It was “surreal” not only for Sommer, who coached Austria to their long-awaited European championship title a few weeks ago, to see Raimann standing on the pitch in Frankfurt. The 26-year-old, who was transformed from a lanky wide receiver to a muscular offensive lineman at the University of Central Michigan, was more in the spotlight in Frankfurt before, during and after the game than ever before. “It’s strange, but thank you for coming,” said Raimann with a broad grin after the game, commenting on the hype surrounding him during the days on the Main.
How much the second game in Frankfurt was dominated by Raimann was already evident at the coin toss, when the Burgenlander was one of the four Colts captains who trotted up to the logo in the middle of the field. After the game, where Raimann was particularly supported by his family, who were equipped with a red-white-red flag, the 26-year-old was one of the first to be “clawed” on the field by the TV broadcasters – a rare interview marathon for one O liner.
Raimann is living his NFL dream
Bernhard Raimann has been playing in the NFL since last year. Austria’s first non-kicker in the league is now a permanent member of the Indianapolis Colts.
Raimann really deserved his appearance after the “usual” interlocutors such as head coach Shane Steichen and quarterback Gardner Minshew. The left tackle and therefore the most important protector of his playmaker did not do anything wrong in an otherwise extremely poor game. There was hardly any pressure on Minshew from the side that Raimann was covering. “It was absolutely flawless,” said team boss Sommer and gave his former protégé a top grade in an interview with ORF.
A quartet of “icons”
For the 35-year-old, who will also be the offensive coordinator of the Vienna Vikings in the European League of Football (ELF) from next season, the euphoria that was evident in Frankfurt about Austria’s first non-kicking regular player in the NFL is an important piece of the puzzle for the domestic game. Together with Bernhard Seikovits and Sandro Platzgummer, who got a taste of the NFL in the practice squads of the Arizona Cardinals and New York Giants, respectively, and Thomas Schaffer, who was once in the Chicago Bears training camp, Austrian football has, according to Sommer, “icons, living ones Legends.”
ORF/Karl Huber Raimann was a popular conversation partner before and after the game in Frankfurt
One would have dreamed of such role models a decade ago, says Sommer: “Bernhard (Raimann, note) will be the first of several, but it will not be machinery. Bernhard is a special talent. But every local football player must be aware that it is possible to get into the NFL.” Since Raimann is well on the way to finally establishing himself in the NFL, the association will also try to “get him more in the next few years to be able to instrumentalize”.
“Prototype” with a role model effect
In addition to figureheads in the glossy world of the NFL, the historic European Championship title won a few weeks ago with a 28-0 win over Finland is intended to raise the football enthusiasm between the Rhine and Lake Neusiedl to the level where it was around 2014. Because of European tradition, strong national teams – in tackle and also in 2028 Olympic flag football – would be essential to anchor a sport in society. Events like the ten-day European Championship with over 30,000 fans at the final in Vienna are urgently needed.
GEPA/David Bitzan Sommer led Austria’s footballers to the long-awaited European Championship title
With “Build it, and they will come”, Sommer relies on the core quote from the fantasy baseball film “Field of Dreams” with Kevin Costner, which is popular in the USA: “You just have to rebuild the system in which regular events are played .” The 2014 European Championship final is the “prototype” that should be emulated: “We just have to bring such events back with regularity, professionalism and credibility. The three years of development work, which ultimately culminated in the European championship title, are a good platform. We’ve gone from zero to one again, but the next step absolutely has to follow.”
Mini-NFL as a springboard?
For the domestic league and also the ELF, which is not very popular with some national associations, according to Sommer, “a great thing for keeping the standard high,” the NFL is, despite everything, the best school. “This is the Champions League here,” said Sommer in the stands of the Frankfurt Arena, “these are budgets that we cannot, do not want and need to understand. But every idea that is implemented here can certainly be downgraded. We have to build our little NFL.”
But it is also important to be fully committed to this “mini version”. Completely based on the model of a Raimann. “Every local football player must be aware that it is possible to get into the NFL,” writes the team boss in the register of various “diamonds in the rough” that, according to Sommer, exist in Austria. The joy of Raimann living the dream that arose when he attended an NFL game in London ten years ago is certainly contagious. No wonder, because for the Burgenlander, football has been “the best game in the world” since the Frankfurt weekend.