Monday, September 5, 2016

The Israel Football League (IFL)

Michael Lumish

israeli footballWell, snatch my britches!

I had no idea that Israel had an American-style football league!

See, this is the kind of thing that I miss out on by focusing almost entirely on the never-ending conflict.

Apparently, the league has been around for 9 years and is (according to wiki) comprised of eleven teams.

These are:

The Jerusalem "Big Blue" Lions

The Tel Aviv Pioneers

The Tel Aviv/Jaffa Sabres

The Jerusalem Kings

The Beersheva Black Swarm

The Judean Rebels

The Ramat Hasharon Hammers

The Petah Tikva Troopers

The Northern Stars

And

The Rehovot Silverbacks

I tapped the Judean Rebels on the shoulder via their facebook page and they got back with me, lickety-split. I think that they're going to be my team. Besides, I love the name.

The Judean Rebels!

But, I must admit, the Black Swarm is a terrific name for a football team, as well.
Hammers_Helmet
The Ramat Hasharon Hammers have a pretty cool logo.

Youtube, needless to say, has a large collection of clips featuring the IFL.

Israel also has a national team that plays countries from all around the world. In fact, you can watch the entire Israel / Spain game from about a year ago. Sure, the opening minute or two is choppy and the broadcast is entirely en Español, but there they are!

It seems as if American-style Israeli football is beginning to get some attention which, of course, is how I came across it.

Steve Leibowitz, the President and founder of the American Football Federation in Israel, has a very recent series of four articles discussing the sport at the Times of Israel and over at The Land of Israel Network they have a radio episode entitled, Israel Uncensored: American Football in Israel on the World Stage.

I think that this is great fun and I would encourage any of you guys who enjoy American football to check it out.

Go Rebels!

2 comments:

  1. Yeah, my suspicion is that there are not very many Arabs on these squads. That's unfortunate, too, because I am sure that the league would like to see Arab participation in the game.

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