AMERICA’S GAME?
By Steve Hanlon
[email protected]
nwitimes.com, IN
Sept 29 2006
International players are making an impact on Region football
This story ran on nwitimes.com on Friday, September 29, 2006 12:45
AM CDT
Mark Hoffman arrived at Butler in 1968. The Andrean lineman was a
walking poster for American football: big, strong and tough.
He was fingering through a second-hand textbook at the Indianapolis
school when he noticed a shocking name, Garo Yepremian. The Armenian
was born in Cyprus, before a 15-year career in the NFL, plus three
Super Bowls.
"He’d been at Butler," said Hoffman, the head coach at Valparaiso.
"Someone wrote an article about this kid kicking 50-yard field goals
and he was gone."
Yepremian was one of the first international players in the NFL,
before his famous line "I keek a touchdown" was said on Johnny Carson.
Today, the international player isn’t such a comedy routine. This
past summer there were a record 109 foreign-born players in NFL camps.
"It’s global now," said Hoffman, who’s had several foreign-born
players on his roster through the years.
[rest of article omitted]
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
