File This One Under World Bowl Elimination and Parental Advisory Stickers

Well, quite the interesting weekend we had. It’s a long post today, but a goodie. You might want to put the kids to bed, in case you don’t want to teach them some new words (or at least words they wouldn’t learn until they are older).

***

We’ve been just about eliminated from World Bowl competition, after we lost to Hamburg 17-7. (My recap isn't up yet.) (All of our points came on field goals; a 3 and a 4 from Andrew Jacas.) (Jacas now holds the record for most 4-pointers in a season, with three.)

We’re in fifth with a 2-5 record. The only reason we aren’t last is because we beat Rhein in the opener, and they have the same record.

(Warning: some serious football talk follows…)

At the top, we’ve got Frankfurt and Cologne at 5-2, followed by Hamburg at 4-3. Amsterdam is still mathematically alive at 3-4, but needs some serious help, while Hamburg—in a sense—controls their own destiny.

This weekend, Cologne plays Hamburg. If Cologne wins, they clinch a World Bowl berth. Frankfurt plays us, but a Galaxy victory wouldn’t clinch their spot quite yet.

See, the third tiebreaker in NFLE is Points Scored. If Cologne beats Hamburg, they would sweep the season series, and could do no worse than tying Hamburg’s season record. So, they would be in. But Frankfurt—who finishes with us, Hamburg, and Cologne—only beat the Sea Devils in their first meeting by 3.

Like I said, Amsterdam still has a shot, but they need a lot of help.

***

What exactly has our problem been this season, asks the casual football fan?

Well, I’m no coach (and I know a few of our players that frequent this blog), so I’ll keep the opinion to a minimum.

In the typical NFL Europa season, the teams that win generally “click” around Week 3 or 4. Meaning, they start to wise up to certain points of the game, and learn how to overcome some of the shortcomings they have. Unfortunately, we’ve made the same mistakes from Week 1 to now: red zone—both offensively and defensively—third downs, and shooting ourselves in the foot with costly penalties and turnovers.

It’s no one’s fault—we’re just that team right now where, on any given play, if 10 guys are perfect, that 11th guy is killing us. On a team like the Patriots, that doesn’t happen. But, we can’t seem to catch a break.

Some people would also call that a lack of playmakers, but I don’t think that’s completely our problem. Both Carlton Brewster and Chris Barclay have proven that they can make plays when called upon; that goes for Travis Lulay, too. Same on defense: Dave Tollefson has 4.5 sacks, Jameel Dumas makes plays at linebacker, and no matter who we seem to plug at safety, they rack up tackles (first it was Etric Pruitt, and now it’s Chris Harrell.)

It’s just not bouncing our way this season.

***

On a side note, our late 49ers pickup, Vickiel Vaughn, has really impressed people in his short time here. He plays fast, aggressive, and smart, and he’s finding more time on the field because of it. Hey, what can I say: look at the 49ers over here. Vick is making it happen; Marcus Maxwell, despite not playing this weekend against us, leads the league in touchdown receptions with 5; defensive end John Syptak, a street free agent that San Fran sent over, has 3.5 sacks; Tavares Washington has started the entire season on the o-line with Rhein. I know Jermaine Hardy plays a bunch at safety, too.

***

The game was only half of the weekend, however. Wow.

I think the rest of this entry needs a disclaimer, so here we go:

When I started this blog, the primary purpose was to relay my experiences to you, my friends and family and whoever else is reading. Not all of the experiences were good, and not all the experiences were bad. And, not all of the experiences are PG-13.

I understand that some potentially important people read this, and anything I post here could, in the future, come back to get me. But thankfully, I’ve done nothing illegal or immoral since I’ve been here, nor will you see anything like that in this post. Like I said…I’m merely relaying experiences, things that some people might not be able to experience back in the States.

I also understand that there are some people that read this blog that might not want to hear about some of those experiences. So, to my friends and family that share this with others, or to those of you with (after this weekend) more innocent eyes than I, I warn you: the rest of this post relays a rather…interesting evening’s worth of experiences.

On one hand, I didn’t want to post potentially incriminating stuff, but first off, like I’ve said, I didn’t do anything wrong. I just found myself in some pretty interesting places. And second, if I write a book some day, I’ll put this in it anyway, so I might as well get it out there now.

If you normally share this blog with others, please use your discretion this time around.

***

I guess the best way to begin this recount is by describing our tour guide for the evening: one Joe Trahan.

Joe is the PR assistant with the Sea Devils. He interned the previous season with the Detroit Lions, just like Tara did (with Rhein). While I consider myself primarily an explorer of the culture, Joe really knows Hamburg’s nightlife in and out.

That’s not to say Joe is a drunken mess; not at all. Joe works incredibly hard at what he does, and it shows in what he attaches his name to. He absolutely takes care of his work before he plays, and all of the league media that I’ve spoken to have only said great things about him.

But he knows how to party. And he knows where to party in Hamburg, it seems.

That being said, I stayed an extra night in Hamburg on Saturday, while the team hopped on the bus on Saturday night, right after the game, and trooped home. (They got into the hotel around 2:30 AM.)

I, however, hauled my life over to the Sea Devils’ team hotel, changed quickly, and took the team bus to the team after party.

For starters, let me just say how neat it was to take another team’s bus—after they won—to their after party. No one on the bus knew who I was except Joe and defensive end Seante Williams, who started the season with Berlin. He was excited to see me, too, I think. I came on the bus and he yelled, with a big golden-toothed smile, “Look at this foo, dog!” (word for word.)

Their after party location was wild. WILD. It had three floors; the first was just like any other club, with poles and table dancing. The second floor was the same, but an open air club with a bigger bar. The final, top floor just had a bunch of tables—and another bar—in case you simply wanted to get sloshed sitting down. The girl-to-guy ratio, combined, was, I’d guess, 3-to-1. Complete insanity.

Well, as long as you had a Sea Devils wristband (which I had), you could get in, avoid all the lines, and get free beer. Dangerous.

Anyway, a few vodka-Red Bulls later (eeuuughh) and some shot called a Sea Devil Special, which I think was a shot of vodka after pouring a sugar packet into your mouth, Joe was getting a little saucy. I saw a few people around there that I knew, including the aforementioned Marcus Maxwell, who I got to talk to about his season, and how excited we both were to go back to San Fran.

Joe had explained to me earlier the path our evening would take. Let me just say from the get-go that I did not object one bit. Hey…I’m all about the experience, like I said before.

Anyhoo, our next stop was a strip club which Joe wanted to try out. (Secondary disclaimer: this was the first strip club I’ve been to.) We didn’t stay long, because apparently, it wasn’t that good.

Joe wanted to show me a little more of what Hamburg had to offer. He reminded me on the bus ride over here that, any vice you wanted to cure, you could do it in Hamburg: Gambling? Drugs? Alcohol, sex, weed? You name it. Apparently, we took a little bit of that circuit this particular evening.

Our next stop? A few blocks away, at one of the local brothels. Which was a walk through the main prostitute street.

For what it’s worth, all Joe kept telling me was how much they will jump out at you and try to get you to “buy in.” What I think he meant was, if you look at them right in the eye, they will think you want to, um, spend some quality time with them. On the way to the brothel—the way to the brothel—the WAY to the brothel—he must have struck a conversation with two or three of the prostitutes. Clearly, he wasn’t looking to inquire about their services, but apparently, this is how it’s done, you know, if you wanted to do something like that.

We eventually made our way to the brothel, which, might I add, had sliding glass doors at the entrance. Classy, almost like a hotel. (Like the hotel we stayed at in Hamburg.)

The building was laid out almost like Kissam Hall at Vanderbilt, if every light was red. Every door inside was, maybe, four feet from the next. Hanging outside every door was, it appeared, the woman who sold her services for that room.

Here, it became slightly more difficult to avoid contact with them. Just based on how small the hallways were, and how interested they became when anyone walked through, you almost had to bump into every girl there. If you didn’t, they would grab onto your arm or your shirt sleeve and try to pull you back to them, almost forcing you to make some kind of contact with them.

In that sense, it kind of reminded me of all the people who sell bootleg DVDs and sunglasses on Canal Street, and how you need to learn to walk the streets before you stop getting harassed by every random dude selling scarfs and rugs in Chinatown. Obviously, if you walk down the street whistling and sounding clueless, they will all stop you and try to push their product onto them. Same deal here: the more reason you give them to think you’re interested, the harder they’ll try to sell.

Plus, if they know you’re American, they amp it up a little bit. I don’t know if that means they prefer Americans, or if we have more money, or if we’re just bigger suckers. But, as I’ve pointed out before, I somehow stick out like a little ol’ American tourist, so this didn’t help my cause at all.

(In case you’re still wondering at this point, no, I did not buy anything this particular evening, services or otherwise.)

Just by the nature of the setup—and Joe’s willingness to explore the place—you end up talking to a few of these women. I can’t lie—most of them were rather attractive, and they spoke English well. (They were dressed the part, too.)

After I met back up with Joe, he let me in on a little secret: the brothels were the cheap places to go, if you didn’t have much money. If you wanted the “best,” you have to be willing to spend a little more—and to venture into the red light district.

So, off to the red light we went. (Third disclaimer: this was the first red light district I had been to.)

A description I’d previously heard of the red light district really fit the bill perfectly: it’s like window shopping for Victoria’s Secret mannequins. It’s a bunch of girls sitting in what looks like department store windows, just watching you as you walk by. When no one is around, their windows are closed, but they can open them from the inside if you walk up to them, or show a little interest.

The first thing you have to do, naturally, is take the whole walk and gauge the “available talent.” (What is this, the NFL draft?) Then, you make your pick, go chat, and see what the prices are.

Joe, as we had discussed before, didn’t have any intention of acquiring any of the aforementioned “talent.” But, that didn’t stop him from inquiring within, either.

I felt like an idiot standing in the middle of the red light district watching Joe talk to these random girls, so I picked one out and, being the little nice guy I walked over, struck up a conversation.

I don’t even think she told me her name. She had long blonde hair and looked, I’d say, in her mid 20’s. She opened her window, and gave me a strange glance—that look like, “I don’t think you know what you’re doing.”

I said, “Hey,” which probably immediately gave away a) I was American and b) I really didn’t know what I was doing.

She replied, “Where are you from?” I said, “New York.”

“They don’t have anything like me in New York.”

Taken aback, and enjoying my new role as an accessory to prostitution, I immediately replied, “No, they do not.” This was easy!

“So, what are you looking for?”

Oh, here we go. I didn’t really have anything in particular in my head—in either one—that I was “looking for”.

So, naturally, I countered, “Well, what are you offering?” The million dollar question.

“Well, for you, fifty for a BJ. Anything more than that, we can talk.”

Fifty Euros?! That’s three hundred chicken nuggets!

“Fifty Euros, huh?” I just wanted to make sure I understood properly. That’s a debate technique right there.

“Well, fifty will get you a half an hour.”

That just created more questions—and before I got any more entangled in what I had already created, I looked around for Joe, who was actually standing right behind me and grinning like an idiot, as he’d been listening to my entire ridiculous exchange with this woman.

That would do it for our red light district foray, as we headed back to another club. Joe had a little more of an agenda than I did that evening, and around 5 AM, I grabbed a 10 Euro cab ride back to his hotel in the pouring rain.

I laid in bed, reflecting on what I had done that night, and all I could think of was, no, they had nothing like her back in New York. And how three hundred chicken nuggets would last me WAY more than a half an hour.

***

Naturally, I’m suffering from a bit of a head cold following that whole ordeal. It could have been a wide variety of things that made me sick, as you could gather from this entry.

But seriously, I always get sick at the start of the season/school year and the end. The last time I was sick was in Tampa, and the next time I’ll be sick is training camp with the 49ers. The time before that I was sick? Super Bowl. And before that? Cancun, over spring break senior year.

We host the Galaxy this week at Olympic Stadium, where we’re a resounding 0-3 this season.

It’s reaching that point in the season where lots of people just want to go home. I must say, I’m holding up pretty well. I don’t feel particularly homesick, but of course, I miss a few things from home. The top ten, you ask? Well, it just so happens I’ve been thinking about that:

1) Playstation 2. Sorry, it’s true.

2) Consistent internet. Wherever you go in this country, if you expect internet, you have to pay. If it’s free, it has to be terrible.

3) A car. It’s a freedom you don’t realize is so important in your life until you lose it (for 4 months).

4) Clean clothes. Yeah, clean clothes. In this entire hotel, we have one mini-sized washing machine and one mini-sized dryer, which takes about 3 hours to complete. That’s for 50 football players, 10 coaches, and the assortment of staff that live here as well. I’ve done laundry three times since I’ve been in Berlin.

5) Chicken parm. On that note, Outback Steakhouse, too.

6) Physical activity. I can’t remember the last time I’ve jogged. Actually, when I feel like it’s been so long since I’ve done anything, I run up and down the hallway a few times just to remind my legs that I still care. It’s not that I don’t—I just really don’t have the chance to do anything.

7) Baseball. I really couldn’t even tell you anything that has happened at all this season. Yankee Stadium, too.

8) Saturday afternoons. When every day seems the same for 4 months, you really lose track of what day means what. I miss having that feeling that, for the next 4 hours, I have nothing to do and nowhere to go.

9) CVS. It’s impossible to get any of the pharmaceuticals that I need out here.

10) Having a place that I can actually call home. Living out of a hotel has its perks, but its downfalls, too.

***

On that note, let’s call it a night. I’m trying to sleep-out this head cold I’ve got. After all, with Beth coming into town, I need to show her that Berlin can still kick it with Frankfurt. (PS, check out her blog, The Awkward Papers, linked on the right, to see an awesome picture of me.)

Pre-game post: Hamburg

Alright, so, the pictures from last time are up. You can find them here (or here) and in the links section on the left, under Third Set.

It’s gameday, at Hamburg. Not going to lie—I didn’t get to see any of Hamburg yesterday. Our 3 hour bus ride took 5 hours (construction, traffic, rain), so we got in exactly at dinner time, and team curfew (me included?) was at 11.

Plus, the team leaves right after the game, and gets in to Teltow at 2:30 AM. …I think, however, I’m staying with Cem overnight in Hamburg. So, maybe I’ll get to see something tonight.

This is our only bus trip of the season, since, in theory, Hamburg is so close.

It’s rained ever since we got here. It’s been a strange trip: the rain, and the curfew, and our bus was pretty small (I couldn’t even stand up in it, so you could imagine how our offensive linemen felt), and it had my two biggest pet peeves so far in this country.

First, air conditioning. For whatever reason, there is a nationwide resistance to air conditioning. I understand that some people might not like to be cold, but, I would guess that the bus was about 80 degrees, with an ostensible amount of humidity. Players were sitting with their shirts or pants off because it was so hot. The bus DID have air conditioning, but it did about as much as waving a business card in your face did.

Next, curtains. I don’t understand the functionality of a 2-foot curtain for an 8-foot window. And, that is another nationwide occurance. Either the curtain only covers the top quarter of the window, or it goes the other way, and covers little parts of the left and right side of the window.

With the air conditioning, I understand—it just might not be big in this country. But with the curtains, that’s just functionally illogical. Do you buy sunglasses that only cover half of your eye? Or a hat with a hole in the middle of the brim?

…anyway, things are going well. The hotel is nice. Big game today. It kind of feels like the 49ers Thursday night game against Seattle.

The 49ers just lost two awful games, to the Saints in New Orleans and the Packers at home. Then we had to go on the road—in a very, very short week—and take on a pretty good team in Seattle on Thursday night.

People weren’t very optimistic. They thought—rightfully so—that if the 49ers played the way they did in their last two games, Seattle would destroy them. (Especially playing on a short week, in prime time, on the road, in a monsoon, against the defending NFC champions.)

As it turned out, the 49ers played a great second half, and beating the Seahawks 24-14 was arguably their signature win last season (maybe up there with Denver).

I get the same feeling from this team as I did from the 49ers that week: Yeah, we haven’t played so well the last few weeks, and we’re playing a good team on the road. But, let’s just worry about how we play and let the rest sort itself out.

We’ll see what happens.

***

Then, after this, the season only has 3 games left (not including the World Bowl). This season truly flew by. Either way, I’ll be at the World Bowl in Frankfurt though, whether we’re there as a team or not. It’s pretty neat that I’ll get to the Super Bowl and the World Bowl in the same year.

***

That’s all I’ve got for now (yes, short entry, I know). Check back after game day.

Berlin Thunder: 2-4...ruh-roh!

(That's a Chris Gearing imitation of Scooby Doo in the title. Direct any complaints to him. Thanks. Smooches!)

This entry is kind divided in half…some of it is from the train ride home on Monday, and some is from right now (2 AM, Wednesday morning).

I think you can figure out which is which.

***

On the train home from Frankfurt. We got slaughtered yesterday, 35-7.

That familiar feeling keeps coming back to me in these games: that same feeling I got during Pelham football games, and Vanderbilt football games, and some Titans games from senior year, and some 49ers games from last year. That feeling that, “Maybe we can just hang close with these guys.” Then, reality sinks in and they run away with it. Like, we’re just hopeful that we win—not that we’re expecting to. (That’s a Mike Nolan-ism for all of you who are keeping score.)

The game started as usual for us: three and out. We punted, and they ran it back for a score. About 90% of the team packed it in..they were done. Beaten. Just like that, four plays into the game. We never threatened.

Just like Vandy and Pelham before that, we rolled out the red carpet for their running backs. They ran for 201 yards on us, marking almost 400 in the last two weeks. Sha-ron Edwards, one of their running backs who played for the Thunder in the first half of the season, had over 80 yards and a touchdown. Charles Anthony, a guy they cut after training camp and signed back because of injuries, had 101 yards and 2 touchdowns. Yes, a guy they cut and a guy we gave them destroyed us in the ground game.

I kept trying to explain to Scott last season in San Francisco that I really don’t know what it’s like to win. You know how some people are just winners—like, no matter where they go or what they do, they’re always in the middle of the championship race? I seem to be the complete opposite. I’m always in the thick of the bottom of it.

It’s not that I can do anything about it. It just sucks, that’s all.

***

Before I left for Frankfurt, I asked everyone what the good tourist things to do there were.

Almost everyone responded the same: there are none. It’s a boring city.

And, it’s not that I’d call it boring. It was like Indianapolis or something—it’s just a city. Frankfurt is the financial capital of Germany: everything there is a bank or a bank headquarters. It isn’t like Berlin or Cologne, where there are tons of historical things to see. It’s just a city.

They had a fun little downtown area, and Beth and I (and Cem eventually) found home in a tourist-trap Irish pub. I even had the “Galaxy Special,” thanks to Beth. It tasted like a strawberry milkshake, and it looked like one, too. There was a rumor that it had some liquor in it, which after having the entire drink, I could not confirm.

(FYI—Beth is Frankfurt’s version of me. Except she’s a little redhead. Take that for what you will.)

Besides that, I took the weekend to relax a little bit. The wear of the season starting to hit everybody, myself included. The losing doesn’t help, obviously, but you can tell that guys are starting to get irritated and ansy. Some guys just want to go home, and they act like it. Coaches have shorter fuses, with everyone—myself included. People don’t want to do the little things anymore. This is the part of the season that’s just difficult to get your job done, because no one is any fun to be around.

As you read from above, it’s something that I’m used to.

***

Frankfurt’s stadium experience was pretty neat. It was easily the loudest crowd we will see all year. In number, it was close to the 30,000-strong crowds we saw at Rhein and at our home opener. This crowd was just crazier. Even in the fourth quarter, up 35-7 with the game easily in hand, they were loud.

The stadium itself had some interesting qualities to it. Rather than have a retractable roof, they put up a retractable umbrella. Seriously, if you could picture a stadium-sized umbrella above the stadium, you’d probably have a good idea of what I mean.

There were about 30 poles reaching from the top of the stadium and meeting in the middle, acting as the umbrella spines, while also holding up the Madison Square Garden-esque video board and scoreboard at the middle.

Even though it didn’t rain, I saw a few pictures of the umbrella in action. It’s really just a big, tan umbrella that covers just about the entire stadium. It must be cheaper than a retractable roof, but there were some parts of the stands—and the playing field, especially at the corners—that still would suffer from the elements.

***

Cool events in the last week:

Went to dinner with a few of the coaches and our general manager, Joe Cealera on Thursday. We ate at a place called Felix, which is apparently one of the more trendy clubs in all of Berlin.

I didn’t understand how we’d be eating dinner an upscale club, but around 9 PM, when they pulled all the tables away and about 30 of the most unbelievable girls I’d seen in my trip walked in, it all made sense.

We even got a little VIP section in the back, which was cool.

I got to eat dinner with my parents before they left, too, meaning I got to see them three times in the week they were here. Funny enough, Chris Gearing ate with us, where he met my family for the first time. Yes, my little brother (fraternal, not biological) met my family for the first time in Berlin.

I’m getting pretty good at the subway-train-bus system here in Berlin. Really, it isn’t that complicated. Everyone has their own comparisons, but the layout and simplicity matches only the T in Boston.

***

New Linkin Park CD: Pretty good, for those who are wondering. It’s a totally different sound from what they’ve put out before, but I like it. Now, everyone is saying that Linkin Park has “matured” as the years have gone by. Are you calling their old sound immature? Or their fans, for that matter?

It reminds me a little bit of how Incubus changed with “Make Yourself.” People don’t realize that before that CD, with songs like “Drive” and “Stellar,” they were mainly a grunge, punk band. Take a listen to “S.C.I.E.N.C.E.” if you want to hear an Incubus that you’ll never hear again.

All in all though, I like it. Check it out.

***

Okay, back to Wednesday-at-2:30.

Yeah, it’s 2:30, and I’m updating my blog. Today was a pretty neat day, so I wanted to get it out there!

Coach Allen cancelled practice to give the players the day off (and I assume to give the coaches a chance to game plan). Instead, we had a team trip to Sachsenhausen—the site of the biggest concentration camp of the Nazi regime. It took us about an hour to get there, putting it right outside of what’s considered the “suburbs” of Berlin.

It was as cool as a concentration camp could be, really. I mean, I love stuff like this—I’m a museum and a history guy, so this is the type of stuff I wanted to see when I got here. Granted, a lot of it was…pretty disturbing.

When they said this was the biggest camp, I really didn’t grasp just how big this place was. It was about the size of Vanderbilt’s campus, or, like, a couple of city blocks. This place was huge—and according to the camp information, always FULL of prisoners.

Lots of the buildings or still standing, or at least have been renovated well. Obviously, their living conditions would make a janitor’s closet look like the Hilton. Some of the original beds still “stood” in the prison cells. I put “stood” in quotes because most of them were just straw heaps on the concrete floor.

At this camp, they killed their prisoners by hanging them, shooting them in the head, torture, and incineration—no standing gas chambers. They did, however, start testing the gas chamber here, by piling 30 Jews at a time into the back of a cargo truck. They would fill the truck with carbon monoxide, thus, obviously, killing everyone inside.

The truck then drove outside the camp, where they would pile the bodies up and burn them.

Lots of the “human ovens” still stood, and were in good enough condition that you could get an idea of how they had to contort—or cut—a person to get them to fit in there. Truly sickening.

This camp also housed some of the major medical “research” of the time—essentially, when people would get cut up and messed around with. One of the nastier recounts was from a doctor who administered “tattoo removal,” when they would just cut off the skin, or the entire body part, of the tattoo on your body.

The two most disturbing things from the trip:

1. Going through the prisoner cells. In some of the cells, the name of the person who lived there was posted on the wall. Families had come back and put up plaques, or memorials, or dedications to their family member who might have died in that cell. That was an incredibly eerie feeling: seeing a picture of someone who might have died 65 years ago, a few feet from me. Of course, in the picture, they were young, and healthy, and probably successful. They all died withered, starved, sun deprived, alone, tortured, and not sure why they were there.

2. The patches marked, “Ashes of Unnamed Victims.” Apparently, in 1996, some people found areas of ground that went a few feet deep in ashes. Yes, human ashes. After people were burned (alive or dead), they would sometimes just scoop up their remnants and dump them into these piles—like, a human dumpyard. There could be between 300 and 500 people’s worth of ashes just heaped into these unmarked, unknown piles. The grass grows on them differently; you can’t miss them.

Some of the players got really disturbed by the whole thing. To my complete surprise, and enjoyment, a couple of players wanted to follow me around so I could explain to them some of the historical background of what happened here. (Special thanks to Mr. Moskowitz, Mr. Capposella, and Mr. Orfei. go pelicans.)

I took a whole lot of pictures. They’ll be up soon.

***

I also had dinner downtown at a place called “Andy’s Diner and Bar” (I ran the place!) with Chris Gearing. Had a chicken sandwich, fries, and mozzarella sticks. Incredible.

I almost walked right through some major German movie premiere on the way there—they had the red carpet and everything, and there were a whole bunch of media there taking pictures of the movie stars as they came in.

As one of the German kids put it, “They’re making a big deal about nothing, really.”

Geez…that sounds a lot like how it goes in America.

***

This week, we head to Hamburg to play the Sea Devils one more time. They score a ton of points. We’ll see how that goes.

***

To round things up tonight…it looks like I’ll be spending a few days after the season ends in…(drum roll) London! The clincher: Jane (yes, that’s the Explo Jane!) will be there with her family, outside of the city a bit. Translation: a free place to stay, a built in tour guide, and the suburbs. Count me in.

That’s it for this evening/morning. I’ll come back once the pictures are all up.

Mid-season stretch

Well. We sure got beaten on Sunday.

The final score was 24-10, but I don’t really think it was even that close. We hit a field goal on our opening drive, and then got shut out until late in the fourth quarter. Their running back, Derrick Ross—freakin’ beast—set a franchise record for rushing yards on us. He had 140 something yards.

I truly believe Ross is quite a football player to keep an eye on. It’s ironic that he was allocated by the Kansas City Chiefs, because I would best compare his running style to Larry Johnson. Ross just drags people, almost consistently gaining 3 or 4 yards after initial contact. He has tremendous burst for a back with such a strong frame, kind of like Johnson. He’s a good receiver, and when he has the ball in his hands, he exudes my favorite running back quality: anger. He runs angry. Very angry.

This raises an interesting point: one of the scouts told me during training camp that he believed the Kansas City Chiefs allocate some of the best players year after year in NFL Europa. Based on this season’s performances, I’m inclined to believe him. Ross leads NFLE in rushing yards by almost 150 over Berlin’s own, Chris Barclay. Our starting right guard, Rob Hunt, could possibly play in the League. He has that Denver Broncos kind of guard body: technically sound, but very athletic. The Chiefs also allocated Omar Jacobs, who was practically declared our starting quarterback in February, but injured his ankle during training camp. (Whether Jacobs would have been the starter anyway is debatable.)

Anyhoo, our kicker, Andrew Jacas, missed two more field goals, to drop to 5 for 10 on the season. Their quarterback, Erik Meyer, threw 3 touchdowns on us for the second straight week. Ugh.

My game report can be found here. Next week, we take on the first place Frankfurt Galaxy.

***

Our loss to the Centurions dropped our home record to 0-3. We’re 2-0 on the road. Fairly interesting.

Speaking of home, the Olympic Stadium experience has been pretty neat. The stadium itself is nearly 90 years old, having been built for the Olympics during Nazi Germany. It feels like it, too; no elevators from field level to the top of the stadium. That wouldn’t matter, except everything I need during the game is in the press box, which is located at the very, very top of the stadium, about 150 stairs away from where I spend the entirety of the game.

Suffice to say, my legs feel extremely, extremely sore the day after games. It’s a great workout.

We average between 10 and 20 thousand for our home games, which is slightly better than the league average. Rhein draws around 30 thou per game, while Frankfurt usually tops that. Hamburg and Amsterdam hover around 10,000, while Cologne says they get 10,000 per game—but that’s questionable. When we played there last week, the announced crowd of over 10,000 looked suspiciously like 5,000 to me. Maybe less.

Cologne’s stadium, RheinEnergieStadion, is the only other road stadium I’ve seen so far besides LTU (with the Rhein Fire). Cologne’s stadium looked kind of like LTU from the inside, just with no retractable roof, and about 25,000 less fans. To close off the middle section of the stands during the game, they put up a painted mural of what looks like an ancient Roman democratic meeting; all of these robed figures with spears, screaming. (As Beth noted, “Maybe their 10,000 counts the painted people.”)

With my NFL Network headset on, I couldn’t hear any of the fans. …oh yeah, I wear a headset during games. I hear the NFL Network production feed, and in theory, I chime in with injury updates or helpful things from the sidelines. I generally just listen to people getting chewed out by the producer during the game (which is pretty entertaining, actually).

Even though we only fill Olympic Stadium to about one fifth of its capacity, it gets decently loud in there. My dad said, “This is the loudest empty stadium I’ve ever seen!” I’m sure the drums/whistles/horns contribute to that, but, hey, we take what we can get.

I’m pretty pumped to see Frankfurt. All I’ve heard since training camp was that Frankfurt was the loudest place to play, with the craziest fans. I love that atmosphere.

Frankfurt is, from what I understand, the financial capital of Germany. A bunch of banks, I guess. I’ll have to report back when I see it myself.

Oh, by the way—I got to see the ancient cathedral in Cologne, which is a pretty big tourist site. It was built by the Romans, and it is HUGE. I’ve got pictures of it in the Second Photo Album (see the links to the right). I convinced those with me to take the stair trip to the top—all 550-plus, steep stairs. That was an unbelievable workout.

***

It's rained almost every day for the last week. I went to the Berlin soccer team's home finale, and it poured. They lost, too, which had nothing to do with the rain; they're just bad. In the three games I went to, they went 0-2-1.

***

I haven’t had a chance to address this yet, and a few people have asked, so, here we go…

Yes, I got a chance to see the results of the NFL Draft. It actually started the exact moment we kicked off against the Amsterdam Admirals at home.

First: I am one of the many who felt shocked that the Dolphins passed on Brady Quinn. It wasn’t so much that they actually let Quinn slide; it’s who they picked instead of him. Didn’t they learn from the Vikings’ pick of Troy Williamson a few years ago, or the Panthers’ selection of Chris Gamble before that? They essentially took a kick returner in the top 10. I’m not saying that’s a worthless pick—obviously, Devin Hester showed how important a returner can be—but, taking a return specialist who’s very raw at his natural position in the top 10 is not a very good idea.

Case in point: Ron Jaworski, one of my favorites to watch on ESPN, tried to show off Ted Ginn’s route running skills by showing off three fly patterns (that’s when the receiver just runs deep). What does that prove? We know Ginn is fast. Showing that he can run deep doesn’t tell me he can play wide receiver, and that’s what I’m not convinced of.

Besides, I’ve kind of given up on taking anyone that touches the ball from Ohio State.

Curious about that one? Take a look at all of the former Ohio State skill players that have been drafted in the last few years: Michael Jenkins, Chris Gamble, Maurice Clarrett, Craig Krenzel, Santonio Holmes (who wasn’t awful in his first season, but did have legal problems and took most of the year to get on track), Drew Carter (who could be incredible if he stopped getting injured), Jonathan Wells…beyond that, the names get slightly obscure. Like quarterback Steve Bellisari, who I’m pretty sure does TV now, or wide receiver Reggie Germany, which is funny because I’m in Germany right now. David Boston was good for a while—he was picked 8th overall in 1999—but he got way, way too huge and tore up his knees. I’m fairly certain he had some steroid allegations against him as well.

On defense, or on the offensive line, the picks are solid. (I included Chris Gamble in the group above because he played both offense and defense, and he has done little at this point to prove he belongs at cornerback.)

…anyhoo, the Browns were wise to give up next year’s pick to nab Quinn. Granted, that pick next year could be a high selection—Quinn might not be ready to lead this team to a 12-4 record next year—but, Quinn appears to be one of the most pro-ready prospects since…uh, I guess Matt Leinart last year.

Crap, the Patriots are going to be good next year. I’ll stop there.

***

I had a really cool moment on Saturday, the night before our game.

The other two games last week were both on Saturday night. Once we finished up our NFLN conference call, I hopped on the office computer and pulled up the games on the NFL Europe version of Gamecast, when our head coach, John Allen came in.

We pretty much stayed in here and “watched” the Rhein Fire-Frankfurt Galaxy game, while we talked about the result of the earlier game (the Amsterdam Admirals, his former team, lost a close game to the Hamburg Sea Devils), why they lost, how the Admirals’ head coach differs from him, and what his offensive philosophies are.

It was awesome. It’s one of those things that the average football fan really kills for: I got to pick the head coach’s brain about his football philosophy.

Coach Allen is considered one of the brighter offensive minds in the league; while he was offensive coordinator of the Admirals over the past 3 seasons, his offenses were generally at or near the top of the league. Last year, with Gibran Hamdan at quarterback, his offenses threw for…a lot of yards per game.

But, like some of the best coaches, he doesn’t force an identity on a team; he lets the personnel dictate their identity. Sure, he may love to spread it out and run a Playstation offense, but if he has a few great running backs, he’s not going make them into Texas Tech just because. That’s a very smart way to coach an offense, and a theory I personally believe in.

I got to run a few situational play calls by him to see what he thought, and surprisingly, I thought mostly correctly on most of them. I mean, when you’ve watched over 170 hours of football practice over a 7 month period and you play Madden for 10 years, I guess you pick a few of these things up.

***

This season has gone really, really fast. It’s funny—I’m excited to be here, excited to see my friends when I go home, and excited to go back to San Francisco. I suppose that’s a good thing.

I’m fairly certain that I won’t be driving out there this time around. I’m figuring that I’ll get back to the States around July 1. Last year, I started the drive to San Fran on July 8. Granted, I got there early, but leaving early gave me some space in case I needed extra time; it isn’t like I would want to leave later this time around.

So, it would give me around 8 days to relax, then pack my car and drive across the country. I’d also probably be doing it alone, because I can’t make Chris miss two anniversaries in a row.

All of that put together, means I’m probably flying. I’d ship my car back to SF, much like I shipped it from SF back to NY. I’m going to guess that I’ll probably even live in the same place.

I think that's all I've got for now.

For your futher enjoyment...

Just a few quick housekeeping notes:

- I've added a link set on the right (at the top) with links to my photo albums on the Kodak site. I'll post the links to newer sets of photos as they're uploaded. A few people have said they have problems looking at the pictures, because it asks you to log in. You can avoid it altogether--just click the first picture on the album, right in the middle of the page, and you can look at the slideshow without logging in.

For those of you with Facebook access, there's a new album on there too, with some of the photo highlights. It's on my profile.

- While I'll post the links to my newest stories in these entries, I'm going to put up another link set with all of my stories on them.

- Congrats to all the newest Vandy grads!

That's all I've got for now. I'm about to head over to the team walkthrough, then to a soccer game, and then NFL Network conference call. Catch ya later.

Oops, I Did It Again

Yeah, I did it again. I went a really, really long time between updates to this here blog. And while it’s really convenient and lame to say that I’ve been really busy, it’s sadly true.

Every week around this time—a day or two before the game—I sit down and write a page or two to put up on the blog. Inevitably, I get pulled away, don’t get a chance to finish what I’m thinking, and after the game, a lot of it no longer applies (or would take heavy editing to make fit).

But I must say, I’m really impressed/surprised by how many people read this thing, or at least have commented to me about an entry. Some good friends that get the weekly updates anyway—and some that I’ve lost touch with—have tried to keep track of this crazy journey I’m on. To you all, I thank you. (You love me, you really love me!)

I guess the easiest way to do this is to start from…now, going backwards.

***

The family is here. They’re staying downtown at the Hilton. (Walter Curry: “And you’re still at the Marriott in Teltow?! Damn.” Taking on my new binge of Andy The Adventurer (I’ll get to that in a bit), I decided to take the bus/train/subway to find them.

Every month, all of the players and staff get an unlimited public transportation pass. It works kind of like the Metrocard. Basically, I can ride all trains, buses, subways, and whatever public transportation there is out here, for free.

So, since we stay essentially in the suburbs/boonies, it takes about an hour to get to downtown Berlin. Yeah, quite a schlep.

But, it was good to see them. We had dinner, and they got me a goody bag: shampoo, conditioner, allergy pills, gel, you know…the American essentials. They just got in this morning, so they didn’t have much more in them than a beer and a meal.

FYI—Hilton hotels are really, really nice. Like, damn.

Anyhoo, by complete luck, Chris Gearing, my final little brother from Lambda Chi, is spending all of May here with a Vanderbilt class, which we call a Maymester. (Oh, us Vandy kids…we’re so clever.) He was only a 15 minute U-Bahn (subway) ride from the parents, so I hopped on and met up.

He’s got a pretty sweet set up. He lives with the other 10 or so Vandy kids doing the trip. We got a drink, reminisced, gossiped, and spread evil rumors about people.

But, the fun part of this trip was getting home. I really had to dig deep into my exploration bag of tricks for this one.

All I had to do was hop the subway two more stops, then the S-Bahn (train) that goes back home would pass by. But, the train only went half way. They said why it stopped halfway in German, which of course, meant nothing to me. So, I got off, and like many other people in the station, stood there clueless.

I went outside to scope out where I was. Potsdamer Platz—right by where the ‘rents are staying. A bus drove by that had a town name on it that seemed kind of familiar. Feeling karma—and the effects of a few beers—I hopped on to see where it would take me. (Yeah, I know, I should be dead in an alley or something at this point.)

All I had to do was get to Zehlendorf. From there, the bus that stopped at my hotel would pick me up. As luck would have it, according to my map, this bus would go right to Zehlendorf. Sweet!

An old man got on the bus. Here’s what I gathered from the conversation he had with the bus driver: “(German German German German) Zehlendorf?” “No, but you can (German German German German German).” Damn it.

So, I decided to further test fate with my life: follow that old man to wherever he was going. When he got off, I jumped off and kept a few paces behind so…you know, it didn’t look like I was following him.

Well, I’m not dead, and I’ve still got my money. Guess I won this one.

***

So, we’re 2-2.

Like most teams so far in this league, we can’t win at home. (0-2 at home; 2-0 on the road). Since it’s kind of late and I’ve got a big day tomorrow, I’ll relay the whole game experiences thing in a bit. We play at home on Sunday…

***

I haven’t told many people this yet, so let’s let the cat out of the bag: I’m going back to San Francisco to work with the 49ers for one more season. I’ll be doing essentially the same internship that I did last year.

So, that raises the question that some have posed to me: Do I think I made a mistake coming to NFL Europa? The answer: absolutely not.

When I took the first internship with the 49ers last year, I thought all along that it would take at least two full-season internships before I’m seriously considered for some of the full-time job openings in the NFL.

Some people have asked, “Don’t I consider working with NFL Europa a full-season internship?” Well, yes and no. It’s not really the same as a full NFL season. That isn’t a knock on what I’m doing here at all. What I’m saying is, the experience I’m getting here is entirely different, and that’s what makes this all worth it, regardless of what I do afterward.

During an NFL season, when I intern someplace, it’s more like this: learn the way the league works. Understand what is expected of you, and of the full time staff. Meet those expectations, and assist others as much as you can. Y’know, intern stuff.

Here, it’s entirely different. I’m in charge of things—sometimes, with no other authority to defer to. I might screw up, and so be it, as long as I learn how to do it the right way. You’re going to be tired, but you’re still going to have a lot of work to do. You figure out how to make it through working double digit hours, 7 days a week.

It’s not so much the procedures and inner workings of NFL Europa that I’ll take with me when this is done: it’s things like, learning what coaches expect of a PR staff. How to talk to very important league officials, and dealing directly with the league for certain issues. How to be a good host.

One of the biggest things I’ll take with me is this: no matter how much you love what you do, you can’t let it consume you.

I’ve let that happen for the majority of the early part of the season. I have no problem saying that I love what I’m doing. I really have no problem working for tons of hours during the week, because I really enjoy it.

But you have to take advantage of the opportunities to enjoy how far you’ve come—especially in a place like this.

***

Let’s see what’s on tap for tomorrow: Team walkthrough. Going to the Berlin soccer team’s last home game. NFL Network conference call. Maybe seeing the parents at some point. Then, game day on Sunday. Woot.

My next update will be a little more about the game experiences themselves, and my experience here overall. I just wanted to get something up so everyone knew I was still alive.

Check back in a few days.