Why Erol Seval joined Rhein Fire

Teaching offensive line from the core: Why Erol Seval joined Rhein Fire

With Erol Seval, one of Europe’s top offensive line coaches takes over the offensive line duties for the Düsseldorf Rhein Fire American Football team. He could boost offensive line coaching in Europe on the long run while he brings a lot of experience to one of the newest franchises.

Coach Erol Seval is a familiar face in Europe’s American Football coaching staffs, but surprised European and German offensive lines with new ideas regarding technique and coaching. The 50-year-old offensive line coach helped to bring players into the IPP and was part of the Gridiron Import program that Björn Werner, now Co-Owner of the Berlin Thunder, launched to help student athletes develop their play abroad.

Düsseldorf in his veins

Before going to Rhein Fire, he coached GFL Teams, the German National Team as well as players in his own O-Line clinics and seminars over the time. For him, to join Rhein Fire was no discussion at all: „For me, the circle is complete. I became a coach in 1999 because I could no longer be a player due to an illness. As a coach, I wanted to take advantage of the opportunity and used relationships to fly to Orlando with Rhein Fire as an observer, for example. I was there for signings and releases and was able to learn a lot about the sport. I was in contact with many franchises of the European League of Football. With Rhein Fire, however, I came to an agreement relatively quickly. I really wanted to do that when there was a team in my hometown. I’m not going to let any other coach do that“.

The European League of Football not only is a chance for him, but also the players, he said. „I thought about this kind of concept in Europe for a long time and that it became reality, I am more than happy to join in and be a part of it. For the players, having the decision to maybe play in another city of Europe in the upcoming years and for example live a year in Barcelona or Vienna. I mean why not.

A city hungry for football

Speaking about the development of the game, he also came to the conclusion that mainly linemen make the step over to the US: „If we look at the statistics, 80% of the players are linemen who make it to the US from Europe. There are a lot of receivers over there that run a 4.4 but still don’t make it. Our European Players need a lot of luck to get there. Our linemen, however, have good opportunities because they have the size and some agility“.

When talking about European and German Football, he couldn’t hold back and talk about other coaches in the League, aswell. „The circle in Europe is close. Andreas Nommensen was the tight end in my national team, Patrick Griesheimer was a former Guard there, as well as Marten Töwe, now working for the Sea Devils in the offensive line. Martin Hanselmann was my head coach in the National Team as well. There are many names from the German Football scene appearing in the European League of Football. Therefor, I wanted to do that with Rhein Fire“.

The bond between him and the city is noticeable: “Rhein Fire is in the heads of the people in the city. I think that there is no other Franchise in Germany that developed such a hype. We have received and still receive a lot of great feedback. We as Rhein Fire want to give something back to the region. Not only the fans, but also the cities around us. We got a lot of responses on our sign-up formulars. There is a great push to football that comes with Rhein Fire and the European League of Football“.

With Erol Seval, there is not only a spirit coming into the offense of Rhein Fire, but also a new way of game planning and preparation…

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