Istanbul Rams
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The Istanbul Rams are an American football team based in Istanbul, Turkey, that played in the European League of Football (ELF) in 2022.
History[edit | edit source]
On October 15, 2021, the club announced that it would compete in the European League of Football under the name Istanbul Rams starting with the 2022 season. For this purpose, the US American Val Gunn was hired as Head Coach and General Manager. On June 29, 2022, Val Gunn resigned from his positions. Matt Lawson became the new interim head coach, and Emir Can Kefeli took over as general manager.
The team played its home matches at Maltepe Hasan Polat Stadium. The reconstruction works at the originally planned Yusuf Ziya Öniş Stadyumu could not be completed by the start of the season. The team started with a narrow 38-40 loss at Cologne Centurions. However, the following games showed clear class differences to the opponents, up to 0:70 at home against the Hamburg Sea Devils. However, in the following game, with the new quarterback Isaiah Green, the team managed a surprising 22:19 victory against the Barcelona Dragons, the leader of the Southern Division. Also in the remaining games, the team showed clearly stronger than before, but could not win another game.
On December 16, 2022, the Rams announced that they would not compete in the ELF in the 2023 season "due to the overall difficult sporting and economic situation."
Stadium[edit | edit source]
Maltepe Hasan Polat Stadium is a public multi-purpose stadium in Maltepe, Istanbul, Turkey. The stadium's name honours Hasan Polat, late president of the Turkish Football Federation and former player of Gençlerbirliği S.K.
In the 2022 season it was the home field of the Istanbul Rams (now known as the Koç Rams) in the European League of Football. Istanbul Maltepespor and Beyoğlu Yeni Çarşı FK also use the stadium for association football matches.
The stadium was originally built in the eastern Maltepe district along the Marmara Sea in 1985. From 2001 to 2005 it was relocated and constructed in dense urban area. In this time the stands finished first and were covered later. Later the stadium, which was closed due to renovations in the 2008-09 season, could not be put into use in the 2009-10 season due to the yellowing of the grass. The stadium has stands currently holding 5,000 people, has a meeting room for 30 attendencees, parking space for 55 cars and an electronic score board.
Top Players[edit | edit source]
| Quarterback | Year | G | COMP | ATT | CMP% | YDS | TD | INT | SCK |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isaiah Green | 2022 | 6 | 103 | 202 | 51.0 | 1550 | 11 | 3 | 17 |
| Jared Stegman | 2022 | 6 | 87 | 208 | 41.8 | 889 | 5 | 7 | 7 |
| Receiver | Year | G | RRC | TGT | YDS | CTCH % | YPG | YPC | LNG | TD | TD/G |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Terryon Robinson | 2022 | 6 | 39 | 62 | 829 | 62.9 | 138.2 | 21.3 | 73 | 8 | 1.3 |
| Running | Year | G | ATT | YDS | AVG | YPG | LNG | TD | TD/G | FMB | FML |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Isaiah Green | 2022 | 6 | 96 | 478 | 5.0 | 79.7 | 35 | 4 | 0.7 | 0 | 0 |
| Taha Çokadar | 2022 | 11 | 103 | 426 | 4.1 | 38.7 | 34 | 2 | 0.2 | 1 | 0 |
Head Coaches[edit | edit source]
| Name | Tenure | Record | Titles | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| W | L | |||
| Val Gunn | – 29 June 2022 | 0 | 4 | – |
| Matt Lawson | 29 June 2022 – | 1 | 7 | – |
Total record[edit | edit source]
| Games | Win | Loss | SQ | P+ | P- | PDiff | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Istanbul Rams | 12 | 1 | 11 | 0.083 | 210 | 499 | -289 |
Record per oppenent[edit | edit source]
| Games | Win | Loss | SQ | P+ | P- | PDiff | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Barcelona Dragons | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0.500 | 29 | 60 | -31 |
| Cologne Centurions | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 | 68 | 83 | -15 |
| Rhein Fire | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 | 44 | 92 | -48 |
| Berlin Thunder | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 | 21 | 79 | -58 |
| Vienna Vikings | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 | 22 | 86 | -64 |
| Hamburg Sea Devils | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0.000 | 26 | 99 | -73 |
Source: https://elfdata.eu/
