The Montreal Machine was the sole Canadian team in the World League of American Football (WLAF), a springtime developmental professional league set up by the National Football League (NFL) that played in 1991 and 1992. There were also three European teams and six United States-based teams. Like all WLAF teams, the Machine played by American football, 11 per side on a 100-yard field, rather than Canadian football rules.
The Machine filled a void created by the folding of the Montreal Alouettes in 1987. It was the first American football team in Canada since the Montreal Beavers, Toronto Rifles and Victoria Steelers, which played in the Continental Football League in 1967. The NFL had also played two international preseason games in Montreal in 1988 and 1990 during the Alouettes' absence.
After two years, the Machine, and the entire WLAF, were put on "hiatus" by the NFL. In 1995, the three European-based franchises (and three more) were reconstituted as the World League (later known as NFL Europe); the North American teams were never heard of again. The Machine played their home games at the Olympic Stadium in Montreal.
The Machine's average game attendance dropped from 31,888 in their first year of play, to 25,254 in their second (and final) year.
Pro football would not return to Montreal until 1996 when the Montreal Alouettes were revived when the Baltimore Stallions relocated to Montreal.
Punter Chris Mohr was among the Machine's most notable players.
Read more about Montreal Machine: Season-by-season, 1991 Season
Famous quotes containing the word machine:
“The cycle of the machine is now coming to an end. Man has learned much in the hard discipline and the shrewd, unflinching grasp of practical possibilities that the machine has provided in the last three centuries: but we can no more continue to live in the world of the machine than we could live successfully on the barren surface of the moon.”
—Lewis Mumford (1895–1990)