Utter Mayhem Unfolds During Italian Super Bowl Played At Extremely Random Location In United States
For some unknown reason, the Italian Bowl was played in Toledo, Ohio on Saturday. The game, which is essentially the Italian Super Bowl, is the final of the Italian Football League playoffs.
All of the regular season and the playoffs were played overseas, and then the championship game was played in The Glass City. It was super confusing, which made it super awesome.
There is no clear reason as to why the Italian Bowl was played in Ohio. It just was. The University of Toledo hosted the game on its field at Glass Bowl Stadium and the crowd was surprisingly, not terrible.
Fans even tailgated out in the parking lot.
Much of the lower bowl was filled on one side.
Even the club seats were mostly sold-out.
Calvin Johnson also happened to be in attendance.
None of it made any sense, especially considering that Toledo does not have any overt ties to Italy other than some 20th century immigration. And yet, come Saturday afternoon, the Parma Panthers and Guelfi Firenze were playing for an Italian Football League championship on MAC turf.
The Italian Bowl was chaotic.
Parma got out to a first-half lead that it would never give back. It went up 14-0 with nine minutes left in the second quarter.
The Panthers extended their lead lead to 21-0 at the half, at which point an opera singer took the field.
Guelfi tried to mount a comeback late in the fourth quarter until mayhem ensued on its extra point.
The snap went through the holder's hands, which led to a wild goose chase. Players on both teams kicked the ball further down the field. The kicker fell to the turf and tried to end the chaos.
He failed.
The ball kept rolling until, eventually, Parma picked it up and took it back for the safety.
The Panthers won 29-13 and became the first team to lift the Italian Bowl Trophy on American soil. They never gave Guelfi a chance.
It remains inexplicable as to why this game was played in Toledo, but we love it!