2021 German Football League

The 2021 German Football League season was the 42nd edition of the top-level American football competition in Germany. It was the first season after the 2020 season had to be cancelled due to Covid-19.

The regular season started on 5 June and ended on 5 September 2021, followed by the play-offs.^[1] Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the start of the season was more than one month later than in other years. The Covid-19 pandemic as well as the European League of Football "raiding" the GFL for coaches, players and even entire teams led to the withdrawal of the Hildesheim Invaders, the Elmshorn Fighting Pirates (both GFL North) and the Ingolstadt Dukes (GFL South) before the season began. While the vacancy in the South was filled with the Saarland Hurricanes, the Northern division played with six instead of the normal eight teams. To reduce the strain on teams and the risk of infection, the AFVD decided to further subdivide each division into two groups, with only the teams within a group playing the full home and away schedule against each other and members of different groups only meeting once for a schedule of 10 games, but due to the Northern division being composed of only six teams, this had practical effects only in the South. The Braunschweig Lions started later into the season because Covid restrictions in Lower Saxony hadn't allowed them adequate time to prepare and even then their first home game was held in front of empty ranks. The season concluded with German Bowl XLII, which was held on 9 October 2021 in Frankfurt.