Iraqi Top Football

Photo by Special to the News Sentinel

Jason Pack displays lots of orange as he prepares to watch Tennessee football while serving in Mosul, Iraq. Pack and a number of his military buddies watched the Vols play against California and Florida. UT sends DVDs of games to servicemen in Iraq.

Jason Pack loves watching Tennessee football. He’ll park in front of the TV with five to 10 pals and a cooler of beverages.

Naturally, there’s a lot of trash talking.

Only it’s 4 a.m. when the Vols kick off. The cooler is full of non-alcoholic energy drinks.

And there’s a war going on outside.

Joe Johnson is from Kentucky, but he's a big Vols fan. He never misses seeing a game.

Only it's often a week or two late, when the DVD from the Barry Rice, UT's coordinator of media and video, arrives in northern Iraq.

If you think you had been looking forward to college football season, you've got nothing on the men and women serving in the U.S. military scattered around the globe.

Like Pack, Maj. Tate Viehweg set his alarm for a 4 a.m. kickoff between UT and Cal on Sept. 1.

"There was definitely an air of excitement as the college football season was starting,'' Viehweg said in an e-mail from Iraq. "For me, it's the best time of the year.''

Viehweg is a doctor at a combat support hospital in Baghdad. He finished his residency in maxillofacial surgery at UT Medical Center.

"Several of us gathered (for the Cal game) in the doctor's lounge next to the OR,'' he said. "Unfortunately, not everyone was a Volunteers fan. We had breakfast watching the game (to-go boxes in quick runs back and forth to the dining hall).''

For troops and other personnel serving in Iraq and Afghanistan, the culture shock is harsh and foreign, literally and figuratively. There's little to relate to home.

But there is sports. Tons of sports.

From its operations center at the Defense Media Center in Riverside, Calif., the American Forces Network beams hour upon hour of sports to U.S. installations in 177 countries and approximately 200 ships at sea.

The Real Super-Station

This weekend, 15 games will be available on three of AFN's several channels, some live and some tape-delayed. And, yes, you can catch ESPN's popular College Game Day in Mosul, Kabul or aboard the USS Enterprise.

"In a nutshell,'' said Gene Frederickson, an AFN spokesman in Riverside, "technology has advanced to the point where if you've got two guys on a mountaintop in Antarctica, if they've got a dish, a power source and a monitor, they can receive AFN.''

That means they can also receive NFL, baseball, NASCAR, wrestling and ultimate fighting, all of which are hugely popular with the troops. And there's Jim Rome, Rush Limbaugh, David Letterman, MTV, "Lost," and most other popular programming.

"Each one of our channels is a true super-station on steroids,'' said Heath Irlbeck, AFN's lead sports programer.

"The men and women in uniform deserve the best. If we can give them a touch of home, some how, some way, that's all we ask.''

AFN has linked this season's UT games at Cal and Florida around the world.

Irlbeck and fellow programmer Corey Slutsky huddle on a Monday to decide which football games AFN will carry the following weekend. They consider the polls, rankings and rivalries. The service academies are a cinch.

"College football is so hot we start getting e-mail requests for specific games in June,'' said Slutsky, who attended Michigan and Southern Cal.

"The troops,'' added Irlbeck, "are getting more college football than they can get in the states.''

Virtually all the U.S. networks, collegiate conferences and rights holders make their programming available to AFN at little or no cost, Frederickson said.

"We really can't tie our shoes without the gracious generosity of the broadcast industry,'' said Irlbeck.

With the Vols tumbling out of the rankings, they might not be as likely to make AFN. But some UT fans on duty worldwide still get a Big Orange fix.

Rice estimates his office dubs up to 50 DVDs of each football game and ships them to servicemen.

"It started out with one request,'' Rice said, "and we said, 'Yeah, we can do this.' And there was another request and it just snowballed.''

One request came from Cpt. Ethan Orr of Tullahoma, with the 319th Airborne Field Artillery Regiment in Iraq. His troops miss the AFN games when they're on mission.

UT's rough start has reverberated through 3rd Battalion, which includes several UT fans.

"Particularly tough was the week following the Cal game, since a third of my unit is from California,'' Orr said in an e-mail. "Needless to say, I've got a lot of explaining to do. But it's all in fun.''

Orr said company commanders link up for College Game Day, which airs on AFN at 7 p.m. in Iraq.

"We bring some near-beer and pizza,'' Orr said. "The first game begins around 9 p.m. and they continue on to about 9 a.m. Some of my men get up early and head to the gym and work out since the games are always on there.''

Orr said most troops have access to the Internet:

"It will give us the stats, but not the bone-crushing tackles that make the game great.''

Surrounded by 'enemy'

Joe Johnson is with the 149th Infantry and is due home at the end of the month. He catches a few games on AFN in real time, but eagerly awaits Rice's DVDs arriving in the mail in northern Iraq.

"I always did my best to keep from looking on ESPN to find out the scores,'' Johnson said in an e-mail. "So my knowledge of college football is about two weeks behind. But the DVDs have been one of my most treasured items over here.''

Johnson is a police officer in Lexington, Ky. Most of his unit are Kentucky fans.

"I happen to be the only Vol fan here,'' he said. "I was alone watching the first game (in 2006). By the second, two of my guys watched it with me.

"By the fourth game, I had most of them watching with me. Surprisingly enough, they were not rooting against Tennessee the entire time.

"I didn't convert them. They just enjoyed getting to watch something that was close to home.''

Johnson came home on leave last summer and visited Rice to thank him personally. While on campus, he got to meet UT coach Phillip Fulmer and assistant Trooper Taylor.

Pack, from Knoxville, is a medic at a combat support hospital in Mosul. This is his second football season in Iraq. He gets AFN in his room and is delighted to rise for a 4 a.m. kickoff.

"We'll stay up for 48 hours to watch all the games if we have to,'' Pack said in an e-mail.

"Seeing Knoxville on TV at this point in time is almost as good as being there in person. It's just enough to give you that boost you need after a week's work.''

The reception apparently comes through loud and clear all the way to Iraq.

"The Vols need a deep threat,'' noted Viehweg, "to open up the short game a bit more.''

Mike Strange may be reached at 865-342-6276.