sind Sie bereit? - are you ready?
for some amerikanischer Fußball? the Berlin Thunder can fulfill your every football need - sorta.
this weekend, dan and i dressed warmly and took the s-bahn out to olympiastadion. soon to house hundreds of thousands of ass-crazy soccer fans for the world cup, the stadium has been renovated, and the s-bahn station expanded and scrubbed to a shine. being so new and beautiful it was almost a shame to have the berlin NFL europe team and their few confused, yet rowdy, fans christen the field.
as we approached the front gates, 15 minutes before kickoff between the berlin thunder and the amsterdam admirals, we noticed our first major difference between an american professional football game and NFL europe - the utter lack of crowd. to say american football hasn't yet caught on in berlin would be an understatement. we walked directly to a ticket booth, paid 11.50€ each, and headed past the apparently internationally ubiquitous hot dog and team gear vendors to our surprisingly good seats.
we found our row occupied by only a few other people, and in front of us sat a family of seven. no way in the states could a normal person afford to take a family of 7 to a football game and have room to spread out. there were probably about 15,000 people there. in essence it was like seeing the rapids play at invesco field.
everyone who got there early was given a noise maker, and in soccer tradition, the rowdier fans had whistles. i just about gave the group of teenage boys sitting behind us a piece of my mind but the 2 year old kid in front of me beat me to it, sticking his fingers in his ears and shooting them the look of death. that group of kids, however, may have been the only ones in the crowd to consistently make noise. the announcer guy had to work hard. everytime he said "ich möchte hören sie!" - i wanna hear you - the crowd exploded, but when something bad happened to the thunder, there ceased to be a rumbling. he also had to explain what was happening to the confused fans, and introduce the "berlin thunder 2006 dance team - the sexiest girls in the world" at each time out.
let's talk about the cheerleaders shall we? there was the dance team and then there was an extra group of 10 people who did the actual acrobatics. i must say, these dance team girls were in excellent shape, as they had a routine for every snipet of music played for the 3 hour game. they were constantly playing music so the cheerleaders were constantly working. but i must be honest - i have never seen a smuttier bunch of chicks. i mean, some of the moves were clearly taken from their night job, if you know what i mean. they made the raiderettes look chaste. so, for some of you that's an improvement over USA NFL. for me, not so much.
the music said dance team girated to was yet another strange addition to our NFL europe experience. they started off the game with the head dance team chick singing (poorly) a song about peace, in english, to the tune of "ode to joy" in place of a national anthem. then in between each down was a music break. most of this was typical stadium fodder until they slipped the odd spiritual or german drinking song. they never did play the AC/DC song "thunder". what's up with that?
the game itself was a little boring but high scoring, as neither team had a defense to speak of. berlin has no kicking game, but they do have marty johnson, who scored 3 touchdowns in a row. one guy on the admirals scored all their touchdowns. the final score was 31 berlin to 38 amsterdam. it was pretty much like seeing IU play ball state.
to recap, my experience with NFL europe was... different. different in some ways i had expected and some that i hadn't. vendors sold fresh bread and soft pretzels in the aisles - different and good. as kum ba ya played over the speakers, the crowd sang along, and the cheerleaders pole danced, a cloud of pot smoke wafted over from the admirals fan section - different and not so good. there was NFL football happening in front of me but we were definitely not in kansas city anymore.
this weekend, dan and i dressed warmly and took the s-bahn out to olympiastadion. soon to house hundreds of thousands of ass-crazy soccer fans for the world cup, the stadium has been renovated, and the s-bahn station expanded and scrubbed to a shine. being so new and beautiful it was almost a shame to have the berlin NFL europe team and their few confused, yet rowdy, fans christen the field.
as we approached the front gates, 15 minutes before kickoff between the berlin thunder and the amsterdam admirals, we noticed our first major difference between an american professional football game and NFL europe - the utter lack of crowd. to say american football hasn't yet caught on in berlin would be an understatement. we walked directly to a ticket booth, paid 11.50€ each, and headed past the apparently internationally ubiquitous hot dog and team gear vendors to our surprisingly good seats.
we found our row occupied by only a few other people, and in front of us sat a family of seven. no way in the states could a normal person afford to take a family of 7 to a football game and have room to spread out. there were probably about 15,000 people there. in essence it was like seeing the rapids play at invesco field.
everyone who got there early was given a noise maker, and in soccer tradition, the rowdier fans had whistles. i just about gave the group of teenage boys sitting behind us a piece of my mind but the 2 year old kid in front of me beat me to it, sticking his fingers in his ears and shooting them the look of death. that group of kids, however, may have been the only ones in the crowd to consistently make noise. the announcer guy had to work hard. everytime he said "ich möchte hören sie!" - i wanna hear you - the crowd exploded, but when something bad happened to the thunder, there ceased to be a rumbling. he also had to explain what was happening to the confused fans, and introduce the "berlin thunder 2006 dance team - the sexiest girls in the world" at each time out.
let's talk about the cheerleaders shall we? there was the dance team and then there was an extra group of 10 people who did the actual acrobatics. i must say, these dance team girls were in excellent shape, as they had a routine for every snipet of music played for the 3 hour game. they were constantly playing music so the cheerleaders were constantly working. but i must be honest - i have never seen a smuttier bunch of chicks. i mean, some of the moves were clearly taken from their night job, if you know what i mean. they made the raiderettes look chaste. so, for some of you that's an improvement over USA NFL. for me, not so much.
the music said dance team girated to was yet another strange addition to our NFL europe experience. they started off the game with the head dance team chick singing (poorly) a song about peace, in english, to the tune of "ode to joy" in place of a national anthem. then in between each down was a music break. most of this was typical stadium fodder until they slipped the odd spiritual or german drinking song. they never did play the AC/DC song "thunder". what's up with that?
the game itself was a little boring but high scoring, as neither team had a defense to speak of. berlin has no kicking game, but they do have marty johnson, who scored 3 touchdowns in a row. one guy on the admirals scored all their touchdowns. the final score was 31 berlin to 38 amsterdam. it was pretty much like seeing IU play ball state.
to recap, my experience with NFL europe was... different. different in some ways i had expected and some that i hadn't. vendors sold fresh bread and soft pretzels in the aisles - different and good. as kum ba ya played over the speakers, the crowd sang along, and the cheerleaders pole danced, a cloud of pot smoke wafted over from the admirals fan section - different and not so good. there was NFL football happening in front of me but we were definitely not in kansas city anymore.
posted by jordan at
3:18 PM
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