American football has reached the Holy Land. As part
of the US National Football League's (NFL) attempts to export
the game worldwide, some 60,000 Israeli high school students will
learn to play this year. The NFL also hopes for a future Israeli
professional team to compete in the League's world championship.
by Simon Griver
NFL Israel was established recently in order to introduce American
football to Israel. Like most of the world, Israel is soccer-mad,
but the NFL is confident that it can generate enough interest
among players and spectators to make the American game economically
viable in Israel.
NFL Israel has worked out a ten-year game plan which is as strategically
meticulous as a successful strike in American football. In the
first phase, sponsorship, promotional and broadcasting deals are
being put in place. At the same time, 60,000 high-school students
will learn to play the game: the Amal vocational training high
school network will give American football classes to 40,000 of
its students, and Israel Radio's Reshet Gimmel, together
with the McDonalds hamburger franchise, has recruited some 20,000
youngsters for American football courses around the country.
In the second phase, one of the NFL's leading teams - the New
England Patriots - is committed to playing an exhibition match
against another major US team at Israel's national soccer stadium
in Ramat Gan within the next two years. Furthermore, Israeli interest
in American football will be stimulated by live weekly broadcasts
of a big NFL match with Hebrew commentary on a local television
station.
Within a decade, it is hoped that Israel will have its own professional
team - which will compete in the NFL's world league - comprised
mainly of native-born stars who have graduated from the current
high school program.
Nativ Robinson, a leading disc-jockey with Israel Radio's popular
music network Reshet Gimmel, admits to being crazy about
American football since childhood and feels that Israel is ripe
for the introduction of American football.
"American football is much more than a sport," he explains.
"It is a superb spectacle which generates a wonderful atmosphere
before, during and after the match. Israelis will enjoy the thrill
of the match as well as the sophisticated tactics of the game."
The NFL has targeted Israel as part of its plan to invest in the
development of the game throughout Europe, the Far East, Latin
America, Australia and New Zealand. Robinson was recently among
a delegation of NFL Israel representatives who traveled to Dublin
to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers play against the Chicago Bears
and see how the game is being marketed in Ireland, in order to
encourage it in Israel. One advantage in Israel, explains Simon
Philips, chairman of NFL Israel, is that "we have a cadre
of 400 American-born coaches who are living in Israel and have
all played American football in the past."
With an eye towards the future, the Israeli daily newspaper Ma'ariv
is currently running a competition to find a name for Israel's
professional NFL team.