Posted on 10/04/2006 9:33:07 AM PDT by lizol
American football comes to Poland
04.10.2006
October is the time when American football enthusiasts in Poland can play their beloved sport. Over the past decade more and more Poles have really taken off with American football. They have already established professional teams and leagues.
This report is by Agnieszka Bednarska.
Well you don’t have to go stateside to play American football anymore. NFL style football has come to Poland. When the Warsaw Eagles played their first game two years ago, they just got some curious looks. Now they’re part of what’s known as the Polish – American football league, the PZFA. There are four teams in the National League so far. Jedrzej Steszewski, an IT specialist with a passion for touch football, thinks that this American craze will eventually spread like wild fire.
“It’s pure passion. It started seven years ago when I received a football from one of our friends and we started to throw it to each other. Later on decided to establish some football teams. It was very difficult at the very beginning because we didn’t have any equipment. Later we received the gear from Germany . We started regular trainings and it started to grow dynamically. At the moment we have four teams. We have more teams but the are not equipped yet”
Poles have worked up an appetite for North American style basketball. But American football is still in its embryonic stage because many Poles just don’t understand the game.
“Of course not a lot of people are aware of the rules of the game. I think the most difficult issue is that American football is a step by step game not a real time game. The basics of the rules are very easy but, of course to teach the audience all the more detailed information is very difficult.”
Andy Kureth, originally from the US, has been coaching Poles touch football over the past two years. Flag football for youngsters is also catching on.
“It’s being done because we love the sport, regardless of how many people show up, we are going to come out and we are going to play. Each week we get more and more people coming out to the practices. We are looking to expand in the very near future to five or six teams. American football teaches you to leave your aggression on the field. What American football does is that it gives you the format by which to control and use that aggression for a positive goal and a goal that helps the team”
The first game of the season between the Warsaw Eagles and the First American football club in Wielkopolska, will kick off in Lodz, central Poland, later this month. The season ender championship game kicks off in Warsaw in November.
I had a friend who played NCAA Division II College Football who actually managed to turn that into a professional career over in Italy. There are American Football leagues all over Europe. He made decent money and they even gave him a house and a car.
Ping
Also, in the interests of cultural exchange, when I was attending graduate school in Albany, NY, a fellow student from Wisconsin and I invited other students in our department to play some rousing games of American football (I am from Michigan).
We had students from Greece, Holland, Germany, all over the place. Many of them were pretty good at throwing and catching the ball, and the game wasn't too hard to understand.
Next they've got to work on a longer season if they expect the local politicians to build them lavish stadiums with taxpayers' money.
In Wroclaw we have American football team called Wroclaw Crew. :) Go Crew!
a lot of Poles have the build for being linemen, fullbacks, and linebackers. It would be good for kids to learn the game; it would be an opportunity get a scholarship to an American university
I'd like to see Mariusz Pudzianowski give American football a try.
Football is a unique sport in that it requires all types of players to play with diffreing physical attributes. From the smaller nimbler to the 6'7 320 lbs pure power linemen.
I wonder how much time will pass before instant replay ruins the Polish version?
does he still play? I would pay to see that
To see - OK, but not to play against him :-)))
I think he does but treat It as a part of training, rugby is not even third rate sport in Poland.
Definitely cool.
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