadn't walked away to coach. Not sure about now, but there have been guys playing into their 50's, so 27 shouldn't be a problem!

TheBrownTown wrote:
Nottingham University, not Trent. Coventry's my backup but I haven't decided between Nottingham, Southampton and Exeter for my first choice

Vote for Nottingham... its immense

crazy_dave23 wrote:

TheBrownTown wrote:
Nottingham University, not Trent. Coventry's my backup but I haven't decided between Nottingham, Southampton and Exeter for my first choice

Vote for Nottingham... its immense

That is if you don't mind living in the worse city in the Midlands.

Derbyblue wrote:

crazy_dave23 wrote:

TheBrownTown wrote:
Nottingham University, not Trent. Coventry's my backup but I haven't decided between Nottingham, Southampton and Exeter for my first choice

Vote for Nottingham... its immense

That is if you don't mind living in the worse city in the Midlands.

Guess that's like picking between the different types of cancer. Nah but seriously I like Nottingham and I reckon I'd try to play safety in the BUAFL

TheBrownTown wrote:

Derbyblue wrote:

crazy_dave23 wrote:

TheBrownTown wrote:
Nottingham University, not Trent. Coventry's my backup but I haven't decided between Nottingham, Southampton and Exeter for my first choice

Vote for Nottingham... its immense

That is if you don't mind living in the worse city in the Midlands.

Guess that's like picking between the different types of cancer. Nah but seriously I like Nottingham and I reckon I'd try to play safety in the BUAFL

How dare you! Not sure what sort of schemes those teams play but they may prefer to try you at CB and have an experienced guy at Safety.

@dancingweeman

As a 27 year old myself, that age is NOTHING when it comes to playing in the British American Football leagues. At the Bulls, we have several guys well in to their 30s (though I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate me mentioning their ages!) and have recently had one player retire after playing 25 years of American Football.

That being said, my body is officially made of glass, and I had to 'retire' during pre-season this year after fracturing my hand in four places catching the ball. I was a Tight End. Quite ridiculous, frankly.

Where abouts do you live? There are plenty of clubs around the country that are starting to have rookie try-outs prior to the BAFANL pre-season commencing.

We at the Bulls have 8 indoor sessions kicking off in January (I'll post an article linking to the FB events tomorrow), but if you're not located in or around Birmingham, I can point you in the direction of your nearest club(s) if you like?

Coach Amor
Birmingham Bulls

Derbyblue wrote:

TheBrownTown wrote:

Derbyblue wrote:

crazy_dave23 wrote:

TheBrownTown wrote:
Nottingham University, not Trent. Coventry's my backup but I haven't decided between Nottingham, Southampton and Exeter for my first choice

Vote for Nottingham... its immense

That is if you don't mind living in the worse city in the Midlands.

Guess that's like picking between the different types of cancer. Nah but seriously I like Nottingham and I reckon I'd try to play safety in the BUAFL

How dare you! Not sure what sort of schemes those teams play but they may prefer to try you at CB and have an experienced guy at Safety.

Yeah I'm only kidding, the midlands are great, wish I could say the same about the accents though
But I think I'd be fine playing CB, I might try WR but I'm not sure I'd be good enough. Do players often play offense & defense in the BUAFL or is that pretty rare?

Birmingham Bulls wrote:@dancingweeman

As a 27 year old myself, that age is NOTHING when it comes to playing in the British American Football leagues. At the Bulls, we have several guys well in to their 30s (though I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate me mentioning their ages!) and have recently had one player retire after playing 25 years of American Football.

That being said, my body is officially made of glass, and I had to 'retire' during pre-season this year after fracturing my hand in four places catching the ball. I was a Tight End. Quite ridiculous, frankly.

Where abouts do you live? There are plenty of clubs around the country that are starting to have rookie try-outs prior to the BAFANL pre-season commencing.

We at the Bulls have 8 indoor sessions kicking off in January (I'll post an article linking to the FB events tomorrow), but if you're not located in or around Birmingham, I can point you in the direction of your nearest club(s) if you like?

Coach Amor
Birmingham Bulls

I second that, after playing there and now coaching the junior's, its a good set up. Especially as the seniors are now in the premier division!

skins4ever wrote:

Birmingham Bulls wrote:@dancingweeman

As a 27 year old myself, that age is NOTHING when it comes to playing in the British American Football leagues. At the Bulls, we have several guys well in to their 30s (though I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate me mentioning their ages!) and have recently had one player retire after playing 25 years of American Football.

That being said, my body is officially made of glass, and I had to 'retire' during pre-season this year after fracturing my hand in four places catching the ball. I was a Tight End. Quite ridiculous, frankly.

Where abouts do you live? There are plenty of clubs around the country that are starting to have rookie try-outs prior to the BAFANL pre-season commencing.

We at the Bulls have 8 indoor sessions kicking off in January (I'll post an article linking to the FB events tomorrow), but if you're not located in or around Birmingham, I can point you in the direction of your nearest club(s) if you like?

Coach Amor
Birmingham Bulls

I second that, after playing there and now coaching the junior's, its a good set up. Especially as the seniors are now in the premier division!

Thanks guys. I live in south east london, so presume there would be a few teams within driving distance.

London? Well you have London Blitz, London Olympians and London Warriors - the latter of whom have a certain celebrity playing for them.

I'm typing this on my phone, so can't provide any links, but if you Google any of those teams, you can find their website and when they plan on holding rookie try outs etc.

Of course, if you don't mind the commute, you can always come to the Bulls' tryouts!

Derbyblue wrote:How's the season going for your Outlaws Gur?

It's going alright, we're 2-2 but to be honest, we were fully expecting that, seeing as our 2nd and 3rd games were against Aces & Lions respectively :/ luckily we had an easy opponent for our first game, as we had quite a few rookies who hadn't yet settled down, so we only just scraped the win. We just beat the Braves 9-7, but that game's become the source of quite a bit of controversy on the unofficial forums (those involved in BAFANL/BUAFL know what forums I mean), since the game was abandoned with 5 minutes left in the 3rd as one of our players suffered what looked to be a serious, serious injury and had to be rushed to hospital in the ambulance, and without the required medical coverage there the refs called of the game. Because it was in the second half, according to Buafl rules the score that stood when the game was abandoned stands as the final score, with no reply. A lot of people have complained about it, but those are the rules, and that's how it goes. Much more importantly, our player was discharged from hospital later that night with no lasting neck/spine damage, thank Flip. Anyway, it was very, very encouraging to see how we were playing against Derby, if we can keep playing at that level I really think we should go 6-2, and since our schedule includes NTU and Northampton, we should own the tiebreakers over the rest of the MAC, which ought to mean a post season for us, even if it will be only for the Plate.

Derbyblue wrote:

TheBrownTown wrote:Nottingham University, not Trent.

Then yes, Gur plays for the Nottingham Outlaws if I'm not mistaken, Nottingham Trent's team are called the Renegades. Clearly though neither are as good as the SHARKS!

Ah, wish I still played Unfortunately I suffered a really bad spine injury last year (not on the field, but sort of football related - friends of mine who don't play, but knew I did, tackled me for a laugh when were on a night out. of course, since they don't know how to form tackle, they ended up crushing my spinal chord and tbh I'm pretty damn lucky not to be in a chair rest of my life :/ ) so I've had to give up playing, but doing the coaching side now, not officially registered as a coach with the uni, only got my BAFCA level 1 end of october, but I'm basically assistant o-line coach, getting some experience and then hopefully continue coaching in BAFANL from this summer until, well, as long as I can really.

dancingweeman wrote:

skins4ever wrote:

Birmingham Bulls wrote:@dancingweeman

As a 27 year old myself, that age is NOTHING when it comes to playing in the British American Football leagues. At the Bulls, we have several guys well in to their 30s (though I'm sure they wouldn't appreciate me mentioning their ages!) and have recently had one player retire after playing 25 years of American Football.

That being said, my body is officially made of glass, and I had to 'retire' during pre-season this year after fracturing my hand in four places catching the ball. I was a Tight End. Quite ridiculous, frankly.

Where abouts do you live? There are plenty of clubs around the country that are starting to have rookie try-outs prior to the BAFANL pre-season commencing.

We at the Bulls have 8 indoor sessions kicking off in January (I'll post an article linking to the FB events tomorrow), but if you're not located in or around Birmingham, I can point you in the direction of your nearest club(s) if you like?

Coach Amor
Birmingham Bulls

I second that, after playing there and now coaching the junior's, its a good set up. Especially as the seniors are now in the premier division!

Thanks guys. I live in south east london, so presume there would be a few teams within driving distance.

If you're in south east london, one of the Kent teams is pretty close by (I think Exiles?), since the three main london teams are all in the BAFANL premiership, you may feel you want to ease yourself in at a slightly lower level of competition (division 1) - though of course if you want to try your hand at playing with the best then of course go for it! the other team which may as well be london, really, is the watford cheetahs, who are in div 2, but they're the wrong side of london for you really.

I'm not planning on playing O-line but perhaps I'll see you next Autumn Gur if I choose Nottingham

Good luck for getting to 6-2 Gur, glad to hear that your player was ok. How did the game that got called off at 0-0 in OT go down?

Also good luck with your coaching, have you asked teams if you're able to join in with their coaching?

Sharks are 3-1, with the 1 being against Sheffield Hallam, who seem to have found a great RB he has 52 carries, 16 TD's, 1042 Yards so far from 4 games.

this gong to be made a sticky?