Led by head coach Chan Gailey, the Fire saw moderate success as they compiled an overall record of twelve wins, nine losses and one tie (12–9–1) and made the playoffs in both seasons they competed.

[1] The following July, the National Football League (NFL) owners voted to approve the formation of the WLAF in an effort to expand the sport outside of the United States.

[2] On April 18, 1990, Birmingham became the second city in the United States officially awarded a franchise after the Orlando Thunder to compete in the inaugural WLAF season.

[3][4] At the time of the announcement, Schramm reiterated past support for professional football in Birmingham was a major reason for its selection for a franchise.

At that time the league reaffirmed it would begin play in March 1991 with ten teams, and that Birmingham would compete as a member of the North American West division with the Sacramento Surge and the San Antonio Riders.

[11] Although they lost 20–5, an attendance of over 53,000 resulted in the start of the game being delayed 21 minutes to allow fans into the stadium as only two gates were open at the time.

[20] In their regular season finale the Fire defeated the Raleigh–Durham Skyhawks 28–7, and clinched a spot in the first WLAF playoffs as the winners of the North American West division with a 5–5 record.

[23] In the formal request for the event, team ownership indicated they were willing to undertake a $12 million renovation of the facility that would increase the seating capacity from 72,000 to 80,000, add luxury skyboxes and a giant TV scoreboard.

In this game, the Fire lost 14–13, and in a first in professional sports the loss could be utilized as a potential tiebreaker in order to determine playoff eligibility.

The draw was both the first in the history of the World League, and remained as the only one until Berlin and Hamburg battled to a 17–17 tie as part of NFL Europe in 2006.

[37] In week six, Birmingham lost 17–10 on the road to division rival San Antonio before they ended the regular season on a four-game winning streak.

[44] At that time league officials asked former Green Bay Packers quarterback Bart Starr to help find a new ownership group in Alabama.

[45] The owners stated that the decision was made to shutter the league at that time in an effort to save money to settle potential class action lawsuits brought about by players in the wake of Plan B free agency being declared illegal.