If you want to watch sports on TV here you pretty much have five choices…soccer, motorcycle racing, bicycle racing, Formula One racing, and more soccer. A few years ago John Grisham wrote a book about the Nationale Football Americano Italiano, called Playing for Pizza. It’s a fictitious story about an actual league here in Italy. It doesn’t get much notoriety, and the players usually need a second job, but it does exist. Rules are very similar to American football and each team is allowed a couple players from the States. There are about 50 teams playing throughout the country although only 8 play at the highest level. Games only draw a few hundred fans while the league championship drew around 3,000 last year. I wish Florence had a team in the elite division so I could watch them play Milan. You see Milan is quarterbacked by a guy named John Stocco, yes the same John Stocco that played for the Badgers. After tryouts with the Packers and Giants failed to net him a contract last year, he decided to accept an offer from the Milan Rhinos. Based on what I’ve read about other Americans in the league, he’s probably making about $2,000 per month, and gets a free apartment (and pizza). That doesn’t exactly compare to an NFL contract but what the heck.
