Berlin Thunder: 1-0

Berlin 15, Rhein 3. (NFLEurope.com game summary)

That’s it, my first professional road game, in the books. Wow, how freakin’ cool that was.

We’ll do this one chronologically, from the travel over to Düsseldorf.

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Friday was pretty much a complete travel day. We got on the bus to the train, which would take us to a bus.

The train to Düsseldorf was nice! Apparently, I rode in the “first class” car, so I had plenty of room and cushy seats. I also beat defensive line assistant coach, Mike Jones (who?) in Madden twice (1 retire at halftime).

Friday night, we went out. The downtown area in Dusseldorf is pretty cool. If I’d compare Berlin’s downtown to New York City, then this one had the same atmosphere as, like, Nashville. It wasn’t packed with exclusive places, but fun, gimmicky places.

I had lots of cheap German beer, which, by the way, is really good.

I also got locked out of my room by our assistant trainer. That was awesome. He also missed the bus and train back to Berlin on Sunday, so he’s in deep doo doo anyway.

Okay, let’s get to the good stuff: game day.

Rhein plays at this stadium called LTU Arena. It’s pretty new, and I’ve been told that they put on a good show. I spent most of Saturday relaxing before the game. We hopped on the bus around 3 PM.

LTU Arena. I’m not even sure how to describe this thing. Try to picture it: it’s a stadium, similar in shape and architecture to the new Cardinals stadium in Arizona. It’s got offices and hotels and stores and things all around it. But then, they take the entire area—stadiums and surrounding buildings--and cover it with an exterior shell, kind of like aluminum piping. From the outside, you can’t see any of the buildings that comprise the stadium, or anything. You can’t even see all of the different things inside pretty much until you’re right under the stadium itself. It makes the whole complex look like a giant spaceship, but it also gives the arena this immense feeling, like you’re about to fight an entire legion of warriors in the coliseum.

When we approached it on the bus, all conversation stopped. It wasn’t out of fear, or shock. These guys wanted to get in there. They wanted to play, and they wanted to win.

Once we got there, we hit the locker room and checked out the facilities. PR office. Cafeteria. Press conference room. Good to know.

The setup inside of this place was amazing. Every kind of room or facility you might need during the game, in terms of the game-day operation, like those rooms listed above, are right down a staircase beneath field level. If I needed to check on a score or get something copied, I could do it from a 2-minute walk away. That’s really clever.

Once we got that squared away, I checked out the field.

Woa.

From the inside, it REALLY looked like the new Cardinals stadium. There was a retractable roof, which, at 2 and a half hours before game time, was cracked just so slightly, allowing a beam of light to travel across the field as the hour rolled by. For a mainly indoor arena, the grass was in pretty good shape. I imagine it becomes harder to maintain as the season wears on, so it’s a good thing we played there first.

You know how in most stadiums, all of the seats are the team’s color, or the sections alternate team colors? Well, at LTU, almost every seat is a different color. From the field, even without one person sitting in the stands, the stadium already looks packed.

The Fire staff expected to break their team’s single game home attendance record, which was 30,090. (They did, by almost 200 people.)

Once I finished ga-fawing at the inside, I went over to the NFL Network truck to meet up with the production crew. We have the same crew calling our next two games, so I chatted with them for a bit. Their producer is from New York. (And the air conditioning in their truck was off…it was a sauna in there.)

Basically, when I go into the production truck, I’m doing a few things: first, I let them know if we have any absolute changes in our starting lineup. They need to get their pictures and graphics prepared. Then, I make sure that the rest of their info on our lineup is correct. We talk about some of the things they’ll be showing during the game.

Since their commentators weren’t there, that was that. I wouldn’t see them till after the game, when I pick up a tape copy of the broadcast. (The commentators were in the US. They called the game by watching the NFLN’s broadcast, and taping a voice-over.)

The Fire put on a pretty good pre-game deal, I must say. Their “Fire Party” was huge. There were all kinds of bands and vendors there, with little kids games, TVs—pretty impressive.

The whole pre-game is kind of a blur. I was so nervous, so excited, thinking about what I was doing, but thinking about everything and anything else at the same time. I watched the pyrotechnics test from the field, which was pretty sweet. They shoot all kinds of flames out all around the field during their pre-game show.

I hung out with Tara, Rhein’s PR assistant, for most of the pre-game. I think we were both a little nervous.

Around 6 PM, I got settled into my spot on the Thunder sideline, where I would stay for the whole game. My main game duty is to call up to the press box with injury updates. During halftime and post-game, I make sure all of our players get in alright. After the game, I watch over our guys that are with television cameras.

Just like I had heard, their pre-game show is a spectacle. The way the arena is built, the field captures a good portion of the noise, even with the roof open during the game. With the roof closed, it shocked me how loud 30,000 people could sound. Whistles, horns, clappers—and chants. Chanting.

It felt like the fans were going the entire pre-game. The loud speaker would play three drum beats: Boom. Boom. Boom. Then, everyone would yell, FIRE!

It’s mesmerizing, and if you’re not completely focused, I’m sure it can be incredibly intimidating. It puts you in a trance; it felt like I was going into this tribal war, surrounded by the native village.

Once the pre-game show started, the whole experience caught up to me. I wasn’t just at my first professional road game. I was at a world-class arena in another country. I didn’t feel like an employee watching a game from the sidelines. I felt like I was with my team about to get a good fight.

I thought of all of the good luck signs during the day. Italian food for lunch. My power tie. Cem’s wearing his World Bowl ring from 2004. I couldn’t remember the last time my team had won a season opener.

And Rhein is pretty good, from what I’d heard.

(boom boom boom.) FIRE!

Could you have pictured this, ten years ago? Five years ago? I started to think about how I got here. NFL Europe. I wish all the guys from high school football could see this. I wish all the people at Vanderbilt could see this. Hey, Rhein had a guy from Vanderbilt. Andrew Pace. Good guy.

(boom boom boom.) FIRE!

I started getting frenetic. My brain was spread over my entire life. I knew I was going to forget to do something during the game. What am I forgetting? What else can I do? I need to call my parents. What if I forgot something I needed at the hotel? Or in Berlin? Or in America? I got a little short of breath. My heart started pumping. It’s hot in here.

(boom boom boom.) FIRE!

Hey, calm down, Andy. If there’s something you forgot, it’s no use to you to think about it now. Just focus on the task at hand. Wait, what task at hand? My job was to watch the game and call with the occasional injury report. I hope no one gets injured.

(boom boom boom.) FIRE!

Yeah…calm down. Everything is going to be okay. Remember, you’re here for a reason. And if you make a mistake…learn from it. Yeah.

(boom boom boom.) FIRE!

I am here for a reason. I’ve made it. I’m at a road game. I’m with people that look at me like teammates, and not some random intern. Well, for the most part. I think.

(boom boom boom.) FIRE!

I have made it. A flood of emotions hits me like a tidal wave. I love what I do. I’m so glad I love what I do. I couldn’t imagine what I would be doing right now if I had stuck with biomedical engineering. Probably failing classes at a fifth year senior, still at Vandy. God, I love what I do.

(boom boom boom.) FIRE!

I thought of all the late nights I spent that senior year at Vandy, all of my friends out partying like crazy, and me, at home, catching up on all of the things I didn’t have time for during the day. All the Friday and Saturday nights I stayed in to work on stuff. All those nights I just wished I hadn’t spread myself so thin. Preparing resumes and cover letters until 3 AM. All-nighters to write speeches. All those Thursdays where I was out of my room from 8 AM till 8 PM, working at Vanderbilt Media Relations, then going to the newspaper office. Then spending that Friday night working at the Nashville Kats game. Then spending Saturday covering the basketball game. Then fraternity meetings on Sunday. Then, I could start my work. I remember all of those nights in February where I regretted every second of all of that work. And I thought, man, I am so glad I did it.

(boom boom boom.) FIRE!

I thought about this season with the 49ers. I thought of sitting in my old room with Chris, telling him that one day, I would be a 49er. A fairly innocuous promise, made as a freshman or sophomore in high school. I remember how proud of my Chris said he was. And then we drove to California. That was awesome. That whole season was awesome.

(boom boom boom.) FIRE!

I was so happy. Sheer excitement over the realization that I could, in fact, do this. I can do this. I’m making it. All of those times I doubted myself, and all the times I still do. I can let up a little bit. I’m going to be okay.

(boom boom boom.) FIRE!

I thought of all of the people I wished could be here to see this. I felt the tears start to well up in the back of my eyes. I wish mom and dad could see this. Chris would love this. Franklin would have really enjoyed tagging along this time. Chris Gearing gets to Berlin soon. I tried calling Meghan last night, but she wasn’t there. I wish she was here, too.

(boom boom boom.) FIRE!

Just before the tears started to fall, the lights went out. Flames starting shooting from everywhere. A man on fire ran around the outside of the field. (Don’t worry, it was planned.) A horse ran by. Fireworks galore. I thought I would have ADD by the time this was over.

The teams ran out for introductions. They sang the national anthems of Germany and America, and then, the roof opened, revealing the crystal clear evening sky in Düsseldorf.

And then, I wanted to get out there and play. So badly. Finally, I focused.

The game was strange, but interesting. Good defense. The first half score was 4-3. Yes, 4-3. In NFL Europa, field goals of 50 or more yards are 4 points.

We had chances to score more, too. Our offense drove down to the Rhein 10-yard line, but the snap was mishandled, and we lost it.

Ryan Hoag played one snap in the game: a blocked punt. Then, he re-injured his ankle. We may not see him for a while. (I told him, “Hey, you’re on pace to block 10 punts this season.”)

The Fire got their 3 after they drove to our 1-yard line, and we held them. Safety Chris Harrell was EVERYWHERE. He was unstoppable on the goal line.

Andrew Jacas (pronounced “ha-kus” and not “jackass,” as the media said after the game) his another 4-pointer in the third quarter. (“So Coach, talk about the performance of Andrew Jackass…”)

And then, there was Travis Lulay. He played really well. Very efficient. The lone touchdown of the game was a 61-yard Lulay scamper in the 4th quarter, which sealed the deal. He came off the field all pumped up, and everyone was going nuts. Still looking jazzed up, he sat down and said, “Man…I am tired.”

Other players worth mentioning: Wide receiver Carlton Brewster could not be stopped. Chris Barclay averaged more than 5 yards a carry. Lauvale Sape and Walter Curry, the two defensive captains, played well. Curry had a sack, and Sape should have had another. Jameel Dumas was everywhere at linebacker; a fumble recovery, a pass defensed, and an interception on our goal line. He rocks.

We won. Post game press conference. Post game meal. A few beers with Cem. And then, I called it a night. 9 AM bus in the morning.

Beth (Frankfurt Galaxy) beat Mike (Amsterdam Admirals), 30-18. Sam (Cologne Centurions) beat Joe (Hamburg Sea Devils), 18-14. We get the Hamburg Joe’s next week, at Olympic Stadium. (Olympiastadion!)

Which brings me here, the train back to Berlin. I’ll be on several of these throughout the season. I am exhausted. I think I am finally sick, too. I have no voice.

At least I lost it on the field.

The Rise, Hysteria, and Gametime

What a week. Wow.

When I say that I'm going to try to post more often, I really do mean it. But this was one of those weeks that seemed like the bullets just never stopped flying. wow.

I guess we should start on Monday.

Generally, that's a day off for the players. But since we've had no games yet, the players came in on Monday for a special kind of practice; it was a fan day, where all kinds of fans, kids, adults, whoever, could take part in practice and run drills with the players.

Honestly, it was awesome to watch. The guys on the team really got into it. They tried to get the kids into as many drills as possible, and cheered and yelled like crazy. The fans LOVED it. They got to run into offensive linemen holding bags. I saw a little kid "knock over" a running back. It was just a really fun event that worked really well.

After that, we got into a regular practice schedule, as we start our season on Saturday against the Rhein Fire. But...wow, what a ridiculous week.

I've been up till about 3 AM for the past two days, getting up at 8 (which I know isn't that early, but, hey, I'm a big sleeper). This week, I've written three stories, finished and sent out a press release, and conducted my first production meeting over a conference call.

There was a theme to this week: me, coming crashing back down to Earth. Now, it's time for a bit of Andy's head.

If there was one part of my experience with the 49ers that I'd say I really needed to work on, it was lightening up. I really love what I do, and I hate getting things wrong. Those two things put together make me take everything about this job really really seriously. Looking back, I would say, probably too seriously.

I would be so afraid of messing things up, that I wouldn't really let myself have any kind of personality. I'd just try to be a machine, do nothing but produce work as perfect as I possibly could. It's not that I feared the consequences of my mistakes--I just hate making them. I feel like if my work is not perfect, then that means there is something wrong with it. And I cannot accept that.

Mom says I'm too hard on myself, that everyone makes mistakes now and then. But now, we enter two new revelations that I've had.

Before I went down to Tampa--actually, I can remember thinking about this on the plane--I remember thinking to myself, "Okay. Let's focus on being a little more confident during this experience. You got chosen for a reason, it's okay to have a little self assurance." Especially in the first few weeks, I really made an effort to be a little assertive, for a change.

That, combined with what I let myself think next, has really crushed me.

Like I said, mom says I'm too hard on myself. Everyone makes mistakes, she said. I forget who it was, or when, but at some point in Tampa, I remember seeing someone really important make a small mistake. Nothing catastrophic or life-changing, but, like, something was forgotten or omitted. I said, "Hey, even the people in charge make mistakes. See, it's okay if I screw up once in a while."

The only problem is, I'm now letting myself feel more confident and letting myself make mistakes. Those two things do not go together. In fact, I'm making mistakes, trying to stay confident, and no longer having the fear of death of making another mistake.

That's not what got me here. I'm letting myself not try to be perfect. I'm letting myself be mediocre.

I realized this last night, after a week of consistently screwing up.

It's just little things, too, you know? Like, I'll send off an old copy of the roster, or, like, I tried e-mailing NFL Network some information for the broadcast, and the e-mail didn't go through correctly, or I'll tell someone something that's wrong.

Like, Tuesday. We did our team photos. I had heard all along that it was going to be at Olympic Stadium, but every player that I told, they said, are you sure it isn't someplace else? As far as I knew, it was at the stadium, but of course, it really was where everyone thought it would be.

Three or four people almost missed the picture, and it would have been my fault. And, it isn't like I wasn't being careful or anything. I had been told the pictures were at the stadium. I was just wrong.

Or, earlier that day, Cem had made the photo lineup, and included a player that we had already cut. Why? Because I forgot to delete him off the roster.

It's been going like this since training camp. Generally, I've been able to chalk that up to getting settled into a new role and gaining experience. But this week, I had my crash.

In San Francisco, I'd get really, really rattled after I screwed something up. I'd get all wide-eyed and clueless, and I'd start over-thinking about everything I did. You know how football players say they play their best when they don't think, and just react? When I would screw things up, I would think about everything. I'd let everything get to me. People would see me, and be like, "Is everything okay?" I would look absolutely shell-shocked and crushed from something like, not catching a punctuation error in an article.

Those are the kind of things I wanted to begin to eliminate during this experience. It isn't so much overall confidence I need, or even to let myself make mistakes. I'm searching for that balance between trying to be perfect, but not destroying myself when I'm not. In San Francisco, I was at one end of the spectrum. Right now, I'm at the other.

That is, until this week. I felt that same shell-shocked feeling this entire week, like I was just stumbling through everything I did, and taking every mistake and misspelling like an over the hill boxer. Constant shots to the gut, and not being able to recover.

And when I'm like that, I just seem so wound up and stressed out. It's not even that I'm stressed out. (I am always wound up, however.) I just have that clueless, hopeless, endless worry look on my face.

Today was really bad. Or, at least, I would say it's really bad, but as every person I've talked to has said, it wasn't bad, it went just fine, and I'm too hard on myself.

We had our conference call with NFL Network, in something that is called a production meeting. In production meetings, the crew that will be calling the game speaks with a group of players and coaches to get to know them, get an idea of how the team is doing--just to get some good information to talk about on the air.

Picture the setup: usually, these take place in person. With all of the people being in all different countries, however, we do ours on the phone. I decided we would do ours near the cafeteria, in the coaches office, because we scheduled our time around dinner time, at 6 PM. (That's noon in New York, where we had people in on the conference call as well.)

The lineup was daunting. They wanted our head coach (John Allen), offensive coordinator (Don Lawrence), defensive coordinator (Adrain White), both quarterbacks (starter Travis Lulay and Bruce Eugene), running back Chris Barclay, wide receiver Carlton Brewster, tackle Sam Gutekunst, defensive end Patrick Finke, and defensive tackle Lauvale Sape. That's a lot of people to coordinate with.

We figured that coaches would go for about 20 minutes, and players for about 10. I had a schedule all drawn up, and we would go from 6 PM to 8. All the players and coaches were fine with it.

From the getgo--not even before the conference call started!--we had problems. The call-in number that we received didn't work.

I sat there with Coach Allen and Coach Lawrence, staring at the call-in number, looking at the phone, dialing it, and feeling terribly embarrassed. I couldn't even dial a phone correctly. What the hell was I doing?

The first rule in working in PR in pro football, in my mind, is that you cannot interfere with the function of the team or its coaches, or surprise them with anything, or waste their time. Right now, I was wasting the time of two people that I really did not want to waste.

Eventually, we finagled it to work. It was 6:20, so everyone on the phone was already pissed. I told them that the information they gave me didn't work, so I felt justified for a few seconds. That didn't last long.

We ended up going through all three coaches by 6:40. No player was scheduled until 7 PM. I was standing there as our last coach finished, and I thought, Oh, crap, I have 20 minutes of dead time.

I was FRANTIC. In the old days, at this moment, I would have an absolute breakdown, a complete de-evolution right there. While I would like to say I calmed myself, I really didn't, because, to put it lightly, I was screwed unless I got someone on the phone 5 minutes ago.

A few players that were scheduled later on happened to be in the cafeteria. I calmly--barely--asked some of them to see if they wanted to go early. One guy said he wanted to eat first. Another had just sat down. Travis Lulay had already been great for me, doing a story last night and a press conference earlier in the day--it would really be unwise to push even more.

I got Bruce Eugene on. Listening in on the call and peeking out into the cafeteria, I began to talk players into re-arranging the schedule. 6:55. 7. 7:05. 7:10.

I got everyone covered. One after the other, we got them knocked out, except, Chris Barclay.

Now, Chris is great. He's a really nice guy. Anything we've needed so far, he's been up for it, and been an all-star. He was originally scheduled for 7 PM. By 7:15, I had given up hope that he was simply late, and resigned myself to the doom that he forgot.

Call to the room. No answer. Anyone seen Chris? No, not for a while. Call the room again. Left a message. Hey, have you seen Chris?

Yeah, he went out to dinner with the running backs coach. He'll be back in a few hours.

My heart fell through the floor.

Luckily, I had the coach's phone number--that's Wanja Mueller. He's a Berlin native, and a national coach. He's great--he's a great coach and an awesome guy.

Luckily, with Travis Lulay in the room, I've heard him answer the same questions a lot already, so I could step our for a second and call Coach Mueller. I asked if Chris was with him, which he was.

"Is everything okay, Andy? Do you need him?"

"Well, just a little. He missed his conference call with NFL Network."

"His con...NFL...oh. Oh, man. Here's Chris."

Chris did forget. Not intentionally. He was sorry. Totally understood. In an ultimate moment of clarity, I solved the challenge of getting him on the conference call anyway.

Once Coach Allen got on the conference call at 6:20, I messed around with the calling numbers on my cell phone and figured out--kind of--how to make it work, with an alternate number that was down on the sheet. I asked Coach Mueller, "In about 5 minutes, can you have Chris call this number?"

It worked. Right on cue, once Lauvale Sape was done, Chris chimed in and did it.

He did it. We even managed to get some extra players in. All in all, it went well, and all of our players did a great job.

The meatloaf and stringbean casserole I had for dinner might have been the best tasting meal in my life. I sat down with Jasper Harvey and Travis, who said to me when I sat down, "So, are you going to make it, buddy?"

I am now.

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I make it sound like this week has been a massive failure. While I would have you believe that, some great stuff has gone on this week, too.

My first two stories have been posted on NFLEurope.com and berlin-thunder.de. My first one, a feature on Jasper Harvey himself, can be found here (NFLEurope.com) and here (berlin-thunder.de); and the first installment of Travis Lulay's diary can be found here (NFLEurope.com) and here (berlin-thunder.de).

Jasper is a really great guy. The night we talked about the feature, I'd say we just talked about stuff for about two hours. He told me stories of his friends in the NFL, his journey from going undrafted, to Washington, to Philly, then to NFL Europe, the stories of him getting signed, the story of him getting cut--I pretty much got the Jasper Harvey story.

It gave me some really amazing insight into the life of an undrafted free agent. Those guys really have to fight to make it. It is NOT easy.

I sent out our first regular season release today, which I'd love to post a link to if it were online someplace. I'll get on that.

About today's press conference: I had the duty of informing Travis and Lauvale Sape (they are both two of the five team captains) that they would be attending, and speaking, and telling them what to wear (and kind of what to expect).

They were both incredibly understanding. I told Travis about it, then did our first diary installment. He is a stellar guy. Not only is he the starting QB and a team captain, but he's getting married in July, about two weeks before he has to report to Seahawks camp.

I went down to Sape's room to tell him about it. He was on the way out. I asked him if he had a second. He said, "For sure, man! Come get some food with us."

That's the kind of guy he is. Sape is just a really, really inviting guy. He's the kind of guy where you'd go talk to him for a quick second, and he'd try to invite you in for dinner, to chat, and just be friendly. That's so cool, and so refreshing.

So, I went to the "doner place," which is the Turkish restaurant down the street. It's pronounced "dooner." It's like a pita sandwich, with...some kind of wonderful tasting meat, and lettuce, and vegetables. It was incredible.

But anyway, I walked over there--about a 15 minute walk around Teltow--with Sape, defensive end Seante Williams, and linebacker Dominique Sims. That was awesome. We just talked about anything, and we all got to know each other. We got doners and watched the big soccer game on TV; it was the quarterfinals of the Champions League, which Munich was playing in. We talked a little bit about the conference call, which he was fine with, then walked back and talked some more.

All the ideas you have about football players--or, that I still have sometimes--are wrong, so often. So many of these guys are just regular guys, and they'll act that way, as long as you be yourself.

That's one area where I feel I have succeeded so far: not being so star struck around these guys. In San Francisco, it took pretty much all season for me to feel comfortable around some of the players. Even through the end of the season, I still wasn't very good at talking to players. That was an area I HAD to improve on while I was here, and I feel like I've done that okay.

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Well, here I am, at 1:15 in the morning, now Friday, April 13. (Oh, no, it's Friday the 13th.) We leave for Dusseldorf in about 8 hours. I haven't packed yet. I'm listening to Rascal Flatts, who I swear has got me through this week.

Don't get the wrong idea from all of this: I'm having a great time. This experience is incredible. Berlin is awesome. I can't wait to travel and be in a real football game.

This is a learning experience, and, right now, I'm getting some hardcore learning. All things considered--new job, lots of responsibilities, new country with a whole new language, etc.--I'm holding up pretty well. I'm not depressed, homesick, lonely, sad, etc., so I can't complain.

Yeah, I miss a few things. Playstation 2 still, even though the players put one in the lounge. That helps me get my fix. The things I always miss are the people, and being able to stay in touch with anyone. I'm becoming friends with lots of the players here, which certainly helps that part of it.

If there's one lesson I've learned over everything so far, it's this: life is short. There is no time for waiting on things or people. If I want something, I've got to go get it.

That's something that I've believed before, but now I feel it. I know it. I'm 23 years old; yeah, I'm not old, but my future now isn't traveling around and figuring my life out. It's getting a job and being relatively stationary. It's establishing myself...getting married...thinking about a family. Focusing on the things that make me successful.

I don't have much more time to say, "I need to work tonight, I can have fun tomorrow." All we have in life are moments. Those moments are becoming more and more precious, especially during a time like this, which I'll never be able to experience again.

Even if this experience ended right now, that's something I could say I've taken to heart. Now, I'm trying to pack so much life into such little time, here in Europe. (That may have something to with my struggles!)

I can't look back on my life in 70 years and have all of these things that I wish I did. That would be really unfortunate. I'm not going to let that happen.

At least, I can absolutely say that going to Germany will not be in that list.

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Quite a long entry we've had here. I've got some more work to do, then time to pack for my first professional road trip ever. Be back on Sunday.

Post-birthday update

12:30 AM, Monday, April 9th.

My birthday was on Friday! Seriously, it's about time. I felt like I was 22 forever. Not that I'm in any kind of rush to get older, but, I feel like 23 is a serious birthday. It's the "out of college" birthday. I'm not just some college student anymore. I'm, uh, an overseas intern.

Physically, I still feel like I'm getting adjusted. I get tired in the middle of the day a lot. (Maybe I AM getting old!) This made the birthday celebration rather interesting...

...so. Thursday, we had a "staff dinner." That was awesome. It was all the coaches and the office staff, just there to get dinner and get to know each other. Coach Allen said stuff like that doesn't happen around the league. It seems like he really wants to promote a "family" atmosphere around this team--which is great, since all the players already get a long really well.

This was the convergence of a couple of really crazy realizations:

1. I'm turning 23. I'm not a kid anymore.
2. These people regard me as part of the "staff." I'm not just some intern who's around for the ride.

I spent lots of the night contemplating that. Seriously, I can't remember the last time I've felt so ingrained into the "team" like I am right now. Yeah, I live with the players, so of course I'll always be around them and what they do.

But, it seems like they trust me. Not that they shouldn't, but a lot of them have put trust in me pretty early on. For instance, I ask a player how he's doing, and while some guys might tell me they are okay, even if they had a bullet wound, some of these guys will actually sit there and tell me they aren't good, and tell me what's wrong. To this point in my career, I haven't been regarded that highly by a player.

They'll tell me, seriously, how they feel about certain things with the Thunder (which, honestly, have been mostly really good) and how things went with some of their NFL teams (which are extremely interesting to hear). I was watching tape before with two linebackers, Mike Mendenhall and Tim Clarke, and they were just telling me why it's so important to watch tape, and talked about the things they saw. That's so freaking cool.

..sorry, I got sidetracked about my birthday.

Staff dinner, that was cool. Friday, I took it easy too, because I wasn't going to do anything without Cem, my boss.

As it turns out, my Saturday celebration would be rather short.

We had practice Saturday morning like usual, but then, I got to attend my first live soccer game! We went to Olympic Stadium to see Hertha BSC, the home team of Berlin. Apparently, they are really bad. I didn't care, though. I just wanted to see a live game!

I had every intention of taking it slow at the game, because Saturday night, we had a team party at this club downtown. That was sure to be fun.

...well, I had two liters of beer at the game. This picture is me and Cem, each with one of our liters of Warstiener. (Apparently, it's the popularity/frequency equivalent of Bud Light, but, not a light, and it doesn't taste like water.)

I thought I was such a big man. I thought, hey, whatever, two liters of beer, what's the problem?

My stomach disagreed. Three bratwursts later, and after the game, not only was I tanked, but my stomach was killing me. I figured I should lay down for a while.

What a drunkenly stupid idea. The bus to the club left at 8. When I opened my eyes at 9:30, I started to get ready until I saw a clock. I still felt a little drunk, too. Man, I'm such a lightweight.

Got to work on that.

The game itself was pretty bad. The team Hertha played was one of the worse teams in the league, and they only managed to tie. Getting to see the stadium rocking, though (at a little over half capacity) was pretty sweet. I bet that place was nuts for the World Cup.

Today, the team made an appearance at a promotional event called "Run for Fun," which sounded like a 5K kind of promotion thing. (This one was 3 miles, which our head coach and GM ran together). I got to see the team mascot for the first time: it's a big bird named, appropriately, T-Bird.

As a side note, at the end of the season, I will probably never want to hear "Thunderstruck" by AC-DC ever again.

Oh, hey, I managed to get my first photo album up with the Kodak camera. This is the stadium tour and the arrival into Berlin. I believe you can access it here... or if that doesn't work, try here.

Pretty soon, the U.S. Thunder site will have some Andy Lutzky-errific updates. I'll keep ya posted.

Random things that are different so far in Germany:

1. On keyboards, the Z and Y are flipped. Typing "Lutzky" is an adventure.
2. In German, the term "Happy Birthday" is nonsensical. On someone's birthday, you say the equivalent of, "Congratulations and good health."
3. Beer. Wow, beer. So far, the best I've had is the hefeweizen (a Bavarian beer). Warstiener is pretty good, too. We had some incredible beer on Thursday night, one that you can only find in two places all over Berlin (which was also Bavarian).
4. How could I have come this far and not mention Euros? Besides things just costing more in general over here, less Euros just mean more. Like, 20 Euros is a big deal. I got two liters of beer at the game for 12 Euros. 12 bucks at a Yankees game might get you some flat soda and peanut shells from the floor.

Things I miss (besides the obvious, like family, a car, etc.):
1. Sorry, the top of the list right now is the Playstation 2. Not being able to play God of War 2 is killing me. I did get a great Madden fix in today, though (oh yeah, I bought a PSP). I played Jameel Dumas, one of our linebackers. I won one game in OT, another he ended at halftime (it was really bad), and we had a great game cut off at the third quarter.
By the way, Jameel is a great guy. He went to Syracuse. It looks like he'll be one of our starting linebackers. He will be one of the subjects of a weekly blog on the U.S. site.
2. Chicken parm.
3. April baseball.
4. A consistent internet connection. The one here at the hotel is spotty, at best.
5. The NFL Draft. I really don't know what I'll be able to do without watching that.

Those are the toppers right now. I'm sure the list will grow.

I've got to get to bed. Big day tomorrow; we have our team photo, and "Fan Fest" at the stadium. More to come.

First game this week. At the Rhein Fire, in Dusseldorf. Get pumped.

The Arrival

Well, ok. I’m kind of almost settled here now.

Posted below are the last few days of entries, but I’ll explain things from today’s point of view first.

Today was the first official day of work. When they told me that the Thunder had the best facilities of any NFL Europa team, they weren’t kidding—we have a real, real office, with a really nice locker room, and better practice fields than we had in Tampa.

The office is, I’d guess….30 people. All of them are really, really nice. I’m also very impressed by not only how many people here speak English, but how well they all speak it. I almost feel dumb for not speaking another language fluently. (I try to talk to our Mexican players in Spanish, but they’re better at English than I am in Spanish…)

It’s chilly here. I’d say it was about 45 degrees today, with a stiff wind. (7 Celsius.) Not too bad, but after spending a month in Tampa, and 6 months in California, that’s a wake-up call. I’m in a windbreaker and jeans. (yes, jeans at the office.)

We also had a tour of Olympic Stadium today, where we’ll be playing our games. It’s…freaking AWESOME. I’m trying to post the pictures…once I have an internet connection worth anything, I’ll get them up here.

I’m still kind of tired, and honestly, a little drunk…I had my first two real German beers tonight; a light, then a dark, hefeweizen. Strongly recommended.

Scroll down for a recap of the traveling from yesterday (and, the day before…wow, we traveled for a long time). The first post is from the plane, and the second is live from Berlin.

Sorry this is kind of ramble-ing...but, I am beat. And adjusting to German beer... (Meghan already got a drunk dial.)

But on that note, I need to call it a night. I am EXHAUSTED. The updates will be more frequent from now on. Also, I’ll post some sweet pictures once I can.Hey…it’s my birthday on Friday!

__________________________

So, a few weeks ago, Beth, the sassy PR assistant with Frankfurt, sent me a text message. “So, do you need me to send you the link to your blog?” She’s quite the saucy one, but, she’s right.

Sorry for the scarcity (ie, ZERO) updates since I hit Tampa. I don’t know why I thought I’d be able to maintain a blog during training camp. Football training camp is usually completely nuts…waking up before the sun, working well past its departure, and then doing it all again the next day.

I’m sorry. Again. I promise it won’t happen again.

What makes it so nuts, you ask? Well…a couple of things. First, training camp typically means a team has a ton of new faces to deal with. With NFL Europe…well, every player is new to the team. So, much of the work in the first two weeks is getting acquainted with the players, making sure that you’re around to answer any questions you have, and so on.

One thing we did was individual interviews with certain position groups, so we could get to know the background stories of our guys. I must say, we have some really interesting, great guys on our team. I’ll get to that in another entry.

Second, this is really the first time I’ve had this much responsibility before. I must admit, at first, it was really overwhelming. Never in my life had I forgotten so many things people told me, or just done things blatantly wrong and not even noticed. It took me a good week or so to really adjust to it. It isn’t like I had too much to do and just got swamped; I just needed to adjust. I hadn’t been THAT busy since I was doing Watermelon Bust back at Vanderbilt, and even that had some down periods. Some days during camp, it would be full speed ahead from 6 AM to 1 AM, for a few straight days.

After a few days of that, I was really starting to crack. There was one day where I was just braindead. I couldn’t shut off a car alarm. I dropped 100 copies of rosters on the ground. I fell asleep while I was changing my shirt. I was just a total mess.

But, not only did I eventually adjust, but things started to calm down toward the end. Lots of the work during the first two weeks were getting our players’ media bios all squared away, and finishing off the Thunder’s pre-season release, which, if I figure out how to post on this site, I’ll do it.

Well…Tampa went by in a heartbeat. I didn’t even unpack while I was here. (I pretty much wore the same outfit for three weeks anyway. (that sounds disgusting, but, it’s really not what it sounds like. I washed my clothes.) (Once.)

That being said, I’ve continued my streak of updates when I fly; I’m on the plane to Germany right now.

This is kind of surreal. Remember how it didn’t hit me that I was going to Tampa, until pretty much a few hours before I left? It took even longer this time.

Part of that was because I didn’t have much of a chance to sit around and think about things. Being busy keeps your mind off it. Packing my bags, I didn’t really feel anything. The five hour bus ride to Miami, it didn’t really bug me.

(The travel itinerary: Five hour bus ride to Miami, to board a nine hour flight to Frankfurt, followed by a three hour flight to Berlin.)

Checking my bags, whatever. You know when it hit me? Sitting in my seat on the plane, as we’re taking off, I looked out the window and said, “Bye bye, America.”

That’s when I looked around, and said, “Holy crap, I’m going to Germany.”

I just sat back in my seat, closed my eyes, and contemplated that for a moment. Damn. How the heck did I get to this point? What’s going to happen over the next four months? What am I going to do without my Playstation 2 for four months?!

***

I guess they dig the interns here: So one night in Tampa (the eve of my first day off), a whole bunch of us went into downtown Tampa. My boss, Cem (pronounced Gem) and I started off at this club, whose name I forget, which was so-so. My roommate, Joe, the PR intern—I mean, U.S. PR assistant—with Hamburg, was at this club across the street, with a line that went around the block. He insisted that I went over there. So, Cem and I stood in line (surrounded by 16 year old girls, which was just fantastic.) (sarcasm.)

All of a sudden, out walks Joe. He waves his hand and says, “Come with me.” Cem and I blindly followed. Joe walks to the front and says, “We’re with the NFL.” Not only do we skip the line, but we got VIP wristbands! Woot!

It was my first time being at VIP in a club. It was pretty cool! The room was much smaller and, clearly, the entrees had much more freedom as to what they did while in the VIP confines. I stuck with my Miller Lite and observed the scene.

You could buy a bottle of champage for pretty cheap. They had little rooms off to the side which—well, I couldn’t tell what was going on in there. I could see that you could buy a cigar and get a seat on a big, cushy couch. The other doors in this room were closed, meaning, I assume, they were in use. For what, I was left to guess.

And beyond that, the club had two more levels above the VIP area. One story up with the Latin music room. Wow, Latina girls can dance. Then, the last level was “The Roof,” which, appropriately, was on the roof.

On a crystal clear night in Tampa, feeling about 65 degrees with a light wind, this was clearly the best place to be. It offered a neat view of the area we were in (Ybor City), and you could get drinks up there, too.

Yup, Joe has balls: That’s really typical Joe. I need to give credit to the guy. He really has no fear in those situations. Where I’m just fine hanging out with a drink in the regular area, however he figured out that just saying “NFL” got us the red carpet treatment, he did.

That’s how he rolls. He’ll just start a conversation with anyone and go with it. He’s an interesting guy; he seriously reminds me of another side of me, a person that, with a few experiences going in different directions, I easily could have become.

Joe is driven by the desire to prove his doubters wrong, and to make his enemies look second-class. (I call him Gilbert Arenas.) He seriously busted his ass during training camp; his motivation, so it seems, was his distaste with previous work experiences, and his desire to show them that he’s better than that.

He’s with the Hamburg Sea Devils, who I affectionately call “The Team of Stars.” We’ll get into that later.

Nap time.

__________________________________________

I’m in Berlin.

Quite a day of traveling I’ve had. Buses, planes, buses…I’m pretty beat.

Last time I wrote, I was mid-way between Miami, Florida and Frankfurt. That was a long, long plane ride.

The airport in Frankfurt felt like what I imagined purgatory to be. We weren’t in our final destination yet. It was 6 AM at the airport, so it was eerily silent and empty, and foreign feeling (I wonder why?). No one knew what to do, and we all just sat there for 2 hours for the next leg of our trip.

I’d say 99% of the team passed out on the 1-hour flight from Frankfurt to Berlin.

When we got off the plane in Berlin…we had a Fan Fest waiting for us! Cheerleaders lined the entrance from the gate. Fans with Thunder flags and banners stood waiting. Okay, there were like 50 fans—but it was pretty cool!

Taking the bus from the airport over to the hotel, all of the players were wide awake, but silent. We were all looking out the bus, taking in our surroundings. Every now and then, someone would chirp out something that caught their eye out of the window, but other than that, it was mostly silent fascination of another world in another language.

It’s really incredible. When we got here, the team planned a whole big day of touring for us—that way, we can beat jet lag.

The bus tour itself was okay, but it was just neat to see part of the city as soon as you arrive. I’d hate to sit around in a city like this for days and can’t be able to say that I had seen anything.

Anyhoo…we got to check out Brandenburg Gate, and some of downtown Berlin (which really, really reminds me of downtown NYC), and Checkpoint Charlie, which also had a pretty neat WWII museum.

I’m trying to put my pictures up on the Kodak Easyshare, but I have almost zero internet at the hotel…bear with me.

Hard Rock Café for dinner. Burgers and fries. How (yawn) American.

In case you can’t tell, I’m rambling-tired.

Anyhoo…tomorrow’s the first day of work. I’ll give back something juicy then.