New England Football League

The New England Football League (NEFL) is a semi-professional American football league based in Salisbury, Massachusetts, and is a Non-profit Corporation founded by Thomas Torrisi.^[1] It is the largest semi-professional league in New England, and has been one of the biggest leagues in the United States.^[2][3] The NEFL was founded in 1994 and was also known as the Greater Lawrence Men's Football League.^[4] In 2025, the league added a number of new teams expanding back to its historic 3 level format.

From 2013-2019, the NEFL has had single-A, AA Conferences, and AAA Conferences, with annual promotion and relegation among Conferences based on game results, so that the best teams work their way toward the higher levels. From 2021-2023 the league featured A and AA. In 2025 the league returned to its multi-level format with the addition of a number of new teams, featuring A, AA, and AAA conferences. In 2026 the league expects to add several more teams to the existing conferences, as well as adding a spring conference, which would play a shorter schedule prior to the traditional NEFL season kickoff.

The league provides competitive football for adult players. It is a "working man's league", as most players have regular jobs during the week.^[5][6] Teams practice on weeknights and play virtually all games on weekends.^[2] Players are not paid for their participation, but they often pay up to $200 to be on the team's roster.^[2][6] The league runs from July through September, followed by single-elimination championship tournaments within each Conference. Each team can dress up to 65 players.^[7]

The league is unrelated to the original NEFL, which operated from 1964 to 1969.^[8]

The 2025 NEFL season finished with three league champions in AAA, AA and A; the Rhode Island Riptide won the Maritime (A) Conference by defeating the New London Silverbacks 28-0, their third NEFL Championship (2011, 2023). The Windsor (CT) Flyers won the North Atlantic Conference (AA), their first in program history in the NEFL, by beating the Haverhill Hitmen 28-14. The top level Colonial Conference (AAA) championship was won by the New England Bombers by defeating the Boston Bandits 26-16.

The New England Football League was founded in 1994 by League President and Director of Marketing, Tom Torrisi, Chairman Matt Brien, Commissioner Bob Oreal, Vice-President and Treasurer John Motta and Secretary Christine Torrisi.^[2] It started its 1994 season with four teams. By 1997, the number of teams tripled to twelve; in 2002, the league had at least one team in each New England state, and started its three-conference alignment with three different skill levels, one for each conference. The 2006 was the first season with at least 30 teams, making the NEFL one of the largest semi-pro football leagues in the country. Following the 2020 covid-era the league contracted to as few as 7 teams, but has since grown back to an expected 18 summer and 8 spring teams for 2026.

The League is distinguishable from numerous other semi-pro leagues by features like its annual All-Star Game, Independent Board of Directors, and its 30+ years of continuous operation. A by-product of the league's lengthy history is the New England Football League Hall of Fame which honors noteworthy participants in NEFL history.

The NEFL describes its rule set as "modified NCAA rules". Most rules are adopted from the NCAA rulebook, but there are also a few NFL rules and NEFL-specific rules. Games use a free-running clock until five minutes left in either half or overtime, at which time the clock stops according to NFL rules. Game time is usually kept by an official on the field, but for some games is kept on the scoreboard by a paid, uniformed official operating it.

• Official league website