# 2019 German Football League

The 2019 German Football League season is the 41st edition of the top-level American football competition in Germany.
The regular season starts on 27 April and will be finished on 8 September 2019, followed by the play-offs. The season culminated in the German Bowl XLI, which will be held on 12 October 2019 in Frankfurt.

## Modus

During the regular season each club plays all other clubs in its division twice, home and away, resulting in each team playing 14 regular season games. There are no games between clubs from opposite divisions, interconference games having been abolished after the 2011 season.
The best four teams in each division qualify for the play-offs where, in the quarter-finals, teams from opposite divisions play each other, whereby the better placed teams have home field advantage. The first placed team plays the fourth placed from the other division and the second placed the third placed team. From the semi-finals onwards teams from the same division can meet again.
The eighth placed team in each division enter a two-leg play-off with the winner of the respective division of the German Football League 2, the second tier of the league system in Germany. The winners of this contest qualify for the GFL for the following season.

## League tables
### GFL

The league tables of the two GFL divisions:

#### North

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | PCT | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | New Yorker Lions | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 586 | 179 | +407 | 1.000 | Qualification to play-offs |
| 2 | Dresden Monarchs | 14 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 418 | 189 | +229 | .714 | Qualification to play-offs |
| 3 | Hildesheim Invaders | 14 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 413 | 305 | +108 | .714 | Qualification to play-offs |
| 4 | Berlin Rebels | 14 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 387 | 302 | +85 | .571 | Qualification to play-offs |
| 5 | Cologne Crocodiles | 14 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 251 | 314 | −63 | .500 | |
| 6 | Potsdam Royals | 14 | 4 | 1 | 9 | 243 | 360 | −117 | .321 | |
| 7 | Kiel Baltic Hurricanes | 14 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 210 | 425 | −215 | .179 | |
| 8 | Düsseldorf Panther | 14 | 0 | 0 | 14 | 185 | 619 | −434 | .000 | Relegation play-offs to GFL2 |

#### South

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | PCT | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns | 14 | 14 | 0 | 0 | 680 | 176 | +504 | 1.000 | Qualification to play-offs |
| 2 | Frankfurt Universe | 14 | 11 | 0 | 3 | 478 | 252 | +226 | .786 | Qualification to play-offs |
| 3 | Marburg Mercenaries | 14 | 9 | 0 | 5 | 493 | 378 | +115 | .643 | Qualification to play-offs |
| 4 | Stuttgart Scorpions | 14 | 6 | 0 | 8 | 328 | 473 | −145 | .429 | Qualification to play-offs |
| 5 | Ingolstadt Dukes | 14 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 298 | 433 | −135 | .357 | |
| 6 | Allgäu Comets | 14 | 5 | 0 | 9 | 263 | 406 | −143 | .357 | |
| 7 | Munich Cowboys | 14 | 3 | 1 | 10 | 238 | 423 | −185 | .250 | |
| 8 | Kirchdorf Wildcats | 14 | 2 | 1 | 11 | 276 | 513 | −237 | .179 | Relegation play-offs to GFL2 |

### GFL2

The league tables of the two GFL2 divisions:

#### North

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | PCT | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Elmshorn Fighting Pirates | 14 | 12 | 0 | 2 | 561 | 279 | +282 | .857 | Qualification to promotion play-off |
| 2 | Lübeck Cougars | 14 | 10 | 0 | 4 | 418 | 337 | +81 | .714 | |
| 3 | Rostock Griffins | 14 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 456 | 353 | +103 | .571 | |
| 4 | Solingen Paladins | 14 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 370 | 386 | −16 | .571 | |
| 5 | Langenfeld Longhorns | 14 | 8 | 0 | 6 | 481 | 414 | +67 | .571 | |
| 6 | Hamburg Huskies | 14 | 7 | 0 | 7 | 399 | 340 | +59 | .500 | |
| 7 | Hannover Spartans | 14 | 2 | 0 | 12 | 250 | 515 | −265 | .143 | Relegation to Regionalliga |
| 8 | Troisdorf Jets | 14 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 203 | 514 | −311 | .071 | Relegation to Regionalliga |

#### South

| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | PF | PA | PD | PCT | Qualification or relegation |
| 1 | Ravensburg Razorbacks | 12 | 10 | 0 | 2 | 433 | 244 | +189 | .833 | Qualification to promotion play-off |
| 2 | Saarland Hurricanes | 12 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 501 | 183 | +318 | .750 | |
| 3 | Straubing Spiders | 12 | 9 | 0 | 3 | 431 | 182 | +249 | .750 | |
| 4 | Biberach Beavers | 12 | 6 | 0 | 6 | 288 | 385 | −97 | .500 | |
| 5 | Wiesbaden Phantoms | 12 | 5 | 0 | 7 | 301 | 304 | −3 | .417 | |
| 6 | Darmstadt Diamonds | 12 | 3 | 0 | 9 | 176 | 420 | −244 | .250 | |
| 7 | Gießen Golden Dragons | 12 | 0 | 0 | 12 | 62 | 474 | −412 | .000 | Relegation to Regionalliga |

## Relegation and Promotion round

| Division | GFL Team | GFL2 Team | 1st leg | 2nd leg | Total |
| North | Düsseldorf Panther | Elmshorn Fighting Pirates | 14–47 | 21–34 | 35–81 |
| South | Kirchdorf Wildcats | Ravensburg Razorbacks | 28–40 | 34–58 | 62–98 |

## Play-offs

This year all play-off games were won by the home teams and the Dresden Monarchs found their match in the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns for the fourth time in five years (losing their semifinals to them in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2018). This losing streak would only end in German Bowl XLII which again saw Schwäbisch Hall face the Monarchs, but this time the Saxonians prevailed. Avenging the previous year's semifinal defeat against Frankfurt, Braunschweig once again reached the German Bowl, which would be played in Frankfurt's Waldstadion this year. In a low scoring affair, Braunschweig snapped a fifty-game winning streak of Schwäbisch Hall that had started in 2017 and won their twelfth national championship by a final score of 10–7 in German Bowl XLI.
| Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | Semifinals | German Bowl | German Bowl | German Bowl |
| N1 | New Yorker Lions | 70 | | | | | | |
| S4 | Stuttgart Scorpions | 3 | | | | | | |
| S4 | Stuttgart Scorpions | 3 | New Yorker Lions | New Yorker Lions | 36 | | | |
| | | | Frankfurt Universe | Frankfurt Universe | 18 | | | |
| S2 | Frankfurt Universe | 28 | Frankfurt Universe | Frankfurt Universe | 18 | | | |
| N3 | Hildesheim Invaders | 7 | | | | | | |
| N3 | Hildesheim Invaders | 7 | | | | New Yorker Lions | New Yorker Lions | 10 |
| | | | | | | Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns | Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns | 7 |
| S1 | Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns | 45 | | | | | | | Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns | Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns | 7 |
| N4 | Berlin Rebels | 24 | | | | | | |
| N4 | Berlin Rebels | 24 | Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns | Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns | 30 | | | |
| | | | Dresden Monarchs | Dresden Monarchs | 13 | | | |
| N2 | Dresden Monarchs | 39 | Dresden Monarchs | Dresden Monarchs | 13 | | | |
| S3 | Marburg Mercenaries | 22 | | | | | | |