AN AMERICAN FOOTBALLER IN PARMA

by Corey Mazza

[Ed.'s Note: Former Harvard WR Corey Mazza will be checking in once a week from Italy, where he's playing for the Parma Panthers of the Italian (American) Football League.]

PARMA PANTHERS RECORD: 8–2
(Last Game: W, Sharks)

After another 4:30 a.m. wake up on game day, we hopped on another flight down to Sicily to face off against the Palermo Sharks. After a brief warm-up in the stifling heat, we got ready for the opening kickoff. Tully told me to return the opening kickoff to the house so he could hurry up and get his butt on the beach.

I was happy to oblige.

I had been dreaming about returning a kickoff for a score my whole life, and when the ball came bouncing to me a few moments later, I was ready. Our right side opened a huge hole and I weaved towards it. 43-Year old Robbie Marchesi had a huge block on a Palermo defender, and Mirko, Sighi and Cloche led me to the end zone for a quick score. After Tommie (still in for an injured Dan Brown) led the offense to a few more scores, Luca Scurreia returned an interception for a TD to put us up 34-6 in the first quarter.

We started the day with only 3 receivers9some were injured, and one forgot his passport and couldn't make the flight. We lost one more during the game to an injury, leaving only myself and Ugo Bonvicini in the corps. We had to steal a couple guys from the defense (Mirko and Thomas Taverna) for some spot work at WR.

We let Palermo get back in the game for a little bit, but we eventually pulled away after Ummarino put the nail in the coffin with a couple touchdown runs. We won 62-26, but still we didn't play as well as we should have.

The win put us in third place behind Bergamo and first-place Bolzano.Bologna and Catania are currently duking it out for the fourth seed. As it stands now, we'd be traveling up to Bergamo to face the Lions in the semifinals on July 5, with the Super Bowl coming on July 19. Apparently it attracts quite the crowd in person and on TV.

We pushed our return flights back to Tuesday so we could explore Palermo a little bit and find those elusive cannoli Parma seems to keep hidden from me. Mirko's gorgeous friend Rita arranged for us to stay at a bed and breakfast. She picked us up from the game and gave us a detailed list of all the things to do and see while we were in Palermo before taking us straight to the pastry shop. (The wedding invites are going out soon.) It was a far cry from wandering around Barcelona like bums with our football bags.

After a guided tour of the Opera house and Cathedral, I tried to track down some of my Sicilian relatives. (My family is originally from the region.) Unfortunately, I didn't have much luck. I think if I had some more time I would be able to seek them out. Who knows, maybe the guy I toasted on my last route was my long lost cousin.

We ate dinner that night in some back alley restaurant that had wheeled a giant TV for the Italy-Netherlands EuroCup Soccer game. The meal suffered as Italy lost 3-0, but an after dinner cannoli cheered us right up. We left Palermo the next day with Tully hauling back his prize of a box of five Sicilian cannoli in his backpack.

In other news: John and I tried to swim out to a giant rock at the edge of the beach but quickly realized we're not great swimmers. The waves kept throwing us back onto the rocks. We scurried out of the water afraid our blood was attracting sharks … After a touchdown in the last game, I tried to dunk the ball over the goal post Tony Gonzalez style. But it was a converted soccer goal and much shorter than I expected. I was almost decapitated … We travel down to Ancona this Saturday night for a rematch from earlier in the year … It's Danny's birthday this week, and that means a celebration is in order. Who am I to turn down a piece of cake?

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