Tackle Football Wallops Israel

Quick hands are followed by the chase as number 67 goes in for a tackle.
(Ariel Jerozolimski)

Colleague Sam Ser over at The Jerusalem Post has the local "gridiron" details:

As kickoffs go, the opening play of last Friday's game between Big Blue and the Pioneers was unexceptional - the only indication of any greater significance being that it ended, in what was undoubtedly a first for an American tackle football league, with a Levi tackling a Levy.

Israel Football League logo

Minutes into the Israel Football League's inaugural game on an unseasonably warm November afternoon at Jerusalem's Kraft Stadium, one of the more than 200 mostly American immigrants in attendance soaked in the sound of shoulder pads crunching against churning thighs as if listening to a long-lost rock'n'roll album he had just rediscovered at the back of his closet. "Wow," he said, turning to his friend and nodding with satisfaction, "it really brings you back to high school, doesn't it?"

But how do they say, "Hail Mary Play" in the language of the Prophets, and does, "throwing the bomb," rattle the receiver?

Read the rest here, and find out more about the Israel Football League here.

Earlier posts about baseball in the Holyland are here.