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Rattlers Ticket Hotline: 602-514-TDTD. Photo by Chris Wartenberg. |
By Michael Samtur
When you say the word football over in Europe, most people will think you’re referring to that sport with the little, round, back-and-white ball that you can’t touch with you hands. However, as recently as last season, football as Americans know it with quarterbacks, pigskins, and hard tackles was alive and well across many European cities. Current Rattlers starting defensive tackle Anttaj Hawthorne was lucky enough to experience the phenomenon first hand.
Hawthorne, who was born and raised in Connecticut, played collegiately for the Wisconsin Badgers of the Big-10 and flourished in his four years at the school. Hawthorne was named to the All-Big-10 Conference First-Team three straight years and was a Third-Team All-American.
After the NFL’s Oakland Raiders selected him in the sixth round of the 2005 draft, Hawthorne went overseas to play with the Frankfurt Galaxy, NFL Europe’s version of the New York Yankees. In the league’s brief history, the Galaxy won four of the 16 total World Bowls and reached the championship game eight times.
Hawthorne even played for the 2006 Championship team as the Galaxy won World Bowl XIV. With Hawthorne leading the way, the Galaxy led the league in total defense and dominated the line of scrimmage by allowing less than 98 rushing yards a game. Hawthorne learned very quickly what it took to be a champion.
“First thing I saw from our team was camaraderie,” he said, “We gelled real well on defense and on offense. Any championship team has that.”
Hawthorne’s team beat current Rattler offensive lineman Atlas Herrion’s Amsterdam team in that game. Despite losing the game, Herrion has very fond memories of his experience in the World Bowl.
“It was kind of like a Super Bowl atmosphere. The NFL sent (NY Giants’) Michael Strahan and (Philadelphia’s) Brian Dawkins to come out to support us. They had fireworks and it was a pretty big atmosphere.”
The Galaxy were the highest drawing team in the league, averaging over 33,000 fans a game in 2007, over 9,000 more than the second highest, and were over 11,000 fans a game better than the league average for three straight years. Despite these gaudy numbers, the Galaxy barely filled their 52,000 seat stadium.
“Those stadiums were huge,” marveled Hawthorne, “But I don’t think we ever filled the whole stadium up, even in the World Bowl.”
Hawthorne admitted that “it was different being in a country where football isn’t the number one sport,” but had a great experience living overseas.
“In Frankfurt, not everyone speaks English,” he said, “but we had the army base there and the Frankfurt fans were great.”
Herrion noticed another interesting difference.
“Everybody rides bikes over there,” laughed Herrion.
While Hawthorne played with the Galaxy, the League had contracted down to six teams, five of which were in Germany with one team in Amsterdam. The proximity of the other teams in the league allowed the players to travel the countryside by bus and enjoy the sights.
“Any time we had an away game, they had a tour bus that would take us around so we could experience Europe,” said Hawthorne, “I saw the Berlin Wall. That was pretty amazing.”
Herrion remembered that “We had a lot of down time. They actually talked you into going out a lot to promote ourselves and the league.”
Now, what’s the connection between NFL Europe and the AFL? The overseas league disbanded in 2007, leaving many players without teams and jobs. Thankfully, many of those players came back to the states and a few have caught on here with the Rattlers.
“A bunch of guys from over there are in the AFL and on our team,” recalled Hawthorne, “Atlas and Kurt (Kahui) played for Amsterdam.” Not to mention that quarterback Lang Campbell led the Berlin Thunder in 2005.
With former NFL Europa stars and champions like Anttaj Hawthorn leading the way, the Rattlers have a worldly understanding of the game of football and can hopefully use that knowledge to lead the Rattlers deep into the playoffs.
