*Adam Stenavich, a native of Marshfield, Wis., has started five of six games at left guard for the Amsterdam Admirals, and his team enters this weekend 3-3. Originally signed as a nondrafted free agent by the Carolina Panthers on May 5, 2006, Stenavich came to the Packers last November as a member of the team's practice squad.
Amsterdam hosts Cologne Friday at 1 p.m. CT. The game can be seen on NFL Network on Saturday at 9 a.m. CT (tape delay).
Packers.com will post periodic diary entries from Stenavich about his experiences in Europe with his "springtime" team. Here is his second entry, in which Stenavich talks about the last couple of weeks, which included missing a game due to injury.*
I am working back from a foot injury I suffered against Hamburg two weeks ago. I will probably suit up, but won't play unless I'm needed. It's tough because our team is clicking on offense, but I'll bounce back.
We have played Hamburg each of the last two weeks. We felt like we were the better team going into first game, but they got a 17-0 lead on us. We almost came back and tied it in the end, but we ended up losing 24-17. That's the game I hurt my foot.
Then last week, when I sat out, we played our best offensive game. We scored six touchdowns and won 41-31. We're now 3-3, third place in the league. I really feel like we're starting to get rolling. We've done a good job eliminating mistakes as we go and I feel we can make a good run.
As for off the field, I basically try to get over to Amsterdam and look at all the art museums, which is really cool, because I've never been to that type of museum before. I went to the Van Gogh Museum and was surprised to see how many paintings I recognized, but never knew that they were done by Van Gogh. I also went to the Rembrandt Museum. His work is very, very detailed.
The league usually schedules all of our home games in Amsterdam for Friday nights - I think we're the only team that does that on a regular basis. It's kind of like going back to high school. The only bad part is sitting around all day when you play at 8 o'clock at night.
We have several international players on the team. There are two guys from Russia, two from China, and also players from Japan, France, Belgium and England. There is sometimes a language barrier. Actually, the two guys from China are both kickers and they don't speak very much English, so they have a translator on the field. A bunch of us have taken them under our wings and tried to teach them some new words.
It's interesting to interact with the international players because European things and customs that American players think are odd, they think are common place, and vice versa.
I've been able to talk to family a few times a week. They are happy for this opportunity I have and I look forward to getting back on the field.
