Sunday, July 15th, 2007 by Adam Wagner
Wait, Japanese Football Players?
As you may or may not know, and it isn’t a big deal at all so no one will hold it against you if you don’t, America won the American Football World Cup held in Japan this past Sunday. The team, made up of Division I, II, and III players, needed overtime to take the title, but Craig Coffin nailed a 22-yard field goal to secure victory for the red, white, and blue.
This was the first time the United States participated in the tournament and the team showed why America was the land where the game was invented and developed. After all, with such luminaries as Jeff Ballard (the only player I’d heard of on the roster) at QB, John Drenckhahn (WR from Williams), and Brig Walker (LB from Princeton), America was ready for anything.
After all, in a tournament that the Japanese thoroughly dominated in 1999 and 2003, America needed to layeth the smackdown in brains and brawn. This strategy helped in knocking off lightweights such as Germany (33-7) and South Korea (77-0). The Germans went on to honor the fatherland and secure the bronze medal, teaching the Swedes that resistance is, in fact, futile.
Korea finished fifth, defeating France with a 29-yard field goal by some guy whose name I don’t even want to try to write because it’s so weird.
The tournament started out in 1999 in Palermo, Italy with participating teams from Mexico, Italy, Finland, Japan, Sweden, and Australia. Finland’s team managed to be outscored 127-14 in three contests. Now, the controversy begins here. The IFAF’s blog (yes, they have a blog) states that Finland finished in fifth place with a record of 1-2. The results from the tournament posted on said blog, however, tell a different story. These claim that Australia defeated Finland 10-7 to win the fifth place title. The question of which nation sucks the most must really be answered. It’s of vast importance to someone, somewhere, I’m certain.
The website for 2003’s website is in German and, despite taking four years of German in school, I do not speak the language and therefore can’t translate any of the results. It’s called the American football World Cup for a reason, you deutschlanders. You finished third for a reason. The IFAF blog comes through again, however, telling me that only Japan, Germany, Mexico, and France were involved in the 2003 tournament. Japan took out Germany in a battle between Axis of Evil powers and Mexico defeated France, leading to a Mexican - Japanese showdown which the Japanese won handily, 34-14.
Which brings us to this year. Apparently the four teams were not enough and Mexico decided to drop out, also. This meant that only three of the original six reappeared in this year’s tournament, with France, Germany, and Japan all remaining involved with a game that most people in those countries are only sort of aware exist. The United States, Sweden, and Asian Tiger South Korea all made first-time appearances. France somehow lost to South Korea, even though the Koreans scored two (literally, two) points in group play.
The only country outside of America that may even have a sort of right to be involved in this tournament is Japan, and that is only because they raise sumo wrestlers, who could probably stand up Dana Stubblefield and Tony Siragusa on a double bull rush.
With that said, the only question has to be Why? The sport is quintessentially American and does not need to be spread to other countries. Honestly, why would places like Germany, France, and South Korea even have teams involved in this? And, as the interest appears at least decent, why didn’t the NFL look at this and make NFL World instead of NFL Europe, using the league as more of a recruiting vehicle to grow the game instead of a developmental league? It seems as if the NFL, for once, may have wasted a valuable opportunity.
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