Sunday, June 9, 2024

A Good, Nostalgic Football Saturday


Saturday, June 8, 2024

It was a jam packed day of American football as I spent most of it breaking down videos of three Parma Panthers games in advance of their Italian Football League semifinal game next weekend against our Varese Skorpions.

Beyond my role as the Varese team's analyst, I also enjoyed gathering lots of new information, starting with . . .

The purchase of these two pre-season
college football magazines

I now know the new 12 team path
to the college National Championship

I was not initially happy about the Rose Bowl only being a quarterfinal game.

If the Rose Bowl were a semifinal game it would have to be played nine or ten days after its traditional New Year's Day slot.

Then again, tradition no longer has any place in DI college football.

Nostalgia Time too

Eleven years ago today, in Lyon, France, our Bron-Villeurbanne Falcons played in the French DIII National Championship game.

The Falcons (12-0) would defeat
the Tours Pionniers (9-1) on that
damp evening, 20-7

A happy group of Falcons
celebrating our . . .

. . . French DIII National Championship

Of course the Falcons ordered rings!

What a magical season with an amazing group of athletes, coaches and friends.

In Sweden, the Wäsby Warriors
had a nice win today over the
Stockholm Mean Machines

I love the weekly Bisons game
posters from France

An important game in the
Belgium Netherlands League
won by the Amsterdam Crusaders

Also in the Belgium Netherlands League
the Rotterdam Trojans won easily

Regardless, the Nitro QB, #99 in the above poster, instantly made me a huge Kasteel Nitro fan!

I wonder if the Varese Skorpions
will enter any of their high flying
Flag Football teams?

Wild Card Playoff Weekend

A smart looking Lazio Marines
poster for their Wild Card game today

The poster was not enough as the
Ancona Dolphins prevailed in a
closer game than most anticipated

In one of next weekend's semifinal games, the #3 seeded Ancona Dolphins (7-2) will play on the road against the #2 seeded Firenze Guelfi (6-2) who had a Bye this weekend.

In their regular season meeting, the Guelfi prevailed at home over the Dolphins, 38-14.

Another hard fought Wild Card game

The Parma Panthers were able to avenge their 55-50 loss to the Legnano Frogs in their regular season meeting.

The #4 seeded Parma Panthers (6-3) will visit the #1 seeded Varese Skorpions (8-0) in the IFL's other semifinal game next weekend.

When these two clubs met earlier this season in Varese, the Skorpions squeaked by the Panthers, 38-34, thanks in large part to two Kickoff Returns for TDs.

Week #3 of the ELF Season
had three games today

A bold game poster from the
defending ELF Champion
Rhein Fire

WOW!

This was a huge, unexpected win by the expansion Madrid Bravos (2-0) over the Rhien Fire (2-1).

Barcelona's game poster was
top notch in my opinion

I did not know that Barcelona's famed Sagrada Familia Basilica was part of the Dragons stadium complex. 

OUCH!

Austria's Tirol Raiders (2-1) coasted by the Barcelona Dragons (1-2).

Two struggling clubs in
a low scoring affair

The Milano Seamen (1-2) in a close one over Switzerland's Helvetic Mercenaries (0-2).

In the evening, we had company.

Vanessa took this photo of the
clan sharing stories and toast

Speaking of photos and stories, Michael had one for us.

If you follow this blog then you may recall that Michael really enjoys working with special needs students at Newbury Park H.S. through the Unified Sports Program.

As a result, he has met several of the athlete's families including a Dad whose Unified Sports son proudly wears #32 which the Dad knows is also Michael's favorite jersey number.

This family has another son that is a good baseball player who was recently involved in an all-star tournament in Simi Valley recently. For some random reason the Dad took a photo of a man wearing a #32 t-shirt at that tournament. 

This is that photo

The man wearing that #32 t-shirt and the player on the left wearing the #35 jerseys are, respectively, the son and grandson of blog follower Paul Sabolić.

It is truly a random and small world.

100%

Agreed

Guilty as charged

A good day, thank you.

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