Assindia Cardinals  The Assindia Cardinals are an American football team from Essen, Germany. Assindia is the Latin name for Essen. As its greatest success, the club has finished in third place in the northern division of the "American Football Bundesliga" in 1986, and reached the quarter finals of the national championship once, in 2009. The club was formed in 1983 as the AFC Assindia Cardinals 1983 e.V.. The new club entered the tier-three "Oberliga Nord" for the 1984 season, where it finishes third and earned promotion to the northern division of the "2nd Bundesliga". Another third place in 1985 was enough to qualify for the "American Football Bundesliga", now the German Football League, as the league was expanded from 16 to 24 teams for the 1986 season. The "Cardinals" came third in their inaugural season at this level in group B of the northern division, the league being then subdivided into four regional divisions, which qualified the team for the play-offs. There, the Red Barons Cologne proved to strong and the team was knocked-out in a 0-18 defeat. The following four seasons, the club was unable to qualify for the play-offs again, finishing in fourth and fifth places, before a league reduction from 26 to 16 teams caused the "Cardinals" to lose their league spot in very similar circumstances to the way it had gained it originally. The team, instead of entering the "2nd Bundesliga", found itself now playing in the tier-four "Verbandsliga NRW" and, for the club, an era of lower division football was to follow. For the next eight seasons, the "Cardinals" drifted between the third and fourth tier, before a "Regionalliga West" championship in 1998 allowed the team to return to the second level. After only two seasons in the "2nd Bundesliga", the "Cardinals" won the northern division in this league and earned direct promotion to the GFL. Live at this level proved difficult for the side and it was never a true play-off contender. A last place in 2003 and subsequent loses to the Düsseldorf Panther in the relegation round meant a return to the second tier for the "Cardinals". From 2004 to 2007, the team moved between this league and the "Regionalliga" as an elevator side, before another title in the "2nd Bundesliga" in 2008 and promotion round victories over Cologne Falcons allowed a return to the GFL. The club made a successful comeback in the league in 2009, finishing fourth and qualifying for the play-offs for the second time in its history, where it lost to the Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns in the quarter finals.