I’ve been reading your articles for months now, so I decided to join the community and become the first French writer on this website (I think).
You might be wondering why a French guy would like to write something about football. Do they even know that sport?
Yes, we do and we play it as well. This isn't enough to write an article, but you will admit that the current NFL's roadshow overseas, foregrounded by the NFL Europe and the past and future games in the UK, puts me in a good position to learn you some stuffs about football in Europe and in France, my beloved country.
First of all, you need to know that in Europe, "football" means "soccer," so we call it "American football."
It was introduced in France at the beginning of the 1980s by a sports teacher coming back from Denver.
At that time, the players usually played on rugby fields and nobody knew what the sport was.
Today, it's more recognized thanks to movies (primarily Any Given Sunday), but most of the population still ignores its rules and confounds it with rugby.
Moreover, the football players are often called steroid addicts and pussies for wearing helmets. Other people think the pads are made of metal like during the Middle Ages.
There is always a comparison with rugby in Europe because of the physical aspect of these sports. It's that true that the league nicknamed football, "Rugby à XI."
Our clubs/teams are nothing like yours. Indeed, the budget of our league (FFFA) is only 1,000,000€ and there are only 15,000 players for 194 clubs. Moreover, our players don't come from a draft because in Europe the sports system works thanks to federations (leagues) that join each team together. So, to belong to a team you just need to hold a license that you pay.
There is no selection and everybody, even the skinniest guy, can join a team. The French teams play the Football World Cup each year, which is led by Japan. After summarizing football in France, I'll introduce our guys.
You may have heard about Richard Tardits, former Patriot linebacker (1990-1992), and first French player in the NFL. He also played in the USA during the 1999 Rugby World Cup.
But you surely have heard about Phillipe Gardent, who played for the Centurions (NFL Europe) and won Defensive Player of the Year in 2005. He was the first ever non-American to win the award. This enabled him to join the NFL, or at least the practice squad of the Washington Redskins.
Unfortunately, they released him, but he signed a 2-year contract with the Carolina Panthers, but didn't pass the summer camp because he was too old.
Then, he decided to join the CFL, but finally ended up in Cardiff to play "Rubgy à XII" (I think you notice how rugby is close to football in the French mind).
Finally, there are no French players in the NFL, but we've got some good players in NFL Europe who might reach the league. Fortunately for us, Tony Parker saves us, but this is another topic...
To conclude, I really hope you had a good time reading my work because it took me time, so if you enjoyed it I'll reiterate. I'm all ears if my grammar is horrible; I did my best to not make many mistakes.
Clément.
Some links:
Phillipe Gardent's official website: http://www.philgardent.com/
FFFA's official website: www.fffa.org
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3 months ago
It's always interesting hearing a different take on things, good work bro.
Some advice i would have aside from fixing the grammer (probably not your fault for that error) would be to space out your paragraphs a little more since it makes your stuff seem longer and more importantly makes it more readable.
I'm surprised about the lack of frenchmen in the NFL as of yet, if any large quantity of non african foreigners played in the NFL I thought it would have been primarily Frenchmen or Brits
Another regular season NFL game will be played at London's Wembley Stadium next year so the sport is becoming more popular in Europe (don't be surprised if NFL Europe becomes a surrogate or farm system of the NFL in the near future as the NFL is the only major american sports league without a minor league esque setup, if the sport expands noticeably enough within say... 10-20 years, an NFL team could call Europe (probably London) home soon
Peace,
Max
3 months ago
I had no idea that American Football was popular in Europe.
I can see how they would think that our players are weak because they wear pads. After all, those Rugby players get hit very hard, and they don't need helmets.
But I think that something must be different, because NFL players get serious head injuries all the time, even with a helmet, so perhaps the rules in Rugby and the NFL are different?
3 months ago
I had no idea that American Football was popular in Europe.
I can see how they would think that our players are weak because they wear pads. After all, those Rugby players get hit very hard, and they don't need helmets.
But I think that something must be different, because NFL players get serious head injuries all the time, even with a helmet, so perhaps the rules in Rugby and the NFL are different?
3 months ago
I had no idea that American Football was popular in Europe.
I can see how they would think that our players are weak because they wear pads. After all, those Rugby players get hit very hard, and they don't need helmets.
But I think that something must be different, because NFL players get serious head injuries all the time, even with a helmet, so perhaps the rules in Rugby and the NFL are different?
3 months ago
I had no idea that American Football was popular in Europe.
I can see how they would think that our players are weak because they wear pads. After all, those Rugby players get hit very hard, and they don't need helmets.
But I think that something must be different, because NFL players get serious head injuries all the time, even with a helmet, so perhaps the rules in Rugby and the NFL are different?
from 3 months ago
Thank you for your support ! I started to answer your question Bryan, then I decided that I'll right an article comparing those sports. But, and I'm sorry for that, you'll need to be patient because I'm taking exams by now and because I'll need to translate a lot of terms to make it understandable.
But, click on the link behind you'll see that Rugby players get hit VERY hard !
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cxljHECox1M
3 months ago
I work in an IT department at a French company, in their US headquarters. I've tried to push American football on the French before, but it typically falls on deaf ears. Glad to see someone on the other side of the ocean has jumped on the bandwagon!
-Sean
from 3 months ago
Finally, Sean. There are no many French who like physical contacts, unfortunately we are soccer players ! I even have difficulties to organize a rugby game in my school, so imagine all the prejudices against a game from overseas played by muscle men.
3 months ago
There's actually a very simple reason why French players don't make it in the NFL, and it's the same reason why American teams always do horribly in the World Cup (Soccer). Where American kids grow up wanting to play in the NFL, French people (and people in most other nations in the world) grow up wanting to be soccer players. Thus, not many Frenchmen work at blocking or tackling when they could practice with a soccer ball, and similarly not many Americans practice with a soccer ball when they'd rather envision themselves as the next Barry Sanders.
It's always good to get different perspective, though, and your article was a good read!
from 3 months ago
So, Brendan I really agree with you, I see no reason why an European couldn't play in the NLF except if he hasn't get used to play football. That's why Phillipe Gardent has been cut, he reached the league at 30 but he started to play football when he was 17...
3 months ago
Thank you for your support ! I started to answer your question Bryan, then I decided that I'll right an article comparing those sports. But, and I'm sorry for that, you'll need to be patient because I'm taking exams by now and because I'll need to translate a lot of terms to make it understandable.
But, click on the link behind you'll see that Rugby players get hit VERY hard !
http://youtube.com/watch?v=cxljHECox1M
So, Brendan I really agree with you, I see no reason why an European couldn't play in the NLF except if he hasn't get used to play football. That's why Phillipe Gardent has been cut, he reached the league at 30 but he started to play football when he was 17...
Finally, Sean. There are no many French who like physical contacts, unfortunately we are soccer players ! I even have difficulties to organize a rugby game in my school, so imagine all the prejudices against a game from overseas played by muscle men.
3 months ago
Good work...this is the type of stuff that will differentiate Bleacher Report from the rest of the pack
3 months ago
its nice to see support for this sport coming from places you wouldn't expect it. I myself played for an "all star" team of players from my college league and we had to opportunity to travel to ireland and play a team from belfast, we are playing a team from canada this year. I hope that over time we will see that international exchange of american football increase and that maybe someday we'll have an American football world cup thats on the same level as the soccer world cup
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