Season 50 of RZA comes to a close these days. It has been the second season for the HAMBURG SEA LIONS in the league Admirals I, and they by far exceeded expectations, finishing with a record of 12–4 and earn themselves a first trip to the postseason. They did not make it very far, yes, losing the Wildcard-Playoff-Game at VenoM 21:31. But sources tell that the front office of the SEA LIONS would have been, at the start of the season, happy with a positive record and a 3-game-win-streak somewhere in between. So everyone is quite pleased with the things that were accomplished.

When the fans were asked to vote for MVP of the season, the results were pretty clear: QB Nicolò Stanzetti ran away with the award, bringing everything the SEA LIONS hoped for when they added him to their roster in S49. He threw 29 Touchdowns and ran for two more while only giving the ball away 5 times (4 INTs, 1 Fumble). He’s been a great role model so far for the young Andrey Baizhanov who’s growing behind him to hopefully become an equally good QB in the future.

„Offensive Player of the Year“ went to Sherman Schmidt, who scored 15 TDs and had 1158 Receiving-Yards this season. He had a great year, leading the overall young WR-Corps of the SEA LIONS.

The results for „Defensive Player of the Year“ were not even close: Antonia Andrews played a dominant season with 14 Sacks and a Pick6, showing times and times again his experience in the game and his game-wrecking abilities on the field.

The awards were handed out on Wednesday when the SEA LIONS welcomed vamosahi to HAMMER SPORTS PARK for the final game of the celebratory „Admirals S50“-Friendly Cup. The game was lost, unsurprisingly, but it was the whole state of the SEA LIONS in a nutshell: a slow start with quickly being behind, having difficulties getting the scoring going, but then rallying and catching up, just to come up short in the last minutes of the game.

So they do not need to look very far to see at what points they have to improve to be competitive with the best of the league. There’s still a lot of work to do, but it seems the front office already built a pretty good foundation over the last two seasons. Now only time will tell what the HAMBURG SEA LIONS will be able to accomplish in the next ones.

What a night that was yesterday in HAMMER SPORTS PARK, home of the HAMBURG SEA LIONS. For the second time in a row, Tovari came to visit in the last week of the Regular Season. Being the only team in the Division by whom they were beat, the SEA LIONS felt a bit tense at the beginning. But the first drive of the opponent came to a halt in midfield, with the pass rush of the SEA LIONS already warming up with two sacks. LB Titas Paksas had one of them which would be his first of 4 in the entire game, earning him a well deserved MVP for the game. The other nominees for MVP were LB Kurt Robertson, with 1 Pick6, a sack and a forced fumble, and QB Nicolo Stanzetti, who again showed a lot of poise and ability, adding 3 more TDs to his resumé.

At the end of the game, Tovari was held to only 3 Fieldgoals while the offense of the SEA LIONS scored 45 points, 21 of them unanswered in the second half. The crowd in attendance was already ecstatic as with this win the SEA LIONS qualified for the Playoffs for the first time, but when the big screens showed the outcome of the game between the Oxford Bulls and vamosahi, the whole stadium exploded: The Bulls had lost by 41 points against their division opponent, and because of their own big home win, the SEA LIONS not only managed to advance to the playoffs, but to conquer Seed 5, too.

The partying crowd surrounding the stadium and later various location in the city was felt until the early morning hours. By then, though, the team was already preparing for the game to come. The first Postseason-game ever will be at the Community Arena, home of VenoM, winner of the NC North. They won 6 of their last 7 games and are not to mess with… but they do not play perfect at home. AND the SEA LIONS had them visiting this season in week 5 and beat them 51:21.

So the dreams of the fans are not without foundation, but the staff of the SEA LIONS knows that it’s a lot of work to do for the game on Tuesday. Joyous work nonetheless, the first postseason appearance of the SEA LIONS being already the cherry on top of a delicious pie that is S50.

It's the 49th RZA-Week for the HAMBURG SEA LIONS, and the smart ones out there know: That's when the puppy protection expires and such things as automatic mediacenter payments stop. But it's a good moment, too, to look back on what one has accomplished in this short amount of time, and therefore we had an interview with the manager of the HAMBURG SEA LIONS, Joe Chrill. Enjoy!

Q: Hello, Joe Chrill. Thanks for taking your time for this interview. You’re the manager of the HAMBURG SEA LIONS for 169 days now. How do you assess the first 48 weeks of your tenure?

A: Hello. It was and will continue to be hard work, but with a lot of joy. I see daily how everyone in the team, be it players, coaching staff or personell, do their job with high sincerity and passion. We have formed a solid team with a lot of potential. And being 7–3 in the league shows that all the effort is worth it and we’re on the right path. We lately lost a playoff-spot in the supercup, unfortunately. But there are still games to play. We were able to win World Bowl I and are doing good in the friendly cups in which we participate. We are persuasive and surprise, sometimes even ourselves. Short: It's a long way to the top if you wanna rock 'n' roll.

Q: Surprise is a good cue: The biggest one of the season so far may be the season-opening win at the Green Mark Packers who had just been relegated down from the ELITE League. And even the fewest would have predicted a home win against VenoM in week 5. How did you manage to form such a strong squad in such a short time?

A: It’s first and foremost a team effort. Only if everyone has the eye on the ball you can make the catch. I’m not so sure if you can call it a strong team already, though. We’re just starting, this is our third season. And the squad has by far not gained the strength that it would need to play with the Elite permanently. We just have to take small steps, look onward to the next two seasons. Especially the financial aspect will be challenging, next season we will pledge fully to the media center for the first time. Teamwise a lot of young players still need time to grow and gather experience. The game against the Packers was a great surprise, yes, maybe even legendary in our short team history. Our squad entered the opponents stadium fearless. But looking back the time in the game was our twelfth man. The Packers were down 9:14 and standing on our 5-Yard-Line, ready to score a touchdown to win when time expired. And about the game against VenoM I can just say: Some days everything just clicks.

Q: The first half of the season was a successful one, but in the coming weeks the schedule will be a lot tougher. Your latest league-match at vamosahi showed that your squad does indeed struggle against established teams when not everyone brings his A-game. What are your expectations for the remainder of the season?

A: We’re looking only as far as the next game to keep the focus. The match against vamosahi again showed that the team and it’s performance are still too reliant on daily form. We still need time to establish stability and continuity. And you’re right: The back end of the league schedule is tough. We’ll be playing strong opponents until the end. We just can give our best each game and hope for it to be enough. But it sure would be nice if we’d be able to secure a playoff-spot this year.

Q: I’d say you’re fanbase would enjoy this very much, too. Thanks for the interview, Joe Chrill, and good luck for the next games.

The HAMBURG SEA LIONS start their S50-campaign with a record of 2–2 from the first 4 league games. And what a start that was. The SEA LIONS managed to catch the big favorite GREEN MARK PACKERS off guard and took home the points with a 14:9-victory. In this game the defense of the SEA LIONS was able to win 2 goal line stands to prevent the opponent from scoring more than 3 points and stopped the PACKERS from scoring in Q4 on the own 2-Yard-Line with clock expiring to hold on to the win.

That game-winning defense then had two down games, though, including the home-opener that the visiting OXFORD BULLS were able to win easily. It seemed that the defensive coordinator had tried to over-manage a well functioning unit, disrupting the chemistry of the playing personell. It sure didn’t help that in game 3 the offense was in a christmas-mood and handed TOVARI the ball 4 (!!!) times to help them win their third match-up in a row.

But fans were happy to see the errors erased when the SEA LIONS were able to bring home another division-road-win in which they held the FIGHTING FRANKONIAN to 1 TD and 1 FG while scoring at least 1 TD in each quarter themselves.

While it’s still unclear where the sudden defensive struggles stem from the SEA LIONS should find a way to fix it soon. To wrap up 2022 the second participant of last season’s Division Championship-Game, VenoM, comes to visit HAMMER SPORTS PARK. That will be quite a test for the squad. Then again: They beat the PACKERS on the road, why should the fear anyone AT HOME?

And one day later, on the first day of the new year, the HAMBURG SEA LIONS are proud to present the first edition of „NEW YEARS FRENZY“, a Friendly Cup where 16 Teams battle for a game on Super Bowl Sunday 2023 to win a cup themselves. It’s a colorful field where the SEA LIONS must match-up with FREDERICKSBURG COMANCHES, GLASTONBURY GRAIL KNIGHTS and MELITTLEMENON THEPITCHHITCHIN. Moving on to the KO round will not be easy. And beyond their own Friendly Cup the SEA LIONS have to follow the duty of the reigning champ and defend the title in the second edition of the WORLD-BOWL-Friendly Cup by Radu91.

One thing is for sure, though: The upcoming games will definitely show if the defensive problems are indeed fixed, as the league win against FRANKONIAN and the most recent friendly win against PAXTANG BLACK PANTHERS suggest. Knowing what the defense of the HAMBURG SEA LIONS is capable of it would be a lot more relaxing start to 2023 to know them functioning. There are still a lot of games to be played.

Sitting in the draft room was a joy these past days. The HAMBURG SEA LIONS were able to pick their #1-prospect in each of the first two rounds, adding promising players to the position of TE and RB. The SEA LIONS are happy to further boost their offense which, in the last season, was a bit behind a strong defense. Round 3 of the Draft furthermore granted a good CB to add depth to the squad. Now only time will tell if the long hours of evaluating the draftees were well invested.

The preseason friendly matches the SEA LIONS played were successful, too. They were fortunate to play three games at home with opponents of different strength, winning all of them. The attending visitors were pleased with what they saw of the team, as were the coaches and coordinators. So the SEA LIONS feel well equipped for the anniversary season 50.

But the first damper could come as soon as League Game Day 1 tonight, when the SEA LIONS go to visit the GREEN MARK PACKERS for the season opener. GMP relegated down from the Elite League and replaced the Conference Champ of last season, FREE AGENT MASCOTS, in the AC West of the Admirals Region. It would be a big surprise if the SEA LIONS were able to steal a win there.

After that, though, the OXFORD BULLS come to HAMMER SPORTS PARK for a re-match of last seasons meeting. That game was then the first home win for the SEA LIONS in general in D1 and is fondly remembered for that. They will try hard to repeat this feat in the first home game of S50. 


On Christmas Eve the SEA LIONS visit TOVARI and stay on the road to visit FIGHTING FRANKONIAN, having then made all the away-trips to their division opponents in the first 4 weeks of the season.

And maybe they can take home a W or two, to make a promising start to S50 a successful one.