‘It is fun to see a country start American football’

This feature story appeared in the Arizona Daily Sun on May 31, 2005.

NAU’s international outreach

By Ed Odeven

Before the widespread use of radios and automobiles, televisions and airplanes, Americans watched and played football on grassy fields in small towns and large cities.

Overseas, the sport took longer to gain a respectable following.

But Larry Kentera has seen firsthand how football has grown in Europe. He coached German club teams during the 1993-95 seasons. He worked for an Italian club in ’97.

“American football in Europe is big, in Germany, in Spain, in Sweden,” Kentera, Northern Arizona’s head coach from 1985-89, said in a phone interview. “I’m talking about the people playing it. I’m talking about how the people are interested in it.”

This is especially evident in Germany, he said, noting that four of NFL Europe’s six teams are based there.

Though football is now well-established in Germany…