Finishing strong

It is an understatement to say that 2015 flew by.  Once again Germany and Europe left an imprint on me that I will carry for the rest my life.  The city of Stuttgart was amazing, the players of all levels of the Scorpions show up every day with a smile and sincerely enjoy the game of football, and the fan support is really special.  The coaching staff (and players) put a lot of trust in a foreign player to help them out defensively as a player and coach which turned out to be a great opportunity and new role for myself.  To put a bow on all of it; I say thank you, leave some of the best times and friends on a slideshow (pretty sure only viewable on desktop), and say not goodbye, but rather see you again.

Go Scorpions,
Drew  

Homestretch

September has arrived and that means a couple things.  Football season is upon us in the States and its wrapping up here in Germany.  As of today the Scorpions are only guaranteed four more practices in the season.  If that's not enough to motivate you to go all out and have fun then I don't know what is!  It has been a roller coaster of a season to date with many ups and a few downs.  We have punched our ticket to the dance and are officially in the post season playoffs.  In order to be the last man standing we will have to be road warriors the rest of the season.  However, there's always a little extra incentive to go on the road, walk in to a visiting stadium, and tick off another team's home crowd.  Cannot wait...

He got JACKED UP!

Game clinching INT will always get you up!

To recap the past month of football we've had three rematches from earlier in the year.  After blanketing Marburg back in June they put up a much better fight in our home Gazi stadium at the beginning of August, but still fell to the Scorps 35-49.  That would be the last time we play in front of the home faithful here in Stuttgart.  Our first road test was a showdown with the Comets of Allgau.  A battle of 9-2 teams jockeying for home field advantage did not disappoint.  This one was a game for the GFL ages as it came down to the final 8 seconds of regulation.  After never trailing the entire game, some improbably Comet magic occurred resulting in a fourth quarter fourth down hailmary to get inside the five yard line setting up the go ahead touchdown just as the fat lady was tapping on the mic ending in a 41-45 Scorpion loss.

If they'd only listen the game would be perfectly called...

After shaking off the dramatic finish in Allgau, the Scorpions had yet another big showdown with the division leading Schwabisch Hall Unicorns.  After a strong defensive performance against the Unis in April, it was the exact opposite story this time around.  Blistering heat in Hall's new stadium paved the way to too many missed tackles and falling behind by too much early in the game to mount a comeback.  Next up is our regular season finale against the Saarland Hurricanes who narrowly edged us previously in the season.  Both teams are coming off of loses to the Comets and Unicorns so it will be one last chance for both teams to build some momentum heading into the eight team post season playoffs.

Veteran GFL Americans shaking it up with some veteran GFL Germans at the coin toss

New Optima Sportpark in Schwabisch Hall.  Watching the game from a hot air balloon with a bucket of beers would be a pretty cool seat 

    With time winding down over here its always a pressing issue to hang out with our teammates and friends as much as possible before coming back to the family and friends Stateside.  I've been very fortunate to do some travelling again this year with some cool dudes.  Our latest adventure was to the Czech Republic where we enjoyed a night at a lake and then one day/night in Prague.  Prague is a city that flies under the radar to many travelling to Europe.  This city has a ton of history, castles, sites, and plenty of night life to enjoy.  However, probably the most interesting fact about the Czech Republic has nothing to do with the buildings or land..  Our Czech teammate is never one to shy away from laughing at other cultures customs, so it's only fair to share that there was no toilet paper to be found in Czech bathrooms.  Every time he goes back home I make sure to give him one of our spare rolls to take with him.

Seven man team from all over the world.  (Indiana, Czech, Germany, Croatia, Oregon, Ohio) 

Despite the flash not working properly there are still seven of us in this picture..

Huge thanks to my guys for the golf outings.  A slice of home hobbies here in Deutschland. 

The bye weeks allowed us to work some American Sports camps put on by one of our American defensive ends.  Getting some extra monopoly money to play around all day with German kids was a cool experience.  Activities included football, baseball, bowling, capture the flag, and dodgeball... Its safe to say I am permanently banned from throwing dodgeballs at kids again.  But as Coach Smith taught us, "Giving anything less than your best effort is a disservice to your opponent no matter the competition."    

Who needs Oktoberfest!?!? 

Only one more month til I get to see the crazies back home again 

Go Scorpions,
Drew

Road Trip

Four regular season games and an eight team playoff elimination bracket remain in the 2015 GFL season.  As it is right now, the top teams in the GFL South all play each other the final weeks of the regular season.  It has been a carousel of this team beats that team, but nobody has escaped undefeated.  Things are certainly set up for an exciting finish and you bet your tail the Scorpions are going to lay it all out there to cross that finish line first.  Personnel changes have made things a bit of a circus at times around here, but the beauty about football is that adversity is tested every single day.  Weather, injuries, fatigue, fortune, and life happen.  Broken bones that heal properly always come back stronger than the rest.

Just before the long July break the Scorpions took on a Saarland team who had yet to play any of the top three contenders in the GFL South.  This game was one of the more thrilling match ups all season.  After a second half pick six put the Scorpions up 19-6, all that was missing was the dagger in the heart of the Hurricanes.  Still up 19-6 with 6:20 to go in the game, Saarland gave it one last push to make a move.  What ensued was an impressive comeback and gutsy two point conversion call with one minute remaining in the game to advance with a 20-19 victory.  A season finale rematch will undoubtedly provide fireworks.  The long July break provided enough time to road trip to Croatia, Cologne, and have ourselves a little warm up to Oktoberfest coming up....        

Prime Time

Scorpions working with a local clothing company for a photo shoot.  Looks like we can teach these models a thing or two about the proper way to hold onto a football!

Not sure what's going on here, but I like it 

Six dudes renting a van and driving 30 hours round trip to Croatia was destined to be a wild one.  The results (in no particular order) were a loss of sleep, Daniel letting our luggage spill all over every time he opened the trunk, getting lost hundreds of times, beach, kayaking, snorkeling, waterfalls, a run in with Mr. Chow, and a selfie stick.  This was the first time I've used a selfie stick.  Six dudes taking selfies sounds extremely embarrassing; however, its only uses included taking pictures of others passed out in the van, shimmying it through the bathroom window when others were taking a crap, and using it while we were kayaking.

Our kayaking guide explained that Game of Thrones has filming locations right where we cruising around in the Mediterranean of Split 

Life jacket was the perfect beer holster.  This part of the Sea had so much salt that we stayed afloat with zero effort at all treading water.  This made for great snorkeling.

Quite possibly the most amazing thing I have ever seen.  Krka National Park is a couple miles of gorgeous hiking and waterfalls.  The bottom of the falls is an area to swim.  Crystal clear fresh water was the perfect place to spend a few hours in the sun 

Balcony view of our apartment in Split, Croatia

 

Most recently three of us Amis took our talents to Cologne, Germany to visit our German defensive end Simon Gayvanda.  Cologne is home to the tallest cathedral in Europe called the Dom.  The original purpose of this massive work of art was to house the Three Wise Men. 

And of course there was a beerfest to enjoy during this time.  Jakobimarkt is the perfect warm up to the grand finale Oktoberfest here in Stuttgart in a couple months.

Prost!

Go Scorpions,
Drew

Halbzeit

Its the first day of summer and we've reached the halfway mark of the regular season for the German Football League.  The Scorpions are currently standing in second place in the GFL South at 7-1 in league play.  After hitting a speed bump in the season opener its been nothing but smothering defense and efficient offense leading the way to seven straight victories.  One more week of GFL play before an extended pause for the World Football Championship tournament.  This year eight countries are participating in the Championship event held in Canton, Ohio.  This break gives the Scorpions, as well as the rest of the GFL the chance to regroup, get healthy, and make a push for a German Bowl title.  The saying "offense sells tickets, defense wins championships" would appear to be fitting for the current Scorpion team. With keeping points at a premium defensively and supporting a Fran Tarkenton-esque QB in Dylan Potts, aka "Potz Blitz", there is no shortage of excitement for the Stuttgart faithful.  The mid season break will allow for some travelling time for the Americans as we plan to take our talents to Croatia for a week to catch some sun and build sand castles on the beach...

Dankeschon

Like a greased pig...  Big turnover in the 4th quarter with the game tied 14-14.  Scorpion O proceeded to march 90 yards and kick the go ahead field goal to beat the Comets 17-14.

We call this getting "Vince Lombardi'd"

Fun and games haven't been limited to the gridiron thus far.  With so much city to explore, my Huffy bike and I cruise the town as well as the outskirts in search of beer gardens, city pools, historical buildings, and views of the city.  An observation tower in Burgholzhof was a great place to pack a lunch and soak in view of the city atop of what is now vineyard territory.  In addition to using my own wheels, our other American Tom and I took the opportunity to visit the world's biggest Mercedes production plant here in Stuttgart.  This place is incredible.  The precision and efficiency of the assembly line and robotics is difficult to wrap my mind around.  At times it felt as if we were Charlie inside of Willy Wonka's chocolate factory.  Our tour guide was pretty comical and persisted that no pictures were taken due to the heavily kept "secrets" that Mercedes can't afford to release. 

Built in 1891, Observation Tower Burgholzhof was used primarily during WWII by anti-aircraft spotter personnel keeping a lookout for Allied bomber attacks

I guess I couldn't follow Willy Wonka's golden rule about no pictures....

 All of my life I have been thoroughly entertained by football analyst and commentator, Chris Berman.  His ability to call a home run, read a football highlight, and make unusual sound effects are second to none.  But what "Boomer" is arguably most known for are all of the nicknames and comparison he gives players.  Over here its been a combination of GFL TV coming up with names ("Potz Blitz" for example) and Scorpion players having a look alike which is too good not to share.  Without further ado here are a handful of your Scorpion players:

Kevin "Drago" Kistermann - A spitting image of the classic Rocky opponent, Ivan Drago.
"If he dies, he dies"

 

Jermaine Guynn aka "Der Kühlschrank auf Rädern" - Naturally this literally translates to "The refrigerator with wheels".  Any time your DT/DE/MLB is lined up in the backfield it makes defenders tighten up there chinstrap a little extra.  The scary part is that he outruns nearly everyone..

Gabby aka "The wet bandit" - As long as he's stealing the football from the other team then I'm cool lining up in the secondary with him.

Go Scorpions,

Drew

Go Scorpions!

"Today
Party 4PM
Kickoff 6PM"

Three and half months of Stuttgart and 111 days since the Pats took down the Chickens in the Super Bowl (don't think I forgot about that yet Seachicken fans).  Football is in full swing, the spring weather has arrived, the city pools are opening their gates, and the beer is still flowing.  So far travelling around Europe has taken a backseat to other priorities such as coaching, learning German, working, and exploring my own city that I live in.  There are quite a few bye weeks in the summer months so I plan on taking full advantage by seeing some sights and hopefully learning some history.  But in the meantime the Scorpions have six straight weeks of GFL football.  Bring it on!

A few weeks back the Scorpions hosted their rival Unicorns at the Gazi Stadion.  The result wasn't anywhere close to what we had hoped for as we took a defeat by the count of 28-9.  Tip your hat to the Unis as they got us on our home turf.  There were certainly signs of good things to come for the Scorps as we held the reigning division champs to a mere 22 yards rushing, 10-23 passing, and had the ball over twice as long as they did.  But to beat the best you have to be on your A game, and we now have three months to take care of business in the South and get better as a team until the much anticipated rematch.

After some rest and a bye week the Scorpions traveled up to Rothenburg, Germany to face the Franken Knights.  The Knights have a few issues as a program currently, but that is nothing to take away from a smothering performance both offensively and defensively for us resulting in a 53-0 victory.  Holding a team to 156 total yards, -15 rushing, and blanketing them on the scoreboard is nothing to take for granted.  Currently sitting on a 3-2 record (2-1 in conference), the Scorpions are aiming in the right direction, but our goals are still set very high and now is the time to hit our stride.  Next up is a back to back match up versus the Rhein-Necker Bandits of Manheim.  

As mentioned, there has been much more effort devoted to improving my German tongue than the last go around over here.  In all reality the first time you leave home for a foreign country your first thoughts are "how in the world do I survive".  You know, the bare necessities like where do I get food and how do I get from point A to point B.  Two of my American teammates on the Scorpions have been here 3+ years and are fluent in German.  Its darn impressive and provides hope for the rest of us imports in learning a new language.  After passing the beginner level German class with flying colors I am going to continue my studies on my own time and dime with books and Rosetta Stone.






In addition to playing for the Scorpions and studying Deutsch, part of my time here has been spent working for my coach and his brother at their sporting goods store.  The store has walk in business, but the majority of the business is centered around distribution of football equipment all over Europe.  What a match made in heaven, right?  These guys own and operate a small sporting good store for a living.  With all of the online shopping and huge businesses back in the States it makes it near impossible to ever do something like this anymore.  Furthermore, every European player is responsible for their own equipment.  It certainly puts things into perspective when you see people (my teammates) forking over their hard earned money in order to supply themselves with the best equipment to stay healthy and play at a high level.  Football equipment is not cheap.  Coming from a Division III college in America where no athletic scholarships are allowed it felt like a "pay to play" system.  There is undoubtedly an extra appreciation for the game when you witness your teammates work full time jobs and proceed to make a team commitment too.  Whether it be coaching the youth practices, lining the field the day before games, or going the extra kilometer to visit with fans after games, it is cool to be apart of all of it.  

Post game cake courtesy of Sergey the baker

One of the neat deals of being apart of a new team is becoming friends with new guys.  Even more intriguing is learning about where everyone is from and what their story is.  We've got guys from Germany, America, France, Croatia, Czech Republic, Mexico and more.  One of the new guys to the Scorpions this year is arguably our most complete defensive tackle.  He is a bad ass French Russian with a barcode tatooted on the back of his neck.  Now where I come from that means you've done some dirt.  Come to find out, this savage on the field is actually a baker off the field!!  Being a son of a baker I've got the utmost respect for him.  Not to mention he's a good dude outside of football just like the rest of us who appear like we have a vendetta against the world on the field.


Go Scorpions,
Drew

Kickoff 2015

The "Black Hole".  I hate to say it but they
 may have been the deciding factor in this one.

The 2015 GFL season is officially underway!  As previously mentioned the Scorpions kicked off their season down in Innsbruck, Austria for a showdown with the Raiders.  Aside from it being our season opener and my first game back in over a year, this one will be one for the memory bank.  It started with the drive in.  A four hour tour winding through the snowy Swiss Alps was spectacular.  It was a scene straight out of the new James Bond movie, Spectra.  The stadium the Swarco Raiders have down there is also first class.  It was a lot of fun playing in front of a big crowd and with snow coming down nearly the entire game.  As for the game itself, we ended up losing 34-9.  The score got out of hand in the 4th quarter but heading into the final period we had only given up one defensive touchdown and were knocking on the door to take the lead.  Ask me after the game and I would have told you, "We're on to Kirchdorf.".  

Game day tradition that our offensive linemen wear kilts.  Don't ask if they have underwear on underneath... 

One week later the Scorpions had their home opener against GFL 2 team, Kirchdorf.  Not much to say about this one.  We smacked them pretty good from the get go and had our way with every phase of the game.  Offense, defense, and special teams all had scores leading to a 43-13 victory.  Its been nearly ten years, but I can finally once again say that defensive touchdown was due to a pick six.  Ten years contemplating going with Deion Sanders, Mertan Hanks, or Hingle McCringleberry.  The result... D.) None of the above.  THE WORM!!!

Word on the street is that the celebration is more like a fish flopping around than a worm... But then again I guess its pretty fitting.

The two weeks of preseason action flew by and now we are onto the all important league play.  A season opener down in Munich was a tale of not knowing what to expect from our opponent.  Munich had been decimated by many of their players leaving to play for other German teams along with an entire new coaching staff.  Given that we were their first game of the season and their American import quarterback had not yet arived to Germany yet, it was a long day for the Cowboys.  Scorpion defense only allowing 40 yards rushing and 148 yards through the air forced points to come at no easy cost.  If we finish this game the way we are suppose to it ends up as a 26-0 shut out, but as it is the final score showed 26-14.  Next stop... A league home opener against the reigning GFL South champion Schwäbisch Hall Unicorns.  Get your popcorn ready.

The beauty about this whole playing football in Germany thing is that there is never any shortage of fun or beer.  Fortunately for me Stuttgart is home to one of the biggest beer festivals in the world.  Fruhlingsfest is a spring beer festival here that runs for a couple weeks which kicked off this past weekend.  The Scorpions were introduced as a team in front of all of the crazies dancing around on table tops with large glasses of beer...

Die hard Scorpion fans.

Go Scorpions,
Drew