The Empire Football League (EFL) is a semi-professional American football league with franchises based primarily in New York State. The league was established in 1969. Many franchises have come and gone including in locations such as Pennsylvania, Vermont, and Connecticut as well as Quebec, Montreal, and Ontario in Canada. In 2018 the league included six teams: the Glens Falls Greenjackets, Hudson Valley Mountaineers, Plattsburgh North Stars, Seaway Valley Venom, Tri City Spartans, and Utica Yard Dogs.
Ray Seals transitioned from the EFL to the National Football League (NFL) in 1989. Several members of the Syracuse 8 that challenged disparities for African Americans at Syracuse University's football program played for the Tri City Jets of Binghamton, New York. The team was a farm team for the New York Jets at the time and some of them went for a tryout with the Jets, but according to one of them they understood they had no chance when Jets coach Weeb Ewbank identified them as "those boys from Syracuse" during roll call.[1]
The league's most dominant team has been the Scranton Eagles who have won a record 11 championships, 10 of those coming between the years 1982 and 1994.
History
The league was organized during the winter of 1968 and started in 1969.[2] The Hudson Falls Greenjackets were the first champions, after finishing with a 7-1 record.[3]
In 1989 Ray Seals transitioned from the EFL's Syracuse Express to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the National Football League (NFL). As a linebacker he blocked the pass from Brett Favre that Favre caught for his very first completion in the NFL.
Due to complications stemming from the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, all Canadian teams were removed from the league beginning in the 2010 season (at the time, the Quebec Titans and the Ottawa Deacon Demons (Joliet Chargers) were in the league).
The Watertown Red and Black left the league in 2017 when the EFL was down to two teams.[4] The league held an emergency meeting when it was left with just the Seaway Valley Venom and the Glens Falls Greenjackets.[5]
The Hudson Valley Mountaineers joined the league in 2018.[6]
In 2018 Kevin Siska of the Glens Falls Greenjackets was inducted into the American Football Association Minor League Football Hall of Fame.[7]
The team canceled its 2020 season amid the COVID-19 pandemic.[8] For the 2021 season Utica, Hudson Valley and Sussex decided to join other leagues, so the league decided to split into 2 divisions to cut down on travel costs. Eastern Division included Glens Falls Greenjackets, Plattsburgh North Stars and Tri City Spartans, while the West Division consist Syracuse Smash, Watertown Red & Black and Northern New York Grizzlies.[9] West division champs Watertown beat East division champs Glens Falls 37-8 in the final.[10] In 2023 the league announced the Watertown Red & Black would be leaving the EFL and joining the GDFL; three of the other five teams followed suit, with the Greenjackets going to the New England Football League,[11] the Smash (whom the league had suspended during the 2023 season after Smash players entered a fan melee that erupted at one of their home games and escalated into a gunfight in the parking lot)[12] joining the East Coast Football League and playing a spring schedule, and the Broome County Stallions rejoining the Northeastern Football Alliance.
United States