Berlin Thunder Information & Berlin Thunder Links at HealthHaven.com

	Berlin Thunder
Helmet	Logo
Year Founded	1999
Year Retired	2007
Home Field	Olympic Stadium
City	Berlin, Germany
Team Colors	Black, Green, Tan, Orange, White
Head Coach	John Allen
	Championships
	World Bowls (3) World Bowl IX (2001); World Bowl X (2002); World Bowl XII (2004);

The Berlin Thunder were a professional American football team in NFL Europe, which was a springtime American football league serving primarily as a developmental league for the National Football League. Most of the players were young American professional players assigned by NFL teams to receive additional game experience and coaching. Coaching staffs are predominantly provided by the NFL for developmental purposes as well. In addition, "national" players, or non-American players, compete on each team. Berlin's 2006 squad included players from Germany, Finland, England, Mexico and Japan. Players and coaches had their living expenses paid for by the league while in Europe in addition to their salaries.^{[citation needed]}.

[edit] History

The Thunder came into existence as an expansion team, after the London/England Monarchs franchise shut down operations, prior to the 1999 season.

The Thunder have won the World Bowl 3 times: 2001, 2002 and 2004 (a year that they went 9-1).

They also made it to the World Bowl in 2005, but were narrowly defeated by the Amsterdam Admirals. The final score was 27-21.

Two Berlin quarterbacks, Rohan Davey (2004) and Dave Ragone (2005), were named NFL Europe Offensive Most Valuable Players. Linebacker Rich Scanlon (2005) was named NFL Europe Defensive MVP. In 2006, the Thunder had three players earn All-NFL Europe honors: guard Chad Beasley and safety (football position) Anthony Floyd earned all-league honors at their respective positions and German defensive end Christian Mohr was honored as the national player on the defensive all-league team.

On April Fools Day 2006, the Thunder recorded their very first tie in franchise history. Trailing the Hamburg Sea Devils 17-0 at halftime, the Thunder erased their deficit to tie it up, going into overtime. Unfortunately, neither team could come up with a point in the extra period. This was only the second tie in the history of NFL Europe. The previous tie came in the 1992 season between the Birmingham Fire and the London Monarchs. The final score for that game was also 17-17.

[edit] Season-by-season

Note: W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties

Season	W	L	T	Finish	Playoff results
Berlin Thunder (NFL Europe)
1999	3	7	0	6th League	--
2000	4	6	0	6th League	--
2001	6	4	0	2nd League	Won World Bowl IX (Dragons)
2002	6	4	0	2nd League	Won World Bowl X (Fire)
2003	3	7	0	6th League	--
2004	9	1	0	1st League	Won World Bowl XII (Galaxy)
2005	7	3	0	1st League	Lost World Bowl XIII (Admirals)
2006	2	7	1	6th League	--
2007	2	8	0	6th League	--
Total	45	49	1	(including playoffs)

[edit] Head coaches

#	Name	Term	Regular season					Postseason				Achievements	Reference
#	Name	Term	GC	W	L	T	Win%	GC	W	L	Win%	Achievements	Reference
Berlin Thunder
1	Wes Chandler	1999	10	3	7	0	.300	—	—	—	—
2	Peter Vaas	2000–2003	40	19	21	0	.475	2	2	0	1.000	Coach of the Year (2002)
3	Rick Lantz	2004–2006	30	18	11	1	.617	2	1	1	.500	Coach of the Year (2004)
4	John Allen	2007	10	2	8	0	.200	—	—	—	—