I ran into Kurt Warner today as both he and I were leaving one of my middle schools. I took the opportunity to ask him a quick question about American football in Germany. He mentioned that soccer is of course the number one sport there, but that the Germans understand American football better than the rest of Europe. I asked why that was the case and he suggested that the presence of American soldiers in Germany was one reason in addition to providing many players. I also asked about differences in the way German fans cheered. He said that German fans were the best in Europe, since they came out in large numbers, beat drums, and cheered, but he also said that they often cheered at the wrong time, whistling when the offense had the ball, for example. He was clearly in a hurry but was gracious enough to take a moment to talk, so I thanked him and went on to my next school, where I was of course met with disbelief that I had just been talking to Kurt Warner. September 14, 2001

Here's a Scottish football fan beating on his drum. This fan actually lives in Amsterdam and cheers for Warner's former team, the Amsterdam Admirals. Unfortunately his site had too many "inappropriate" situations on it for students to look at, so I'm just offering one pic to show how some Europeans cheer at games. Suffice it to say, in his pre-game preparations he makes many rabid American fans look tame by comparison.