NFL Europa is no more.

The developmental league begun in the early 1990s closed shop Friday, the NFL announced. The six-team league had enjoyed a mild surge in attendance this season, but the NFL was still losing money on it and decided to focus its overseas efforts on playing an occasional regular-season game abroad (like this fall’s game in London).

I’m sure many people are surprised NFL Europe still existed. Remember when it started as the World League of American Football (or WLAF, too close to “we laugh”) and there were a few American teams, which went over as well as CFL teams in the Lower 48? Eventually, it switched over to a Europe-only league (and almost a Germany-only league), changed names a few times, and saw some future stars get some pro experience, including Kurt Warner, Jake Delhomme and Adam Vinatieri.

The league didn’t work in Europe, and that’s fine, but the NFL still needs some sort of developmental league (the Arena League and CFL don’t count). Could a football minor league work? Not a true farm system like baseball or hockey, but something like NFL Europa, only not way over there. After all the attempts to get another pro football league going in the U.S. (including the ridiculous XFL), maybe the next one shouldn’t aim so loftily. The XFL didn’t fare so badly some of its smaller markets, it was in the larger ones where it was mostly ignored (and on NBC, of course). Why not try a spring developmental league in those and other similarly smaller, non-NFL markets? If the NFL can keep costs down, televise the games on their own network, and work with their 32 primary franchises, such a league could be a success, or at least not a total failure.

OK, maybe I’m being overly optimistic, but such a league would have a better chance at succeeding whatever Mark Cuban comes up with. The NFL holds the monopoly and would be best to come up with a second league.

In the meantime, here’s to the memory of the Frankfurt Galaxy and the Scottish Claymores.