Milan, Italy: where pigskins fly, a distraction if just for one day

The Milan Seamen come out to play. The semi-pro tackle football team is moving up to the European big leagues.

Giorgio Tavecchio, right, spent six seasons in the NFL as a placekicker and won AFC Special Teams Player of the Week in 2017 as an Oakland Raider.

If only pigskins could fly in soccer-crazy Italy, grounded in the other football.  

Never mind the commotion to the far end of Piazza Duomo in Milan on a Saturday favoring sunglasses. Very soon, Milan’s Inter will play Manchester City for all the Champions League marbles, but two sets of scat-backs and brawny linemen—one noticeably more mature, the other on the teen-spirit side—have bigger dreams than 2-1 scores.

Theirs borrow from the United States, and they’re called touchdowns and field goals, so much so a native Italian who once booted his way to NFL player-of-the-week honors is kicking it with young players who have yet to commit their breakfasts to espresso.

“Bax” Bassi, a safety for the Milan Seamen under-18 team, is a teen who knows what he wants. Busily encouraging the curious to try their luck at rifling footballs through circular holes, as at a carnival, he sees Friday-night lights.

“I want to be a professional football player,” says Bassi, 14, who is built more like a high school junior, “be in the States living my life, having a great family. We’re never too young to dream big. I’m hoping for a scholarship.”

“Bax” Bassi, 14, center, dreams of playing college football. Dejvion Steward, second to right, did so. Claudio Buccelatto, far right, has his doubts about rugby.

The curious try their luck at rifling footballs through target holes, as at a carnival, in hopes of winning a ticket to Milan’s home opener, June 10.

Fresh to the marketing event, an American muscles up to Bassi and his posse of under-18 teammates. He looks like he might play in the secondary.

“What’s up, fellas?” says Dejvion Steward, 30, a starting safety for the semi-pro team proper, exchanging pleasantries with his teen peers.

New to Italy and one of four Americans on the team, Steward played college football for Tiffin (Ohio) University and coaches a team in the neighboring city of Varese to boost his income. The view of Milan’s cathedral defines his initial impression on Italy.

“Look at this,” he says, gesturing to Duomo, the largest church in the Italian Republic.

Semi-pro football players might get a small stipend but are not salaried. In Milan’s case, the Seamen—an odd mascot choice given the fashion city is a 90-minute drive from the Mediterranean—have moved up to Europe’s Super League, made up of teams primarily from Germany, France, the UK and Spain, where the competition is stiffer than Italian-only football, written about in John Grisham’s 2007 novel, “Playing for Pizza.”

Later in the afternoon, a former NFL player enters the circus-like games area, surrounded by Renaissance-era architecture. His name is Giorgio Tavecchio, the only born-in-Italy Italian to his knowledge to have played in the world’s top league, dominated by Americans who are on the tall burley side. Agreeably fielding questions from teens, he stands 5-10 and is well under 200 pounds.

“No, people don’t recognize me,” says Tavecchio, who belonged to six teams across nine seasons, foremost with the Oakland Raiders in 2017, when he assumed placekicker duties, nailing several plus-50-yard field goals.

Tavecchio moved back to Milan last summer, got a job, and helps coach the Seamen.

After bouncing around the NFL, he picked up stakes last summer for his home town of Milan, where he landed a traditional full-time job. On the side, he assists the Seamen as a coach, a way to stay in touch with the game, he says.

This season’s Super League schedule, which kicks off on June 10, will pit Milan versus tougher teams than in years past.

“We’ll see how we stack up,” says Tavecchio, 32, who moved to the US as a young kid and kicked for the Cal-Berkeley Bears, his alma mater.

Behind him are two 18-year-olds soaking up the vibe. Simone and Josue, speaking in Italian, live for soccer as respective fans of AC Milan and Inter, the city’s two Serie-A teams, yet are curious about the game featuring shiny helmets, bruising runs and 50-yard heaves.

“It’s great but I don’t follow (tackle football),” says Simone, on the hunt for a job.

Adds Josue, a waiter who was born in El Salvador: “We came here to check out the artificial grass.” Turf covers the promotional event’s surface.

Tackle footballs piques the interest of two Milanese soccer fans, Simone and Josue, left to right.

To their left, a guy who looks suspiciously like a lineman is striding by with his girlfriend. The Parisian pair are on a weekend visit to Milan.

“American? No, I’m French,” says Thierry Kanyangoga, 25, a guard for Molosses d'Asnières, which plays in France’s top semi-pro league, he says.

Charmed to see Milan’s got tackle football on the rise, he speaks of his own: “In France, this is not a top sport.” The French national soccer team won the World Cup in 1998 and 2018, whereas Italy has been crowned four times: 1934, 1938, 1982, and 2006. 

Thierry Kanyangoga, left, touring Milan with girlfriend, Elaura Galipo, is a guard for a top-level French football team.

In between the two football sports is rugby, a shirt-tail cousin to both.

“I prefer (tackle) football,” says Claudio Buccellato, 28, Milan’s starting tight end. “Rugby’s too rude.”

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A University of Oregon Duck alum, left, spars off with Tavecchio, a Cal-Berkeley Bear graduate.