The Palermo Corsari Game

We scored 74 points!

I know, your next question is "Did we win?"

Yes we did, 74-57, in what is reported to be the highest scoring game in Italian Serie A history.

The 74 points is not an Elephant's team record as Coach Matteo Belfiore and Marco Raino, our warrior DE, told me that in 1990, I think they said, the Elephants beat the Naples School for the Blind

104-7!!!

Jason was great again, throwing 6 TD passes (3 to Matt, 2 to Claudio and 1 to Lucky). Matt also returned 2 kick offs for TD's and Enrico ran in 3 more TD's.

A total of 20 TD's were scored by the two teams.

As usual, there was no scoreboard at the game, a good thing or we might have burned out a few light bulbs in this wildest one yet!

Of interest was a pass interference call against the Corsari that resulted in a 4 yard gain and a 1st down for us...4 yards?

A Corsari player had an illegal visor, so rather than sending him off he field to fix it and resuming play, the refs just stopped the game for about 7 minutes while he unscrewed it on the field.

I must mention the Corsari's QB Davide Lozano from Mexico. Just a great athlete! He runs all over the place, is elusive and if you do get your hands on him does not go down easily. He was marvelous in our game and reminded me of Michael Vick in the Madden video game!!!

This week's Arena League game is at home on Saturday against the Iowa Barnstormers I think.

 

Free Safety Christian Di Mauro reading John Grisham's Italian language version of "Playing for Pizza" translated here into "Il Professionista" on the bus trip to Palermo.

Maybe it helps him understand what this season's experiences are like through American eyes.

ROAD TRIP!

Smoke break at the Autogrille

with the Tyrrhenian Sea in the distance.

Palermo's Velodrome is an exact copy of the

University of Texas at El Paso's stadium.

Please note that when we arrived about 2 hours before kickoff this rugby game was being played on the field.

In 1966 the University of Washington was hosting #1 ranked UCLA with future Heisman Trophy winner Gary Beban at QB. It was Homecoming in late October and the weather in Seattle was typical for that time of the year, i.e., RAIN. Astroturf had just been invented but our field was still grass. When we arrived at the stadium, we found that for the ONLY time in recorded history about 8 different Pop Warner teams were playing exhibition quarters thus tearing up the grass and creating a muddy field. Some would later say that this was a dirty trick in an effort to slow down UCLA's superior speed. It worked and we handed UCLA their only loss of the season 16-3!

Was this rugby pre-game match a similar feeble attempt to slow down the Elephants' attack? I do not know.

Getting the Field Ready for Play

All great stadiums have at least one thing in common, a crackerjack grounds crew, the Velodrome was no exception! An hour before kickoff they magically converted the field from a rugby pitch to an American football field.

Here you see one man chalking in the sideline, about 6 yards too narrow as it turned out. No problem, when he realized his mistake he just got out a small broom and erased the line before re-chalking the correct ones.

In the background, you can see that more grounds men have already assembled the white soccer goal and are disassembling the black and gold rugby goal. We will again play on a 90 yard field.

Construction

Step two is to attach the rugby uprights to the soccer goals.

Constructive Criticism

Personally, I would have used gray duct tape which I believe is Bill Gardner's tape of choice in constructing goal posts.

AMAZING!

For the first time in my life I can stand flat footed under an American football cross bar and touch it!

The Elephants' defense in Mt. Etna Molten Lava Red Jerseys

Scoring 74 points is FUN!

From left to right: Claudio, Matt, Jason, Enrico and Brandon

THROW IT!

3-1 is GOOD!

Matthew Epperson

If I ever write a dictionary of American football terms, next to the word "Stud" will be this picture of Matt.

Sundays total's for Matt were 3 TD's on pass receptions, 2 TD's on kickoff returns, a 2 point conversion run, and several tackles on defense including a big QB sack when he ran "raggot" out of our new "Armeggedeon" package.

I just report the news, I don't create the news!

Francesca

I am trying to teach our team many of the valuable lessons of life that I have learned in the last 60 years.

The lesson that has finally just sunk in to many of the Elephants in the background is that it is indeed true,"Chicks Dig Fat Guys"!