Craig McIntyre’s tale is one for the books

At the risk of being cliché, you’d have to say that Craig McIntyre had a novel experience playing professional football, capped by a storybook finish.

By the time John Grisham published his 2007 novel, “Playing for Pizza,” about an outcast NFL quarterback resurrecting his career playing in the Italian Football League for the Parma Panthers, the West Valley High School graduate was already an American veteran in the northern Italy city best known for its ham and cheese.

“After my junior year at Eastern Washington I had a buddy, a teammate, who went over and played in Sweden,” McIntyre said. “When he came back, at the start of the spring season heading into my senior season, he was talking about what a great experience he’d had. He hooked me up to a website. I posted my stats, kind of a playing résumé. It’s open for all sorts of players and coaches throughout Europe. After about a week and a half, I had a couple offers: from a team in Parma and another in Austria.”

He knew where Parma was, he said. And he knew he liked Italian food, so he headed there for the fun and adventure.

Grisham explains American-style football in Italy this way, through his head coach, an American named Sam Russo.

“It’s a club sport over here, or maybe a notch above that,” he wrote. “Each team in the Series A gets three American players, and they usually get meal money, maybe some rent. The quarterbacks are typically American and they get a small salary. The rest of the roster is a bunch of tough Italians who play because they love football. If they’re lucky and the owner is in a good mood, they might get pizza and beer after the game. We play an eight-game schedule, with playoffs, then a chance for the Italian Super Bowl. Our field is old but nice, well maintained, seats about three thousand, and for a big game we might fill it. We have corporate sponsors, cool uniforms, but no TV contract and no real money to speak of. We’re smack in the middle of the world of soccer, so our football has more of a cult following.”

The first two seasons McIntyre spent in Parma, he helped the Panthers reach the Italian Super Bowl, but both times the team fell short.

About that time Grisham came to town, doing research for his book. He found McIntyre and then-teammate Mike Souza, a quarterback from Illinois State, as well as offensive coordinator Dan Milsten, formerly of the University of Washington, especially helpful and acknowledged them. “When it came to football, these Americans answered all my inquiries. When it came to food and wine, they were even more enthusiastic.”

If it all had ended there, it would have been a fabulous experience, McIntyre insists. But football players don’t like to have stories end with just a paragraph in the back of the book. They like to end stories with big finishes. Championship finishes. The kind where everyone lives happily ever after – at least until the start of the next season.

And so ends McIntyre’s tale.

This year, Parma posted a 10-1 record, knocking off the Catania Elephants, a team from Sicily, in Milan, 56-26, to win the Italian Super Bowl.

“Our one loss was to Catania,” McIntyre said. “We played them at the end of the regular season and we were pretty sure we were going to face them in the playoffs. We were already in, so we sat our three American players and they thumped us pretty good.

“But in the Super Bowl? It was all us.”

Led by Joe Craddock, a second-year quarterback from Middle Tennessee State, the Panthers rolled. Craddock threw four first-half touchdown passes to put the Panthers up 28-0, then added two more in the second half.

In Italy, the fans may not always understand the ways of American football – in fact, after five seasons in Parma, McIntyre still found himself confused with a rugby player. But they do know how to celebrate a victory.

“The celebration just after a win is fantastic,” McIntyre laughed. “But after the Super Bowl? We had champagne right there in the middle of the field and they gave us all medals. When we got to the locker room there were cases of beer for us. Those of us who had been there for a while took turns shaving the heads of the rookies. We gave them reverse Mohawks and stuff like that – it was a lot of fun.

“Then we got on the bus and headed back to Parma, about an hour and a half on the bus, and when we got back there was already a celebration set up for us. There’s a little river in Parma called the Parma River. The Americans, we promised each other that, if we won the Super Bowl, we’d all go jump in the river. No one swims in that river, but we jumped in anyway.”

The Craddock-to-McIntyre combination was so prolific during their two seasons together that a local newspaper compared their importance to the team with that of John Stockton and Karl Malone and the Utah Jazz.

As an Eastern Eagle, McIntyre caught 71 passes, good for 1,093 yards and 11 touchdowns. This season in Parma, he caught 50 passes for 741 yards and 12 touchdowns.

The pair both decided to end their careers to pursue similar careers. Craddock left Italy to take over as head football coach at his high school alma mater.

McIntyre, himself interviewing for head football coaching jobs, has spent the past several years as an assistant coach at his alma mater. He spent several years helping his dad, Tim McIntyre, coach the team at Centennial Middle School before head coach Craig Whitney called him back to Ward Mauer Field. Last year he led the West Valley freshman team to a 9-1 seasons while helping the Eagles varsity stay unbeaten until the state Class 2A championship game in the Tacoma Dome.

If a school doesn’t make him its head coach, McIntyre will return to help coach the Eagles.

Finding a teaching job, the physical education major says, is his first priority, but he would someday like to coach his alma mater.

“Craig Whitney has been so supportive,” he said. “He gave me the freshmen last year and told me to ‘Go coach ’em up.’ He took me aside last year and reminded me that he wasn’t going to be doing the job forever. He likes the way the kids look up to me.

“I’m just anxious to coach a team of my own. I definitely have some ideas and I am looking forward to implementing them.”