Saturday, February 7, 2015

Germans playing American Football

I just learned from fellow German teacher, Andrea Weaver, that Sebastian Vollmer is not the first German player to win a Super Bowl after all. 

She lists these past pro-football players, along with their achievements:

Ernie Stautner was born in Germany, though he moved to the US as a child. He played for the Pittsburgh Steelers from 1950-1963.

Horst Mühlmann played in the AFL and then briefly for the Philadelphia Eagles in the early 1970's.

Toni Fritsch, who was Austrian, played for Tom Landry's Dallas Cowboys in the 1970's and won a ring at Super Bowl VI in 1972. He was still playing for the Cowboys in 1976, when Dallas lost to Pittsburgh in Super Bowl X. After that he played for the Chargers, Oilers and Saints.

Uwe von Schamann had a short but distinguished career as a kicker. He was named Rookie of the Year in 1979 and played until 1984 for the Miami Dolphins.

Markus Koch played for the Washington Redskins from 1986 to 1991 and played in Super Bowl XXII, which the Redskins won. He was injured in 1991 and did not play in Super Bowl XXVI in 1992.

Tom Nütten, who has American citizenship but spent time as a child in Germany with his German mother, won a ring at Super Bowl XXXIV with Kurt Warner and the St. Louis Rams.

Constantin Ritzmann had a brief, not particularly distinguished career at the beginning of this century.

In addition to Vollmer, Germans Björn Werner and Kasim Edebali are currently playing in the NFL.

2 comments:

  1. von Sarah J. am 9. Febr.

    Wow! I didn't know that many Germans played football? Amazing

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ich habe nicht gewusst, dass Sebastian Vollmer Deutsch ist. Cool!

    ReplyDelete