Football Americain en France

Super Bowl Sunday in France so what better way to celebrate than go the season opener of Les Argonautes d'Aix en Provence. Les Argo's are our home town team in the American Football league of France. The league consists of 8 teams mostly in the southern part of France. The players appear to be post-college age and are mainly French. There is a limit of 2 ex-pats per team.

There was a pretty good crowd at the stadium in Aix for today's opening game, which Lindsey and I attended (with me being saddled with a bit of a hangover from watching televised sports - beginning with France-Scotland rugby but carrying on after that -  with my Scottish pal Jason at a local pub the day before). Overall, it had the feel of a decent high school event in the US.

Despite being played literally in the shadows of historic Aix en Provence, much of the scene has a fairly familiar feel to it compared to a US football game. On the field the uniforms and equipment were contemporary, and the players could have easily been all Americans (but not All Americans, if you know what I mean). They were decent sized guys on both sides of the line and they executed most plays pretty well. Special teams was a bit of an adventure but the routine blocking and tackling was solid enough, and the were several top-notch highlights that showed real athleticism.

The Argos are quarterbacked by an American kid named Adam Kruse. A quick Google search shows that he played at Division 3 College of the Mary (no, not William & Mary - just Mary, a small school in North Dakota). He showed poise and finesse at the helm and stood out as the team leader for sure. Our other ex-pat player is a linebacker form Canada who performed well, too, with multiple QB pressures and sacks. They are two of the playmakers, but the wide receivers and running backs, who are French (according to the roster), made some big plays too.

Our man Kruse warms up before the game

The coach is an NFL veteran, sort of. He actually was a punter for one year with the KC Chiefs. His name is Stephen Cheek, and while the list of punters-turned-head coaches is probably a pretty short one, this guy seems to have his troops in order and ran well-organized offenses and defenses (his assistants are all French).

The Argos opened the 2011 campaign in grand style, pounding the visiting Black Panthers from Thenon les Bains by a score of 41-0. Our boys controlled both sides of the line of scrimmage, forced turnovers and showed a solid running and passing game.

I am not sure how much of the subtleties of the game that the largely French fan base picked up on, although they seemed entertained by it all. The game program handed out at the entry gate (5 euros for an adult ticket, kids free, and free parking, too - definitely not the NFL here!) includes a basic overview of the rules of  football  - as much as can be crammed into a half page of small-sized Xerox'ed game program. The PA announcer keeps up an almost non-stop banter, dividing his time between explaining the rules, calling out the result of each play, and leading the cheers. After each score, the fans break into a modified version of the Tomahawk Chop, complete with the FSU fight song, which would seem irrelevant for a team called the Argonautes but feels quite appropriate in this setting for some reason (the French love a lot of things that are just plain obviously American. You see kids in the street wearing sweatshirts with random American names and terms printed in big letters, for example). Loud heavy metal rock fills the occasional void in the announcer's rap.

The game had everything a US fan would expect, including souvenirs
(no big foam Number 1 fingers, though)

After the final whistle fans are allowed on the field to congratulate the players. It looks like a lot of friends and family support the Argos, who have been around for several years and apparently have developed something of a following (Toni's French tutor used to date an Argo back in the day). It's funny to see the traditional French two-cheeked kiss among two men, with one in a football uniform.

The after party is at an Irish Pub called Le Manoir in Aix, which is also showing the Super Bowl. Kick-off is at 12:30AM Monday local time, but with they way the Argos played today, the celebration will probably be still going on.