Missing your fix of football this Thanksgiving? Then check out the Fédération Française de Football Américain (3FA), a league composed of dedicated amateurs giving their all for the love of the game.

Not a professional league like for soccer or rugby, the 3FA (www.fffa.org) is made up of clubs whose most serious players are free agents aspiring to play for elite teams - Europe’s National Football League (NFL) and ultimately get the attention of a US NFL scout.

Only ten French players have been drafted into NFL Europe and played regular season games. French players are usually maintaining jobs or working on degrees while they train independently and dedicate every weekend to playing football without much support or fanfare. American football in France is still relatively minor with about 6,000 players compared to more than two million soccer players.

The junior French national team won the European Championship last year, a play-off between the two best teams of each national championship in Europe. The senior French national team finished its 2007 season in sixth place in the World Championship, which does not include the USA.

In addition, France’s Flag Football league have been both the women’s and men’s European champions for the last two years.

American NFL scouts follow French football even if you don’t, occasionally drafting a rare few players to attend training camp tryouts. Philippe Gardent, a European professional since 2003, and described as “the most gifted French player of his generation and the best tackler of the league,” played with the Washington Redskins practice squad in 2006 - 2007 and with the Carolina Panthers this year. He has signed a CFL contract with Montreal. Former teammate and friend, linebacker Ken Saint-Eloy, played in the All Star games and World Games and was defensive captain of the national team (with Philippe) in 2005 when the team’s defensive line was considered the best in Europe. Also scouted to train at Tampa Bay’s practice camp, he made it as far as the final cut. Back in France and concentrating on his career in communications, he played in his final World Championship game this past July, losing against Sweden, Korea and Tokyo, who took this year’s title.

As a French recruit in the USA, Saint-Eloy had nothing but good things to say about his experience. “In France nobody knows you or especially cares that you play football,” he said. “The sport is still so misunderstood here. I was even asked for my autograph in the USA. The American players respected how hard it was for me to get there. Obviously, there is a huge difference between amateur football in France and professional football in the USA: the medical staff, the coaches, the weight room, the playing fields. The physical aptitudes and knowledge of the American players were beyond anything I’ve known in Europe. The US NFL the motto is: take care of your business - your body is your business.”

In France, he was a big fish in a small pond. In the US, he was just a number - 54 to be precise. “In France, practice came fairly easy and was fun,” he said. “In the NFL, it’s a job. If you’re not productive, you’re out. This is the only thing that you keep in your head as you compete every day, during selection camp. Being French, and not a product of an American university team, I wasn’t very playbook savvy. I learned football by instinct. Even if I didn’t ultimately succeed, I touched a dream. I knew my age could be an obstacle, so I lived every moment of the experience.”

Football season in France runs from September - June. Check the 3FA website for a schedule of each division’s games.

Under the same official sport status as American football in the 3FA league comes cheerleading, a sport combining gymnastics, dancing, lifting, pyramids, and jumps. It’s not about just shaking pom poms anymore. Clubs train all season to enter the national competition in Paris every year. There are presently 25 teams in France.

One such club, in Vendenheim, Alsace, was started in 2002 by Angeles Mochel and her daughter, Aude, inspired by the American cheer leading film, Bring it on! “It’s a very physical sport,” said Mrs Mochel. “The participants must follow a serious athletic program to ensure that their performances are perfect for the days of the games.”

When the Mochels met American ex-cheerleader Deidre Geneve, they immediately recruited her to help choreograph some new moves, and when one of the girls broke her leg just before a demo, she was asked to fill in. “I’m 35,” she said. “I kept telling them that women don’t do this at my age.”

Still a new sport in France, cheerleading is not well understood. “Everyone is still feeling their way,” said Geneve. “It’s more like half-time entertainment than a way to get the crowd to participate, as it is in the States. Here the crowd doesn’t quite know what to make of us. They just stare. Even the cheerleaders didn’t originally understand why they should face the crowd to cheer.” She has tried to overcome this cultural barrier by making big cards to hold up as a prompt for the crowd and by handing out flyers at events explaining what the cheer squad is doing there. “We don’t want to portray the image of the American bimbo,” she said.

There are no real cheering ‘try-outs’ in France. Everyone can participate, and there are various clubs to cover all age groups. It is also one of the few sports that one can opt to do without having to pay high fees - although there are costs involved.
Cheerleaders have to buy their own uniforms and pay for transport. Fundraising is not common in France, either.