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tyleroakley-obsessed · 6 years ago

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Ed. Note: Baylee is back with another roundup of live music in Memphis for the month of April. Got an upcoming show or concert you’d like to be included? Submit your event here, and email Holly at [email protected] with “Listen Up” in the subject line. 1. The Groove feat. Black Cream, The Green Room at Crosstown Arts, Wednesday April 3rd, $10, doors at 7 p.m., all ages Crosstown Arts begins a new series, titled The Groove, dedicated to one thing: the funk. Enter the Green Room for some funky flavor courtesy of Black Cream, a newly formed Memphis quartet who remind you why the band should always be the centerpiece of the performance. Groovy bass and sultry croons will guide you along this magical, musical journey. 2. Hardcastle with Jet Black Alley Cat and Estes, 1884 Lounge at Minglewood Hall, Friday April 5th, $10 – $12, show at 8 p.m., all ages Three regional indie pop bands unite for an evening of intimate songwriting and driving guitar riffs. Hardcastle ground themselves in a rock-n-roll foundation, but weave in electronic flourishes, whereas Jet Black Alley Cat bring pop to the forefront of their rhythmic, vibrant tunes. Finally, Memphis act Estes keeps it fresh with acoustically-led indie rock. 3. Death Cab for Cutie, The Orpheum Theatre, Sunday April 7th, $35 – $75, show at 8 p.m., all ages Head to the Orpheum to catch one of alternative rock’s golden bands, Death Cab for Cutie. Although they gained fame in the early 2000’s with Transatlanticism and Plans, their recent albums, including 2018’s Thank You For Today, earned applause from critics and fans far and wide. Rich melodies, world-class musicianship, and Ben Gibbard’s iconic vocals will set this show apart from anything you’ve seen before. 4. Lucero Family Block Party, Outside Minglewood Hall, Saturday April 13th, $33 – $151 but kids under 10 get in free with an adult, show at 3 p.m., all ages Lucero returns home to throw their yearly block party that includes killer music, food trucks, outdoor games, and more. This year, Lucero, Blackberry Smoke, Will Hoge, Austin Lucas, Ben Abney and the Hurts, and The Mighty Souls Brass Band will grace stages inside and outside of Minglewood Hall for a full Saturday of Southern rock and Americana music. 5. Hear 901 Music Festival, The Bluff, Saturday April 13th, $5, show at 7 p.m., 18 and over Don’t miss the 5th annual Hear 901 Music Festival, organized by Blue Tom Records in order to celebrate the finest of Memphis’s up-and-coming musicians. This year’s lineup includes a long list: Dylan Amoré, Jordan Occasionally, Bailey Bigger, Claire James, Kasondra, Megan Barlowe, She’Chinah, Compton McMurry, Shawn Campbell, Geist, Phillip Bond, and EEZABELLE. My top picks include wistful, folk songstress Bailey Bigger and the smooth R&B siren She’Chinah. 6. An Encore Evening with Maggie Rose, Wilson Gardens, Saturday April 13th, $35, show at 7 p.m., 21 and over Powerhouse vocals, country roots, but deep and dense soulful rhythm sets Maggie Rose apart from other rising vocalists. She’s currently touring her album Change The Whole Thing and dazzling crowds with her delicate delivery and edgy gospel vibe. 7. 2019 Songwriter Showdown Finals, Halloran Centre, Sunday April 14th, $20, doors at 4 p.m., all ages Hosted by the Memphis Songwriters Association, this annual competition is an exceptional way to discover fresh local songwriters. This year, the MSA received 60 submissions and for the showdown they’ve narrowed the list down to the top 8 songs. Come to hear homegrown music: the kind that only utilizes a single instrument, a unique voice, and powerful words to make your heart flutter. 8. Sunset Jazz, Court Square, Sunday, April 14th, 6 p.m. – 8 p.m., free, all ages/kid-friendly Head downtown to Court Square Park (62 N. Main and Jefferson) for this family-friendly jazz concert featuring Stephen Lee and the Memphis Jazz Workshop. It’s free, with food trucks and some seating available. 9. The Tambourine Bash benefiting Music Export Memphis, Century House, Thursday April 18th, $50, show at 7 p.m., 21 and over Music Export Memphis is throwing their annual Tambourine Bash which will feature some of our city’s top tier talent in the most unique ways, including cross genre collaborations from Nick Black, Marcella Simien, Talibah Safiya, Daz Rinko, the Unapologetic. Crew and Future Everything. This benefit helps raise funds for MEM’s Ambassador Grants which offer tour support for our Memphis musicians. 10. The Sam Bush Band, Germantown Performing Arts Center, Thursday April 18th, $35 – $50, show at 7:30 p.m., 18 and over Add some organized chaos to your life with a live music show featuring bluegrass king Sam Bush and his band. Banjos, guitars, and sitars will come to life in the hands of these talented pluckers. 11. Sofar Sounds on the River, Memphis River Parks, Friday April 26th, $15, show at 7 p.m., all ages Sofar Sounds announced their location ahead of time this month in honor of a special partnership with the Memphis River Parks. Although the three actual artists who will perform are still a secret, we received inside intel that this show will feature only alumni acts, or musicians who have played a Sofar Memphis before. 12. Paul McKinney and the Knights of Jazz, Benjamin Hooks Library, Friday April 26th, free, show at 6:30 p.m., all ages Presented by the Levitt Shell and Memphis Library Foundation, 5 Fridays of Jazz series continues with soul-man Paul McKinney and his Knights of Jazz. His smooth voice and horn heavy melodies tingle your spine in an almost spiritual way, until the drums kick in and McKinney get’s you movin’ like a modern-day Marvin Gaye. 13. Santana, BankPlus Ampitheater, Saturday April 27th, $29 – $129, show at 8 p.m., all ages Legendary rock band Santana will be stopping in Southaven while touring their latest album, In Search of Mona Lisa. This group infuses blues, Latin rock, psychedelics, and more to create fiery, passionate music that while pull anyone and everyone out of their seat and onto the dance floor. 14. Pat Sansone w/Alicja Trout, Harbor Town Amphitheater, Sunday, April 28th, gates at 3 p.m., $5, all ages/kid-friendly Multi-instrumentalist member of Wilco and The Autumn Defense Pat Sansone performs at this edition of the 2019 River Series at Harbotown, along with Memphis artist Alicja Trout. DJ Hot Tub Eric spins records at 3 p.m., and the band takes the stage at 4 p.m. There will be beer and food available; proceeds benefit the Maria Montessori School. About The Author A born and raised Memphian, Baylee Less recently returned to her roots after her four-year hiatus at the University of Maryland. A contributor to I Love Memphis and Memphis Travel, she is excited to share the reasons she’s always loved Memphis. She enjoys live music, Asian food, and being outdoors. Follow @bayleeless on Twitter for updates about being vegan in the land of barbecue. Are you a home owner in Memphis, with a broken garage door? Call ASAP garage door today at 901-461-0385 or checkout https://ift.tt/1B5z3Pc

http://ilovememphisblog.com/2019/04/listen-up-14-live-music-shows-in-memphis-this-month/

#I Love Memphis

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mikemortgage · 6 years ago

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Samsung phone users get a shock: They can’t delete Facebook

Nick Winke, a photographer in the Pacific northwest, was perusing internet forums when he came across a complaint that alarmed him: On certain Samsung Electronics Co. smartphones, users aren’t allowed to delete the Facebook app.

Winke bought his Samsung Galaxy S8, an Android-based device that comes with Facebook’s social network already installed, when it was introduced in 2017. He has used the Facebook app to connect with old friends and to share pictures of natural landscapes and his Siamese cat — but he didn’t want to be stuck with it. He tried to remove the program from his phone, but the chatter proved true — it was undeletable. He found only an option to “disable,” and he wasn’t sure what that meant.

“It just absolutely baffles me that if I wanted to completely get rid of Facebook that it essentially would still be on my phone, which brings up more questions,” Winke said in an interview. “Can they still track your information, your location, or whatever else they do? We the consumer should have say in what we want and don’t want on our products.”

‘Less common sense than a house cat’: Why Facebook’s AI guru thinks the tech still has a long way to go

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says tech giant’s problems will take years to fix, if ever

RBC denies having ability to see users’ Facebook messages after NYT report

Consumers have become more alert about their digital rights and more vigilant about privacy in the past year, following revelations about Facebook’s information-sharing practices and regulators’ heightened scrutiny of online data collection. Some people have deleted their Facebook accounts in protest of the company’s lapses, while others simply want to make sure they have the option to do so. Many Android phone users have begun to question Samsung’s deal to sell phones with a permanent version of Facebook — and some of them are complaining on social media.

A Facebook spokesperson said the disabled version of the app acts like it’s been deleted, so it doesn’t continue collecting data or sending information back to Facebook. But there’s rarely communication with the consumer about the process. The Menlo Park, California-based company said whether the app is deletable or not depends on various pre-install deals Facebook has made with phone manufacturers, operating systems and mobile operators around the world over the years, including Samsung. Facebook, the world’s largest social network, wouldn’t disclose the financial nature of the agreements, but said they��re meant to give the consumer “the best” phone experience right after opening the box.

Balwinder Singh’s experience wasn’t what he would consider the best. Singh, who lives in the Susquehanna Valley of the eastern U.S. and works in transportation, bought his Samsung phone seven months ago. He first tried to delete the Facebook app when he was setting up the device.

“My news feed was full of negative stuff, people going crazy on social media,” he said. “It was affecting me emotionally and mentally.” Even after disabling the app, he was bothered to still have it on his phone.

Samsung, the world’s largest smartphone maker, said it provides a pre-installed Facebook app on selected models with options to disable it, and once it’s disabled, the app is no longer running. Facebook declined to provide a list of the partners with which it has deals for permanent apps, saying that those agreements vary by region and type. There is no complete list available online, and consumers may not know if Facebook is pre-loaded unless they specifically ask a customer service representative when they purchase a phone.

Samsung said it provides a pre-installed Facebook app on selected models with options to disable it, and once it’s disabled, the app is no longer running.

Consumer-advocacy groups have been skeptical of such arrangements for years, according to Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy.

“It’s only recently that people have become to understand that these apps really power the spy in your pocket,” he said. “Companies should be filing public documents on these deals, and Facebook should turn over public documents that show there is no data collection when the app is disabled.”

Facebook isn’t the only company whose apps show up on smartphones by default. A T-Mobile US Inc. list of apps built into its version of the Samsung Galaxy S9, for example, includes the social network as well as Amazon.com Inc. The phone also comes loaded with many Google apps such as YouTube, Google Play Music and Gmail; Google is the creator of the Android software that powers the phone. Other phone makers and service providers, including LG Electronics Inc., Sony Corp., Verizon Communications Inc. and AT&T Inc., have made similar deals with app makers. When Twitter’s app is loaded on a new phone by default, it wouldn’t collect any data unless a user had an account or created a new one, and opened the app and logged in, the company said.

But Facebook, which has spent the past year apologizing for security breaches and data privacy scandals, is the one drawing ire about its irrevocable presence on Samsung’s phones. “Very slimy,” Twitter user Gopinath Pandalai in Bangalore, who goes by @gopibella, wrote on the site in October. “Been a Samsung customer for 10 years. Time to move on.”

In December, Justin McMurry, whose Twitter handle is @BoutSebm, wrote that he considered Facebook a privacy threat. “If I can’t delete it, this will be the last Samsung product I ever own.”

Apple Inc., whose iPhone is the top-selling smartphone in the U.S., doesn’t pre-install Facebook or any other third-party apps on its new phones.

José Cortés, a Spaniard living in Sweden, has started using Facebook on his phone more infrequently, sharing less because he doesn’t like the way it broadcasts his activity to his friends. If there’s an event coming up on Facebook, he never marks that he’s going or interested, even if he is, because he dislikes that his attendance will advertise the event to his other friends.

“I understand Samsung is trying to make it easy for the user, but I don’t like that it does not allow me to uninstall,” he said. For his next phone, he said he’ll consider buying something else.

–With assistance from Selina Wang and Sam Kim.

Bloomberg.com

from Financial Post http://bit.ly/2C87gCZ via IFTTT Blogger Mortgage Tumblr Mortgage Evernote Mortgage Wordpress Mortgage href="https://www.diigo.com/user/gelsi11">Diigo Mortgage

#IFTTT #Financial Post

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mystlnewsonline · 7 years ago

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New Post has been published on https://www.stl.news/the-case-for-keenum-vikings-qb-keeps-on-disproving-doubters/66319/

The case for Keenum: Vikings QB keeps on disproving doubters

MINNEAPOLIS /January 12, 2018(AP)(STL.News)—When Minnesota’s offense huddled for the first time that mid-September afternoon in Pittsburgh, Case Keenum’s energy and confidence quickly filled the circle.

The Vikings were forced to turn to their backup quarterback to start the second game of the season after Sam Bradford’s knee acted up, an ominous development that can doom a team to an autumn of disenchantment and playing for draft pick position.

Despite the decisive defeat against the Steelers that day, though, there was a certain assurance Keenum gave his teammates that suggested they’d be all right.

“He’s a guy you want to play for,” wide receiver Adam Thielen said.

Four months later, the Vikings and Keenum are still playing. They’re two wins away from reaching the Super Bowl.

“It’s been a blast, man. It’s been incredible. I’m sure one of these days I’ll be able to look back and really appreciate it, but there’s so much to enjoy right now,” Keenum said. “Not really putting too much into perspective. Not really looking too much at the big picture. I’m keeping my blinders on.”

With a modest 6-foot-1, 215-pound frame, Keenum was mostly ignored by major college programs despite leading Abilene Wylie High School to its first state championship in football-obsessed Texas. Houston made his only FBS scholarship offer, from then-head coach Art Briles, and by the time Keenum was finished with the Cougars he was the NCAA’s all-time leading passer with 19,217 yards and 155 touchdowns. Yet he still went undrafted in 2012, needing the Houston Texans practice squad to get his professional career off the ground.

Keenum started 10 games over the next two years before being traded to the Rams in 2015, but they made Jared Goff the first pick in the 2016 draft so there was no future for Keenum there beyond being a veteran mentor.

Even Vikings head coach Mike Zimmer was among those who typecast Keenum as a just-in-case second-stringer. Zimmer acknowledged recently he didn’t gain full confidence in Keenum until the 11th or 12th game of the season and, when Teddy Bridgewater was cleared to play in mid-November, Zimmer never declared Keenum the starter for more than a week at a time.

“He just wanted a chance,” his father, Steve Keenum, said this week in a phone interview. “He’s got to have the knack. It’s just a God-given, innate thing that he’s maximized by working hard.”

As the oldest of his three children, Case made clear at an early age to Steve that he had the makeup to be an NFL quarterback even if there was no way to predict how the skill set would unfold.

“He was competitive in everything. It could be a board game. It could be playing darts. It could be playing cards. It didn’t matter. But if it had a ball, he wanted to do it,” said Steve, who was a high school and college coach around Texas for 24 years, including 10 seasons as the head coach at his alma mater McMurry University.

Good coaching, starting with dad’s tips in the family backyards, was another success factor.

When Briles left for Baylor, Kevin Sumlin arrived at Houston for Keenum’s sophomore year. Dana Holgorsen, now the head coach at West Virginia, was the offensive coordinator and quarterbacks coach. After he departed, Kliff Kingsbury, currently the head coach at Texas Tech, took charge of the quarterbacks.

“They had some speed, and the next thing you know they were throwing the ball all over the field,” said Steve, who attended all 57 of Case’s games with the Cougars and has been to each game he’s played for the Vikings. “They had some really talented kids. People talked about him being a system guy, with short passes and a run after the catch, but they didn’t see him play.”

Steve is now an area director for the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, an organization that Case has long been active in as well.

“He’s come to the realization like a lot of people in big situations that there are things that are really too big to do by yourself, and in order to stay grounded you’ve got to find somebody or something that you believe strongly in,” Steve said. “I think his faith has been that for him.”

Though Keenum had prior NFL experience, including nine starts for the Los Angeles Rams in 2016, he was signed by the Vikings as a one-year stopgap to be the guy in the ball cap providing sideline support and give Bridgewater ample time to recover from his colossal knee injury. Bradford had just produced an injury-free career-best performance in 2016, after all, so the Vikings were banking on him.

Over the last four months, though, they’ve been cashing in on Keenum, a dividend that has paid out handsomely for both parties.

“We’ve got a great group of guys here,” he said, “and I think we’re all excited to be extending our season.”

With offensive coordinator Pat Shurmur deftly adapting the team’s scheme to use Keenum’s mobility to better advantage and a sleeker offensive line mostly protecting him well, the Vikings have leaped up the league rankings in every significant statistical category. Among them: 28th to ninth in scoring touchdowns on possessions after passing the 20-yard line, and 19th to third in third-down conversions.

Keenum will start his first playoff game Sunday against New Orleans, with a raucous home crowd at U.S. Bank Stadium ready to cheer the next step toward the franchise’s elusive first championship.

“Our fans are awesome,” Keenum said. “All my friends and family who have come up from Texas and my friends from other teams that come in, they’ll text me after the games and they’ll be like, ‘Dude, that place is ridiculous.’ It really is.”

By Associated Press, published on STL.NEWS by St. Louis Media, LLC (J.S)

#disproving doubters #Keenum #QB #Vikings

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racingguimaraes · 8 years ago

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PORSCHE VENCE AS 24H DE LE MANS DE 2017

http://ift.tt/2sPTUZF

PORSCHE VENCE AS 24H DE LE MANS DE 2017

De último (57º) para a vitória nas 24 Horas de Le Mans. Quem diria que o Porsche 919 número 2 viria a ganhar a edição deste ano depois de ter perdido mais de uma hora em reparações nas primeiras horas da corrida.

Mas venceu, contra todas as expetativas, aproveitando a hecatombe da Toyota e o azar do Porsche 919 número 1 que liderou durante as primeiras horas da madrugada, ultrapassando o Oreca # 38 da Jackie Chan DC Racing, que liderou a corrida e os LMP2, quando faltava uma hora para o final.

O 919 número 2 de Timo Bernhard, Earl Bamber e Brendon Hartley cruzou a linha de meta com uma vantagem de uma volta sobre o Oreca número 38, que venceu na categoria LMP2. É a terceira vitória consecutiva e a 19ª da Porsche nas 24 Horas de Le Mans.

O único Toyota sobrevivente, o número 8, terminou no nono lugar da geral, a 9 voltas do vencedor.

No LMP2, como se disse, o Oreca # 38 da Jackie Chan DC Racing, com Ho-Pin Tung, Thomas Laurent e Oliver Jarvis, venceu, deixando os mais diretos adversários, Nelson Piquet Jr, David Henmeier Hanson e Mathias Beche, a mais de três voltas.

Filipe Albuquerque terminou em quinto com o Ligier # 32 da United Autosports que dividiu com Will Owen e Hugo de Sadeleer.

Nos GTE Pro, a vitória decidiu-se na penúltima volta quando um furo tirou o Corvette C7 R # 63 de Jan Magnussen, Antonio Garcia e Jordan Taylor da liderança e ofereceu a vitória ao Aston Martin # 97 de Jonathan Adam, Darren Turner e Daniel Serra.

O furo acabou por relegar o Corvette para o terceiro posto, atrás do Ford GT # 67 de Harry Tincknell, Andy Priaulx e Pipo Derani.

Em GTE Am, três Ferrari 488 nos três primeiros lugares. O melhor foi o número 84 de Dries Vanthoor, Will Stevens e Robert Simth, na frente do Ferrari 488 da JMW Motorsport de Marco Cioci, Aaron Scott e Duncan Camero, e do Ferrari 488 # 55 da Spirit of Race, e por Cooper McNeil, William Sweedler e Towsend Bell no Ferrari 488 # 62 da Scuderia Corsa.

Pedro Lamy teve de contentar-se com o oitavo lugar no Aston Martin # 98 que dividiu com Mathias Lauda e Paul Dalla Lana, enquanto Álvaro Parente foi 11º no Ferrari 488# 60 da Clearwater que partilhou com Richard Wee e Hiroki Katoh.

RESULTADO DA CORRIDA

O número mínimo de voltas para classificação (70% da distância de corrida geral do carro vencedor) foi de 257 voltas. Vencedores da classe em negrito.

CLASSE

Nº

EQUIPA

PILOTOS

CHASSIS

VOLTAS

TEMPO

MOTORES

LMP1

PORSCHE LMP TEAM

TIMO BERNHARD

BRENDON HARTLEY

EARL BAMBER

PORSCHE 919 HYBRID

367

24:01:14.075

PORSCHE 2.0 L TURBO V4

LMP2

JACKIE CHAN DC RACING

HO-PIN TUNG

THOMAS LAURENT

OLIVER JARVIS

ORECA 07

366

+1 VOLTA

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

VAILLANTE REBELLION

NELSON PIQUET JR.

MATHIAS BECHE

DAVID HEINEMEIER HANSSON

ORECA 07

364

+3 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

JACKIE CHAN DC RACING

DAVID CHENG

TRISTAN GOMMENDY

ALEX BRUNDLE

ORECA 07

363

+4 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

SIGNATECH ALPINE MATMUT

NELSON PANCIATICI

PIERRE RAGUES

ANDRÉ NEGRÃO

ALPINE A470

362

+5 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

UNITED AUTOSPORTS

WILLIAM OWEN

HUGO DE SADELEER

FILIPE ALBUQUERQUE

LIGIER JS P217

362

+5 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

GRAFF

JAMES ALLEN

RICHARD BRADLEY

FRANCK MATELLI

ORECA 07

361

+6 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

CEFC MANOR TRS RACING

TOR GRAVES

JONATHAN HIRSCHI

JEAN-ÉRIC VERGNE

ORECA 07

360

+7 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP1

TOYOTA GAZOO RACING

SÉBASTIEN BUEMI

KAZUKI NAKAJIMA

ANTHONY DAVIDSON

TOYOTA TS050 HYBRID

358

+9 VOLTAS

TOYOTA 2.4 L TURBO V6

LMP2

CETILAR VILLORBA CORSE

ANDREA BELICCHI

ROBERTO LACORTE

GIORGIO SERNAGIOTTO

DALLARA P217

353

+14 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

SIGNATECH ALPINE MATMUT

ROMAIN DUMAS

GUSTAVO MENEZES

MATT RAO

ALPINE A470

351

+16 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

TOCKWITH MOTORSPORTS

PHILIP HANSON

NIGEL MOORE

KARUN CHANDHOK

LIGIER JS P217

351

+16 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

IDEC SPORT RACING

PATRICE LAFARGUE

PAUL LAFARGUE

DAVID ZOLLINGER

LIGIER JS P217

344

+23 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

RACING TEAM NEDERLAND

RUBENS BARRICHELLO

JAN LAMMERS

FRITS VAN EERD

DALLARA P217

344

+23 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

DRAGONSPEED – 10 STAR

HENRIK HEDMAN

FELIX ROSENQVIST

BEN HANLEY

ORECA 07

343

+24 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

EURASIA MOTORSPORT

JACQUES NICOLET

PIERRE NICOLET

ERIK MARIS

LIGIER JS P217

341

+26 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

VAILLANTE REBELLION

BRUNO SENNA

NICOLAS PROST

JULIEN CANAL

ORECA 07

340

+27 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMGTE PRO

ASTON MARTIN RACING

DARREN TURNER

JONATHAN ADAM

DANIEL SERRA

ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GTE

340

+27 VOLTAS

ASTON MARTIN 4.5 L V8

LMGTE PRO

FORD CHIP GANASSI TEAM UK

HARRY TINCKNELL

ANDY PRIAULX

PIPO DERANI

FORD GT

340

+27 VOLTAS

FORD ECOBOOST 3.5 L TURBO V6

LMGTE PRO

CORVETTE RACING – GM

JAN MAGNUSSEN

ANTONIO GARCÍA

JORDAN TAYLOR

CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R

340

+27 VOLTAS

CHEVROLET 5.5 L V8

LMGTE PRO

PORSCHE GT TEAM

RICHARD LIETZ

FRÉDÉRIC MAKOWIECKI

PATRICK PILET

PORSCHE 911 RSR

339

+28 VOLTAS

PORSCHE 4.0 L FLAT-6

LMGTE PRO

AF CORSE

DAVIDE RIGON

SAM BIRD

MIGUEL MOLINA

FERRARI 488 GTE

339

+28 VOLTAS

FERRARI F154CB 3.9 L TURBO V8

LMGTE PRO

FORD CHIP GANASSI TEAM USA

JOEY HAND

TONY KANAAN

DIRK MÜLLER

FORD GT

339

+28 VOLTAS

FORD ECOBOOST 3.5 L TURBO V6

LMGTE PRO

FORD CHIP GANASSI TEAM USA

RYAN BRISCOE

SCOTT DIXON

RICHARD WESTBROOK

FORD GT

337

+30 VOLTAS

FORD ECOBOOST 3.5 L TURBO V6

LMGTE PRO

CORVETTE RACING – GM

OLIVER GAVIN

TOMMY MILNER

MARCEL FÄSSLER

CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R

335

+32 VOLTAS

CHEVROLET 5.5 L V8

LMGTE PRO

ASTON MARTIN RACING

NICKI THIIM

MARCO SØRENSEN

RICHIE STANAWAY

ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GTE

334

+33 VOLTAS

ASTON MARTIN 4.5 L V8

LMGTE AM

JMW MOTORSPORT

ROBERT SMITH

WILL STEVENS

DRIES VANTHOOR

FERRARI 488 GTE

333

+34 VOLTAS

FERRARI F136GT 4.5 L V8

LMGTE PRO

FORD CHIP GANASSI TEAM UK

STEFAN MÜCKE

OLIVIER PLA

BILLY JOHNSON

FORD GT

332

+35 VOLTAS

FORD ECOBOOST 3.5 L TURBO V6

LMGTE AM

SPIRIT OF RACE

DUNCAN CAMERON

AARON SCOTT

MARCO CIOCI

FERRARI 488 GTE

331

+36 VOLTAS

FERRARI F154CB 3.9 L TURBO V8

LMGTE AM

SCUDERIA CORSA

COOPER MACNEIL

BILL SWEEDLER

TOWNSEND BELL

FERRARI 488 GTE

331

+36 VOLTAS

FERRARI F154CB 3.9 L TURBO V8

LMGTE AM

BEECHDEAN AMR

ANDREW HOWARD

ROSS GUNN

OLIVER BRYANT

ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GTE

331

+36 VOLTAS

ASTON MARTIN 4.5 L V8

LMGTE AM

CLEARWATER RACING

WENG SUN MOK

KEITA SAWA

MATT GRIFFIN

FERRARI 488 GTE

330

+37 VOLTAS

FERRARI F154CB 3.9 L TURBO V8

LMP2

ALGARVE PRO RACING

MARK PATTERSON

MATT MCMURRY

VINCENT CAPILLAIRE

LIGIER JS P217

330

+37 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMP2

SMP RACING

MIKHAIL ALESHIN

SERGEY SIROTKIN

VIKTOR SHAITAR

DALLARA P217

330

+37 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMGTE AM

DEMPSEY-PROTON RACING

CHRISTIAN RIED

MARVIN DIENST

MATTEO CAIROLI

PORSCHE 911 RSR

329

+38 VOLTAS

PORSCHE 4.0 L FLAT-6

LMGTE AM

TF SPORT

SALIH YOLUC

EUAN HANKEY

ROB BELL

ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GTE

329

+38 VOLTAS

ASTON MARTIN 4.5 L V8

LMGTE AM

ASTON MARTIN RACING

PAUL DALLA LANA

MATHIAS LAUDA

PEDRO LAMY

ASTON MARTIN VANTAGE GTE

329

+38 VOLTAS

ASTON MARTIN 4.5 L V8

LMGTE AM

PROTON COMPETITION

PATRICK LONG

MIKE HEDLUND

ABDULAZIZ AL FAISAL

PORSCHE 911 RSR

329

+38 VOLTAS

PORSCHE 4.0 L FLAT-6

LMGTE AM

GULF RACING UK

MICHAEL WAINWRIGHT

BEN BARKER

NICK FOSTER

PORSCHE 911 RSR

328

+39 VOLTAS

PORSCHE 4.0 L FLAT-6

LMP2

G-DRIVE RACING

MEMO ROJAS

RYŌ HIRAKAWA

JOSÉ GUTIÉRREZ

ORECA 07

327

+40 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMGTE AM

CLEARWATER RACING

RICHARD WEE

ÁLVARO PARENTE

HIROKI KATOH

FERRARI 488 GTE

327

+40 VOLTAS

FERRARI F154CB 3.9 L TURBO V8

LMGTE AM

SPIRIT OF RACE

THOMAS FLOHR

FRANCESCO CASTELLACCI

OLIVIER BERETTA

FERRARI 488 GTE

326

+41 VOLTAS

FERRARI F154CB 3.9 L TURBO V8

LMGTE AM

DH RACING

TRACY KROHN

NICLAS JÖNSSON

ANDREA BERTOLINI

FERRARI 488 GTE

320

+47 VOLTAS

FERRARI F154CB 3.9 L TURBO V8

LMP2

GRAFF

ERIC TROUILLET

ENZO GUIBBERT

JAMES WINSLOW

ORECA 07

318

+49 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMGTE AM

SCUDERIA CORSA

CHRISTINA NIELSEN

ALESSANDRO BALZAN

BRET CURTIS

FERRARI 488 GTE

314

+53 VOLTAS

FERRARI F154CB 3.9 L TURBO V8

LMP2

ARC BRATISLAVA

MIROSLAV KONÔPKA

KONSTANTĪNS CALKO

RIK BREUKERS

LIGIER JS P217

314

+53 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMGTE PRO

AF CORSE

JAMES CALADO

ALESSANDRO PIER GUIDI

MICHELE RUGOLO

FERRARI 488 GTE

312

+55 VOLTAS

FERRARI F154CB 3.9 L TURBO V8

LMP2

KEATING MOTORSPORT

BEN KEATING

RICKY TAYLOR

JEROEN BLEEKEMOLEN

RILEY MK. 30

312

+55 VOLTAS

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

LMGTE AM

LARBRE COMPÉTITION

ROMAIN BRANDELA

CHRISTIAN PHILIPPON

FERNANDO REES

CHEVROLET CORVETTE C7.R

309

+58 VOLTAS

CHEVROLET 5.5 L V8

DNF

LMP1

PORSCHE LMP TEAM

NEEL JANI

NICK TANDY

ANDRÉ LOTTERER

PORSCHE 919 HYBRID

318

MECÂNICO

PORSCHE 2.0 L TURBO V4

DNF

LMP2

PANIS BARTHEZ COMPETITION

FABIEN BARTHEZ

TIMOTHÉ BURET

NATHANAËL BERTHON

LIGIER JS P217

296

RETIRADO

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

DNF

LMP2

TDS RACING

FRANÇOIS PERRODO

EMMANUEL COLLARD

MATTHIEU VAXIVIÈRE

ORECA 07

213

RETIRADO

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

DNF

LMGTE PRO

PORSCHE GT TEAM

MICHAEL CHRISTENSEN

KÉVIN ESTRE

DIRK WERNER

PORSCHE 911 RSR

179

RETIRADO

PORSCHE 4.0 L FLAT-6

DNF

LMP1

TOYOTA GAZOO RACING

JOSÉ MARÍA LÓPEZ

NICOLAS LAPIERRE

YUJI KUNIMOTO

TOYOTA TS050 HYBRID

160

PUNÇÃO

TOYOTA 2.4 L TURBO V6

DNF

LMP1

TOYOTA GAZOO RACING

MIKE CONWAY

KAMUI KOBAYASHI

STÉPHANE SARRAZIN

TOYOTA TS050 HYBRID

154

EMBRIAGUEM

TOYOTA 2.4 L TURBO V6

DNF

LMP2

CEFC MANOR TRS RACING

ROBERTO GONZÁLEZ

SIMON TRUMMER

VITALY PETROV

ORECA 07

152

COLISÃO

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

DNF

LMGTE PRO

RISI COMPETIZIONE

TONI VILANDER

GIANCARLO FISICHELLA

PIERRE KAFFER

FERRARI 488 GTE

COLISÃO

FERRARI F154CB 3.9 L TURBO V8

DNF

LMP2

G-DRIVE RACING

ROMAN RUSINOV

PIERRE THIRIET

ALEX LYNN

ORECA 07

COLISÃO

GIBSON GK428 4.2 L V8

DNF

LMGTE AM

PROTON COMPETITION

KLAUS BACHLER

STÉPHANE LÉMERET

KHALID AL QUBAISI

PORSCHE 911 RSR

COLISÃO

PORSCHE 4.0 L FLAT-6

DNF

LMP1

BYKOLLES RACING TEAM

DOMINIK KRAIHAMER

OLIVER WEBB

MARCO BONANOMI

ENSO CLM P01/01

RETIRADO

NISMO VRX30A 3.0 L TURBO V6

via Blogger 24 LE MANS

#IFTTT #Blogger

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wutbju · 8 years ago

Photo

So this is the next big step.

Bob Jones University will appear before the SACSCOC accreditation board in the middle of June, 2017, to hear the board’s conclusion about Bob Jones University’s candidacy status.

Who’s on that Board?

Sandra J. Jordan, Chancellor, University of South Carolina – Aiken, Aiken (Executive Council Member and Chair of State Delegation)

Ronnie L. Booth, President, Tri-County Technical College, Pendleton

Richard J. Gough, President, Technical College of the Lowcountry, Beaufort

Chuck Knepfle, Director of Financial Aid, Clemson University, Clemson

S. Craig Long, Performance Solutions by Milliken Fellow, Milliken Corporation, Spartanburg (Public Representative)

S. David Mash, Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, Lander University, Greenwood

Maurice W. Scherrens, President, Newberry College, Newberry

JoAnn W. Haysbert, Chancellor and Provost, Hampton University, Hampton (Executive Council Member and Chair of the State Delegation)

John S. Capps, President, Central Virginia Community College, Lynchburg

Nancy Oliver Gray, President, Hollins University, Roanoke

Barbara Johnson, Retired Business Owner, Onancock (Public Representative)

Michael C. Maxey, President, Roanoke College, Salem

Larry D. Hostetter, President, Brescia University, Owensboro (Executive Council Member and Chair of State Delegation)

Marcia A. Hawkins, President, Union College, Barbourville

Joseph A. Morgan, Provost, Murray State University, Murray

Madison C. Silvert, President and CEO, Greater Owensboro Economic Development Corporation, Owensboro (Public Representative , Executive Council )

Alissa L. Young, Chief Academic Affairs Officer, Hopkinsville Community College, Hopkinsville

A. Frank Bonner, President, Gardner-Webb University, Boiling Springs (Executive Council Member and Chair of State Delegation)

Rebecca G. Adams, Professor of Sociology and Gerontology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, Greensboro

Jo Allen, President, Meredith College, Raleigh

Kandi W. Deitemeyer, President, Central Piedmont Community College, Charlotte

Deborah D. Grimes, Senior Vice President of Instruction & Student Services, Lenoir Community College, Kinston

Duane K. Larick, Senior Vice Provost, Strategic Initiatives and Dean, Graduate School, North Carolina State University, Raleigh

John Leidy, Attorney & Partner, Hornthal, Riley, Ellis & Miland, Elizabeth City (Public Representative)

Joseph A. DiPietro, President, University of Tennessee, Knoxville (Executive Council Member and Chair of State Delegation)

Kimberely B. Hall, Executive Vice President/Provost, South College, Knoxville

Timothy P. McNamara, Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University, Nashville

Nancy B. Moody, President, Tusculum College, Greeneville (Chair of SACSCOC Board of Trustees)

Claude Pressnell, Jr., President, Tennessee Independent Colleges and Universities Association, Nashville (Public Representative)

Michael David Rudd, President, University of Memphis, Memphis

John S. Smarrelli, Jr., President, Christian Brothers University, Memphis

L. Anthony Wise, Jr., President, Pellissippi State Community College, Knoxville

D. Ray Perren, President, Lanier Technical College, Oakwood (Executive Council Member and Chair of State Delegation)

Ivan Allen, President, Central Georgia Technical College, Warner Robins

O. Max Burns, President, Gordon State College, Barnesville

Thomas J. Hynes, President, Clayton State University, Morrow

Daniel Jackson, President and CEO, Carroll Tomorrow & Carroll County Chamber of Commerce, Carrollton (Public Representative)

Kina S. Mallard, President, Reinhardt University, Waleska

Russell J. Mumper, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, University of Georgia, Athens

James S. Netherton, Executive Vice President for Administration & Finances, Mercer University, Macon

G. David Johnson, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of South Alabama, Mobile (Executive Council Member and Chair of State Delegation)

George T. French, President, Miles College, Fairfield

Glenda F. Colagross, Interim President, Southern Union State Community College, Opelika

Suzanne Ozment, Provost/Vice President for Academic Affairs, University of Montevallo, Montevallo

Rita M. Prince, Patterson Prince & Associates, P.C., Florence (Public Representative)

Patricia G. Sims, Dean, College of Education, Athens State University, Athens

Alfred Rankins, Jr., President, Alcorn State University, Lorman (Executive Council Member and Chair of State Delegation)

James Borsig, President, Mississippi University for Women, Columbus

Mary S. Graham, President, Mississippi Gulf Coast Community College, Perkinston

W. Briggs Hopson, III, Teller, Hassell & Hopson, Vicksburg (Public Representative)

Larry D. Sparks, Vice Chancellor for Administration and Finance, University of Mississippi, Oxford

Natalie J. Harder, Chancellor, South Louisiana Community College, Lafayette (Executive Council Member and Chair of State Delegation)

Jimmy M. Cairo, Dean, School of Allied Health Professions, LSU Health Sciences Center, New Orleans

John L. Crain, President, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond

N. Kevin Krane, Vice Dean for Academic Affairs, Tulane University, New Orleans

Bruce T. Murphy, President, Nicholls State University, Thibodaux

Michael Woods, President, Woods Operating Company, Shreveport (Public Representative)

Brenda L. Hellyer, Chancellor, San Jacinto College, Pasadena (Executive Council Member and Chair of State Delegation)

John M. Cornwell, Associate Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness, Rice University, Houston

Sandra S. Harper, President, McMurry University, Abilene

Dana G. Hoyt, President, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville

Peter G. Jordan, President, Tarrant County College, South Campus, Fort Worth

Brenda S. Kays, President, Kilgore College, Kilgore

Flavius C. Killebrew, President Emeritus/Professor of Biology, Texas A & M University-Corpus Christi, Corpus Christi

Ray Martinez, President, Independent Colleges and Universities of Texas, Austin (Public Representative)

Johnette McKown, President, McLennan Community College, Waco

M. Duane Nellis, Past President and University Honors President, Strategic Initiatives, Texas Tech University, Lubbock

Neal J. Smatresk, President, University of North Texas, Denton

Franklyn M. Casale, President, St. Thomas University, Miami Gardens (Executive Council Member and Chair of State Delegation)

Elizabeth M. Bejar, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Florida International University, Miami

Timothy S. Brophy, Director of Institutional Assessment, University of Florida, Gainesville

Nancy Clutts, Partner, The Corbin Group, Tavares (Public Representative)

Ruth S. Feiock, Associate Vice President for Academic Affairs and SACSCOC Liaison, Florida State University, Tallahassee

John D. Grosskopf, President, North Florida Community College, Madison

Jonathan Gueverra, President, Florida Keys Community College, Key West

G. Devin Stephenson, President, Northwest Florida State College, Niceville

#Bob Jones University #SACSCOC #FAQ 3.0 #SACSCOC Board #June Meeting #Candidacy

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junker-town · 8 years ago

Text

How France is bringing romance back to American football

Illustrations by Brittany Holloway-Brown

Finding the romance in football américain

By taking football out of America, the French made it more communal and passionate than ever

Louis Bien •

La Courneuve may not have become France’s football powerhouse if Bruno Lacam-Caron hadn’t chased a girl. They were dating when she introduced him to a classmate named Yazid Mabrouki, who told Lacam-Caron that he wanted to start an American football club — football américain, in the parlance — in their dirty little Paris suburb 32 years ago. Lacam-Caron thought that joining the Flash might bring him even closer to her.

His relationship with football endured longer than his relationship with the girl, who he later married then divorced. He has never left the Flash, through the long period when the team was a glorified group of friends playing in a park, to now as a European Football League powerhouse. The Flash have won the French championship nine times and claimed a European championship. They have never been relegated out of France’s Élite division. Lacam-Caron has been the team’s general manager since 1994.

American football is a sub-chic sport in France, fervently practiced but in just a few small, insular places like La Courneuve and Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône in the Paris suburbs, or Thonon-les-Bains in the Alps. It has become French like so many things that define France — simple and good, rough and beautiful, like red wine and two-top cafés. It isn’t ubiquitous, but the sport is growing. There are now approximately more than 22,000 American football players in France, up from 2,000 20 years ago.

Lacam-Caron was one of the first few.

At age 14, he was living in the middle of France when his older brother died of leukemia, then he went — “psheeewwww,” he says — to Paris to live with his mother. Lacam-Caron’s parents were divorced and he didn’t like his stepmother or stepfather. He laughs and admits he was “a big asshole.” He says that maybe 80 percent of the original 26-person team was in trouble with the law, including him. He stole car radios and sold them. The other guys stole money, cars and wallets.

“It was a good salvation for me and my friends to be on this team,” Lacam-Caron says. “Because we create a new thing, a new family. We didn’t have a past. We come in like virgin people.”

Lacam-Caron didn’t care that he was playing an “American” sport. The sport shaped him as he and his teammates were simultaneously interpreting it 5,500 miles from the States.

France’s first American football club formed in 1980, four years before the Flash. In the years since, Lacam-Caron has helped build the Flash into a self-sufficient football machine, just as other programs are being molded in hidden places around France. French football exists. It isn’t a secret. It is spreading as a whisper you must be privileged enough to hear. And to the sport’s closest caretakers, that’s just fine.

“What does La Courneuve mean?” Mike Leach is wondering. “Is it some dude’s name, you think?”

I think the Washington State head coach thinks I know because of my name, and because I pronounce French words better than he does. I say it may have something to do with roosters, which isn’t even a little bit correct.

“They like roosters and frogs,” Leach says. “Why the fascination with roosters and frogs?”

The rooster is the national bird, and I think they just like to eat frogs.

“Well you know Benjamin Franklin thought the wild turkey should have been our national bird.”

The question I asked was about Flash de La Courneuve’s pro style offense and whether that was Lacam-Caron’s influence. Leach has been a friend and consultant to the program since 2010. He knows the Flash almost as well as anyone, but curiosity gets ahead of him a lot.

Leach loves history and wants to travel more, talk to more people, and see more things. His first head coaching job — 11 years before he took over Texas Tech, and 23 years before he took over Washington State — was with the Pori Bears in Finland. He had to have an interpreter tell his players what he wanted them to do. Physical demonstrations often translated better than words.

“Sometimes they’d laugh at inopportune times, and I’d be like, ‘Uh, hey, well hopefully you got that,’“ Leach says. “They were probably goofing on me, which would be understandable.”

Shortly after Leach was fired from Texas Tech in 2009, he met Lacam-Caron in a roundabout way through a former Flash quarterback named Braxton Shaver.

Shaver came from McMurry University, a small Methodist college in Texas, to play two seasons in La Courneuve before trying to find “a real job.” Then he decided he missed his friends in France and went back to La Courneuve to play three more.

Shaver’s last season in France was in 2006. In 2009, Lacam-Caron reached out to Shaver because Hal Mumme, the godfather of the Air Raid offense, had become McMurry’s head coach, and he wanted to know if the coaching legend was interested in visiting the Flash.

Mumme declined the offer, but he put Shaver in touch with Leach, who was living in Florida without a coaching job. Leach had wanderlust and a lot of time on his hands. He and Lacam-Caron exchanged a few phone calls, and then Leach was on a plane to spend a week in La Courneuve as a guest of the Flash.

“I was in touch with him, he said, ‘It’s not a joke. It’s Mike Leach,’” Lacam-Caron says. “And fuck, Mike Leach came.”

In La Courneuve, a street market envelops the games. The city is a popular place for artists and writers who want to live in “Paris” without paying the rent. A good deal of the population, 36.3 percent, was born outside of France’s five-pointed continental footprint. Booths outside the stadium sell dishes from Guadeloupe, Martinique and Tahiti. Inside the stadium, music will be blasting, “and the best way to describe it is ‘explicit,’” laughs Shaver.

He and Leach became close friends after that first meeting. They explored Cuba together. In 2015, Shaver traveled to the Middle East by himself, a trip he says he could only do because of the confidence he developed when he continued his playing career in La Courneuve instead of some Texas arena league.

American football clubs in France need American imports to succeed. American players are simply better — they start playing football at an earlier age, in better facilities, with more quality coaches, and a more rigorous practice schedule.

The way Leach and Shaver landed in La Courneuve is the same way that players in far-flung schools come to France. Few people seek it out. The opportunity has to come to them, often by word of mouth, and then players have to be daring enough to go.

“There’s a story you always hear, a kind of agreed upon story, of Division I football players from big schools sometimes don’t do so well when they go to the European leagues,” Shaver says. “They carry their pads to practice, they’ve got to ride the subway, they’ve got to wash their own clothes when they get home.”

They’re good players, but they have to be a little scruffy to end up in France. Ryan Perrilloux, former five-star prodigal son of Louisiana football, started last season for the Argonautes in Aix-en-Provence. Josh Turner, once a top-150 high school recruit for Texas, was the offseason’s prize signing for the Thonon-les-Bains Black Panthers, even though he was never much more than special teams ace for the Longhorns. He served a two-game suspension in 2014. Black Panthers president Benoit Sirouet calls him “the best athlete of his time here in France.”

Thonon-les-Bains is the most secluded of France’s football cities, hugged between the French Alps and Lake Geneva. The town is next to Évian-les-bains of Evian Water fame, and the Black Panthers play their games in full view of the real life three mountain tops on the bottle label. Players joked that they were showering in Evian water after games: The water from the shower heads really was that clear.

Thonon is small, a town of about 40,000 people where football is bigger than even soccer or rugby. American football is the only sport in which Thonon can claim a top-league team all its own. Sirouet says the club now has almost 500 members. The Élite squad won back-to-back titles in 2013 and 2014 behind French national team head coach Larry Legault.

Sirouet attracts a lot of athletes who are tired of France’s obsession with soccer. The Black Panthers regularly draw 1,000 to 2,000 people to watch home games at perhaps the best American football facilities in the country.

“It’s pretty weird seeing like a full turf practice field in the middle of France,” says Sam Poulos, a former dual-threat quarterback for Grinnell College in Iowa. He will be going back to Thonon to play a second season. “That’s a lot of money for a town or team to put in.”

American players get paid, too. The monthly stipend isn’t much — 500-800 euros a month depending on the club — but most of their French teammates pay dues, and often buy their own equipment.

The perks are better than the pay. Poulos gets housing and a car that he shared last season with former Idaho State linebacker P.J. Gremaud. The team was sponsored by local restaurants, so Poulos and Gremaud could go to a different establishment every night and get a free meal.

Clubs practice just two or three times per week and play games every other weekend. There’s no comprehensive film study. Most of the French players have to work jobs, or go to school, or be parents. Poulos and Gremaud, free of the football regimen as they knew it, took mid-week trips into the surrounding nature, up into the mountains.

“It was absolutely incredible,” Poulos says. “One of the more beautiful things I’ve ever seen.”

Shaver has been back to La Courneuve from Texas five or six times since his last season. Leach visited a second time in 2015 to host a football camp, and hosted three Flash coaches to shadow his staff for three weeks through the Boise State game in September. Lacam-Caron once asked Leach if he would like to coach for the Flash. Leach said no, but the offer stands.

“I’ve actually thought about if and when I ever retire,” Leach says. “Just pick out someplace over there and I guess rent a house … satellite from there and kind of saturate the region.”

Shaver will will hop on a plane for any flimsy reason to come back. He likes the idiosyncrasies.

“After a game in college, we’d all gather around on the field and say the Lord’s Prayer, right?” he says. “At La Courneuve, at the end of the game they bring out Heinekens.”

Anthony Dablé would rather he never play in France again. Just a handful of French players have ever made it to the NFL for even a tryout. Richard “Le Sack” Tardits, born in Bayonne, set the career sack record at Georgia before spending three seasons with the Patriots until 1992. He is the only French person to ever play a regular season game in the NFL. Dablé could be second, and the first who was entirely Euro-raised.

Dablé came close last year. In February, he signed a one-year minimum contact with the Giants to play wide receiver, but was cut from the team at the final roster deadline. He bided his time in Boca Raton, training at XPE Sports Academy, throughout the season. He had tryouts with the Jets and Patriots in September. In early January, he signed a reserve/futures contract with the Falcons and may finally take the field in 2017. At 28, his opportunity is now and only now.

When he was 17 his cousin showed him the video game NFL Quarterback Club ‘98. Dablé didn’t understand the rules, but he understood big plays when they happened — long passes and kickoff returns — not just by the yards they gained but by how scarce they were, even in the polygonal universe.

“And you know that it’s special because it doesn’t happen all the time,” Dablé says. “You have a lot of runs, and short gains and everything, so when you have a big pass and a big play, you understand.”

Dablé calls football his father. His biological father wasn’t around as he grew up, something he was OK with until he was 19 and rudderless. He had dropped out of his university psychology program and was working in fast food when he joined the Grenoble Centaures, his local team.

The machinations that wear down some players invigorated Dablé. He spent hours, daily, watching clips on NFL.com. He watched so much American football that he learned how to speak English from the commentary. His 6′4 frame is prototypical in the United States, and mammoth in France where football doesn’t usually attract many of the best physical athletes. With the Centaures, he had several coaches teaching him the game, hands on, no translation needed.

Dablé became a specialized big play weapon.

“The mindset and the lessons that you get from football, and the game of football is so similar to life,” Dablé says. “It tells you not to give up, and to have a plan, and help each other, have each other’s back.”

Dablé’s first career reception was a slant he housed in his first game in front of a crowd made up of friends and family. The first big game he played was in front of 7,000 people for the Élite division championship against the Flash in 2011, in which he caught another touchdown.

“It’s like practice is the way it works,” Dablé says. “Whether it’s one person or 100,000, that’s the same. You just have to do your job.”

In 2011, Dablé watched a man who looked a lot like him go No. 4 overall in the NFL Draft. A.J. Green was 6’4, 211 pounds, with a 4.5 in the 40-yard dash — like Dablé, or close enough. He set his eyes on the more competitive German league, joining the Berlin Rebels, then the New Yorker Lions, Europe’s preeminent club. In two seasons, Dablé caught 145 passes for 2,437 yards, and 32 touchdowns. He won two German titles and the Euro Bowl — Europe’s Super Bowl.

In early 2016, the NFL called. His agent had forwarded Dablé’s tape to the NFL United Kingdom office, where it found former Giants defensive end Osi Umenyiora, now working as a league ambassador. Umenyiora brought Dablé to London the next day for a workout, then — upon confirming that Dablé was the same athlete he saw on tape — told him to take a trip to Florida to train for the NFL regional combines.

The Giants hosted Dablé for a tryout two weeks later, then signed him right after. He was wanted. His mother cried. He couldn’t stay on the roster, but he knows now that he belongs to a class of people who can call themselves the best in the world at something. His future is in football, and he says he will only play it at the highest level before heading off to the sport’s peripheries, into coaching or broadcasting.

“When you get to a certain level, it’s harder to go back down,” Dablé says. “It’s going to be boring.”

Dablé misses the kinship of small-time French football and where it has brought him. It’s hard to make friends with NFL players, especially as a complete outsider, he admits. Rosters turn over rapidly. Some cliques have been in place since high school when many professional players remember playing against each other.

But returning would be like admitting he needs the coddling of a parent. France doesn’t get the external attention that mounts pressure and creates prestige.

“Because really a game of football is just four quarters,” Dablé says. “What’s happening is advertisements and a show — before the game, the tailgate, and all the family comes and they have a barbecue together — that dynamic that brings the game of football has to happen in France so that it can grow.

“Because even in France, it’s not called football it’s called American football, so people know it’s American. That’s not our sport.”

The French don’t genuflect. John McKeon, a former NC State offensive guard, played in La Courneuve after a stint with the Helsinki Roosters in Finland. He thought he had a chance to make the NFL as a 38-game starter who had helped protect Philip Rivers. When he didn’t stick, he said “oh shit” and went abroad. McKeon had NFL size, but his new teammates stood up to him.

“A lot of these guys are paying to play, they come in after work, after they’ve had a long day at work, they’re tired,” McKeon says. “There was this defensive end who I think played Division II or Division III ball here in the U.S., but he was a French citizen. … He comes in right off that bat, head down, trying to take out the new American kid, who they’re paying to be here.”

McKeon now runs American Football International, a website chronicling American football as it is played outside the United States. Joining the Flash allowed him to go to places like Moscow, Barcelona, and Vienna. Culturally, it felt more like football as he wanted it to be.

“It’s that community aspect — ‘I’ve played next to this guy for five, 10 years,’” McKeon says. “We love the game, we love each other, it’s not because I’m getting paid a lot of money. And that kind of goes back to why I fell in love with football. I was disenfranchised with college.

“College is not a friendly sport. College is a professional sport.”

Formal American football has existed in France for more than 30 years now, despite its barriers to entry. Few major sports are as unintuitive, or require so much space, expensive equipment, and bodies. Marc-Angelo Soumah remembers when teammates used to play in motorcycle helmets. “[We] didn’t know much about the game, but we had a lot of enthusiasm,” he says.

Soumah was a Flash player in the 90s before joining Browns training camp as a 29-year-old wide receiver in 2003. He later became president of the Fédération française de football américain (FFFA) and is now head coach of the second-division Fontenay-sous-Bois Météores. He once had to work an entire summer so he could buy his own equipment. Back then there was just one supplier called Trocasport, and cleats, a helmet, and a full set of pads could cost $2,000 in French francs.

American football was too expensive to be played on a whim back then. Today, newcomers to American football can afford to play more casually. Xavier Mas, head coach of the two-time defending French champion Saint-Ouen-l’Aumône Cougars, has noticed that his under-19 players seem to have different motivations than he did.

“Some of these kids, they only have two practices, and they are like asking for, ‘Do you have this type of glove?’“ Mas says. “And I’m like, ‘Dude, you don’t even know how to play football and you’re already talking about how you will look on the field?’

“I’m trying to find a football player and not a model.”

The clubs do a good job of managing themselves, but they lack strong central organization. The FFFA doesn’t have the resources to do much more than sponsor the teams in France. The most equipped organization in Europe, the International Federation of American Football (IFAF), is a farce of leadership disputes and dysfunction, exemplified by the 2015 IFAF World Championship.

In France, club-level caretakers like Lacam-Caron, Sirouet, and Mas are the most competent drivers of the sport’s development. They are first-generation football players, so their stake is personal. They are inclined to protect what they feel is best about American football, even if it means neglecting attention and profitability.

The word “American” in the name of the sport works against it. The French are notoriously wary of anything they think might impinge on their cultural identity. The government has been trying to beat back marauding vacationers for decades, and has resisted the English language’s global takeover. Media coverage of American football largely centers on head trauma and domestic abuse scandals.

French football clubs have agreed on a few small gestures to distinguish themselves. There’s a reason the name of the France’s championship game — Le Casque de Diamant, the diamond helmet — is not a “bowl.”

“I am French,” Soumah explained in a 2015 interview. “For me, if I call it a ‘Bowl,’ I’m going to have the impression of copying the Americans. A French name shows that it is appropriate [for France].”

The growth of the sport would accelerate if international players started popping up in the NFL — say, if Dablé or Vikings receiver Moritz Boehringer from Germany became American football’s Tony Parker and Dirk Nowitzki, respectively. The NFL is understandably hesitant to invest in an unstructured system, however, leaving the sport to move at its glacial pace toward mainstream relevance.

“Players are here for passion, because they love the game,” Soumah says. “And that’s the way we play it, for the guys next to them, for their coaches.

“You know Bill Belichick, ‘Do your job?’ That will never work in France.”

On Nov. 13, 2015, 130 people died in terrorist attacks around Paris. Three explosions occurred near the Stade de France where an international friendly soccer match was taking place between France and Germany, just four kilometers away from where the Flash de La Courneuve play their home games. Two Flash players worked at the Bataclan, the night club where 89 people were killed. They both called in sick with the flu that night.

La Courneuve doesn’t get many visitors. It has one of the highest rates of violent crime in France, and has become associated with acts of terrorism that have taken place in the last year. Many of the perpetrators had been living in Paris banlieues like La Courneuve. France, like many Western nations, is dealing with a rise in racism and anti-Muslim sentiment.

Lacam-Caron brought his players, many of them Muslim, closer together after the Nov. 13 attacks. Insulated them. The Flash quickly set out trying to get updates from every member of the club to make sure no one had been hurt or victimized. They organized discussions between players, coaches, and the organization’s board to iterate in no uncertain terms that it did not equate “Muslim” with “terrorist.”

“We then refocused on the practice of sport, our social actions, and the organization of [activities] in order to ensure that our members think of something else, and do not fear.” Lacam-Caron says.

La Courneuve as France sees it — and as the world thinks of it, when it thinks of it — is different from how its players and fans know it. The insularity of France’s American football programs has served them well as both a barrier against negativity and a force of communal and personal growth. That incubation means that football in France won’t be big business like the NFL soon, or ever, but it also preserves what’s special about it.

The sport has defined itself in marginal places that are more beautiful and welcoming because football exists in them. The questions of what is “French” football and what can “French” football become assume there isn’t an answer already.

“Very quickly, we understood we have a role on the society, we were the connection, we were an example, and we can do something,” Lacam-Caron says. “We had a mission. And the sport was a secondary goal for us.”

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