Gerard Kemkers coaches a professional speedskating team in the Netherlands, where the sport is a national obsession.
Kemkers, however, can't get enough of another sport: American football. And he's absolutely crazy about the Green Bay Packers.
He became a fan when he moved to the Milwaukee area in 1994 to coach the U.S. allround team, which was then based at the Pettit National Ice Center. He stayed four years, long enough to see the Packers win Super Bowl XXXI.
Kemkers still logs on to the Journal Sentinel Web site every day for his Packers fix and catches an occasional game in the Netherlands on ESPN America, even if it means staying up until the wee hours of the morning.
His Dutch friends don't get it.
"From a European standpoint, you look at it and think, 'What kind of stupid sport is that?' " Kemkers said last week during a World Cup in Kearns, Utah. "But then you start understanding that it's a very intelligent sport and even the biggest guys are very athletic.
"My friends ask me, 'What's the excitement?' There's so much stand-still, as they say in Europe. But between plays there's a lot to talk about, because something happens on every play - and not one thing, but a lot of things not only at the ball but around the ball. I just love that."
Kemkers, 42, owns a share of stock in the Packers. He attended a game in 1994 at Milwaukee County Stadium, the last year the Packers played there, and was blown away by the tailgating and the festive atmosphere.
"You see the hype in Milwaukee," he said. "You see the shirts. You see the people getting crazy on weekends. I like that kind of atmosphere. It's like an Olympic Games every week for 20 weeks. It's like the Olympics all the time. That's the atmosphere they create and you want to get into that."
When Kemkers returned to the Netherlands after the 1998 Nagano Games, he missed beings able to watch the Packers and other NFL teams on Sundays.
"I said, 'I'll pay anything to get a satellite dish that gets me the live feeds from America,' " he said. "Well, they don't do that. At one time we had the North American Sports Network; they would do a few games on the weekend. Now we get ESPN America. That's a good station."
Kemkers, who will coach several talented Dutch skaters at the Winter Games in Vancouver, hopes to return to Wisconsin someday to visit friends and attend a game at Lambeau Field.
"I've been saying this for a few years," he said. "A lot of people in skating say Milwaukee this, Milwaukee that, but I just loved it there. I had a great time, great memories, and I'd love to go back. The only thing is, because I stayed in this (skating) world and I'm traveling so much, it's hard to find the time to go. But I definitely want to go back and see my friends.
"I will see Lambeau. I'm pretty sure that me and my girlfriend will sit in a game at Lambeau one of these days."