Swiss American Football [Completely OT]

[Aberforths Goat / Mike Gray]

And now: everything you never wanted to know about US Football in
Switzerland:

It's this exotic sport that practically no one knows about. At the
tackle (i.e. full contact) games, there are generally two teams, 100
spectators and a Bratwurst stand. Everyone there is either an insider or
a fanatic (usually both), and everyone gets to know everyone else. Oddly
enough, very few Americans (and there are several thousand in Zürich)
know anything about it, so the language is a mix of Swiss German and US
technical vocabularly (of both athletic and scatological varieties). 

Every once in a while, the cheerleader squad (mostly players' sisters,
cousins and girlfriends) do a little dance and yell things in English;
the fans (of both teams) applaud dutifully. The players are a bit more
competitve, and have a habit of saying unpleasant things to each other
after knocking each other over. But after the game everybody is friends
again, and everyone is always concerned when someone gets dragged off to
the hospital.

A kid and his dad can play their own game right next to the field while
the brutes crash about and can even score the occasional snack (apples)
from the team stash. After the game said kid can toss a few balls with
the team's American import quarterback and strutt around in the team
captain's shoulder pads. 

I love watching the American pros play on TV, but the live games I've
seen in the US have been a washout in comparison. A lot of what has kept
Evan's interest up has been the atmosphere of our local games. In fact,
if all sports were just like out Swiss American Football league, the
world would be a mighty fine place indeed. 

Baaaaaa!

Aberforth's Goat (a.k.a. Mike Gray) 
_______________________

"Of course, I'm not entirely sure he can read, 
so that may not have been bravery...."