Two-hand touch football fever hits East Brunswick

By george albano
Staff Writer

PHOTOS BY VERONICA YANKOWSKI Andrew Pearlman tries to break free from the blanket-coverage of Kenny Goldstein during a recent BFL game in East Brunswick.

The calendar says the biggest football game of the year is usually played in late January.

Not so, however, if you happen to be from East Brunswick, home of the BFL.

For the dozen or so people involved, Aug. 2 is the date they circle. That’s when BFL Bowl VI will be held.

The Beginners Football League is a two-hand touch football league created by Kenny Goldstein, a 2002 graduate of East Brunswick High School and football entrepreneur. He came up with the idea of the BFL in 1996 when he was only 12, and league play officially began in the summer of ’97 with four teams.

Jason Deger (l) and Mark Marbella (r) get interviewed by Sean Williams prior to playing their BFL game.

Now in its seventh season, the popular league has grown to new heights and this year expanded to eight teams.

But this isn’t your ordinary touch football league. Under Goldstein’s watchful eye as founder and commissioner, each BFL team has its own logo and jersey, while detailed statistics of every game are kept. There are several other innovative promotions such as an announcer’s booth, film crews, and sideline commentators who do play-by-plays and interviews with players. Music is played between plays. A preseason Photo Day is held. Post-game press conferences are conducted. Schedule magnets are made up and handed out.

The league even has its own Web site (www.geocities.com/beginnersfootball) where you can find video highlights of every game and articles and columns written by players.

Needless to say, the league has been a real hit with local kids.

Kenny Goldstein, the mastermind behind the BFL, runs for some extra yardage during a recent game at the Battlefield at Pelham Place.

"I always loved playing backyard football and I wanted to somehow organize a backyard football league and make it feel like a professional football league," Goldstein, now 19 and a student at Rutgers, said. "A two-handed touch professional football league, that is.

"So I got some of my friends together, drew up a schedule, got some jerseys, and started the league in 1997. Then it just grew. More and more people wanted to get into it, and people who didn’t want to play wanted to film and commentate. It’s really grown into a production with the football alongside. I provide the opportunity to feel like a star."

Of course, at first, the word "beginners" seemed appropriate for a new league.

But even after the BFL became more established, the name stuck.

"The word ‘beginners’ makes the league sound amateurish," Goldstein said, "but I like the sound of the letters BFL. I came up with the name in 1997 when I was 12."

Even the way the football is played is a little different. There are one-man teams, and games are played one-on-one with an automatic quarterback. In many cases, Goldstein’s father, Howie Goldstein, is the automatic QB.

"We call him Howie Go-Go," the younger Goldstein noted. "He never played organized football, but he has a great arm and is very accurate. When he can’t do it, some of my other friends have filled in one or two games."

Howie Goldstein even had his own team, the Buck Celts, during the BFL’s inaugural season in 1997, but retired after two years to become the permanent automatic signal caller. Keeping it in the family, Kenny’s brother, Jason, was also a charter member and retired in 2001.

The backyard football league is actually played on the side yard of Goldstein’s East Brunswick house at 1 Pelham Place, complete with painted end zones, decorated sidelines and banners.

"We call it ‘The Battlefield,’" Ken said. "It’s divided in four sections with a midfield line and quarterfield lines. It’s not that big, probably 20 yards."

Which makes for some high-scoring games. In fact, the BFL’s slogan this season is "High Powered Football."

"That’s the best way to describe it," Goldstein said. "It’s high-scoring football. Teams average around 73 points a game, around 10 touchdowns a game, so it’s very high scoring, but there’s still a lot of strategy involved even though it’s one-on-one."

Teams have three downs to get a first down, and you have to record two completions for a first down. Goldstein and his sidekicks even have their own terminology in the league, such as a "yackle" for a two-hand touch, and a "barn burner" when you go right for a touchdown.

"Rich Zielenkievicz, who had one of the original teams, the Dragons, came up with ‘barn burner.’ It gives the BFL some culture," Goldstein said, laughing.

There were certainly plenty of "barn burners" this past Sunday when the Old Stage Sand Storm outgunned the Congress Bulldogs 89-63. Or last week when Goldstein’s team, the Sparrows, nipped the Crusaders 79-78 in overtime on the final play. The Sparrows, now 3-0, have scored 231 points in their three games and given up 213.

But like Goldstein said, there is some strategy involved.

"After the ‘throw-off,’ instead of a kickoff, you go into a huddle with the quarterback and draw up a play. You could also go with a no-huddle offense. We had one team, Rich Fernandez and the Smith Crusaders, come back to score 20 points in the last 2:40 with three interceptions."

Sometimes, however, the scoring doesn’t come that easy, even on a 20-yard field.

"Another player, Adam Tucker and Churchill Koala, once had a 23-play scoring drive," Goldstein said. "We talk about that all the time. It was quite a drive."

With all due respect to John Elway, in East Brunswick that has become known as "the drive."

Other memorable games include the Jernee Dragons beating the London Melody 101-95 in 2001 in the highest scoring game in league history. A few weeks later, the Norton Black Knights set a new mark with 103 points.

Also in 2001, the Dragons won their first BFL Bowl 69-68 in double overtime over the Black Knights. And last year, Goldstein’s Sparrows team won BFL Bowl V by beating the defending champion Dragons 80-76 as time expired before a record crowd of 16 people.

But even reducing the length of the game hasn’t hindered the scoring much.

When the league first began, it played six-minute quarters. But during the second season, in June of 1998, Howie Goldstein’s team, the Celts, and the Dragons played to a 35-35 standoff on one of the hottest days in BFL history. After that, quarters were reduced to five minutes, and this season they’re four minutes each.

In the history of the BFL, there have been a total of 13 teams, with some "retiring," and they each adopt their street name. Thus, Goldstein’s team is the Pelham Sparrows. His team jersey was also the first one ever created.

"Whenever a new team comes in, they choose their team name and colors and I help them design the logo," Goldstein said. "I love to do graphic designs on computers and I know how to sew, so I buy a T-shirt and make up the lettering of the player’s name and their team."

Goldstein certainly seems to have all the bases covered. It’s no surprise he’s majoring in sports management.

"In some ways, yea, it helps," he said. "This league has been good experience learning how to work with people. When the league is going on, I’ve thought how I’d love to do something like this for a career."

In the meantime, though, the league already serves an important role.

"It’s a great way to keep in touch with a lot of my friends who I may not have stayed in touch with after high school," Goldstein said. "Most of us are the same age and off at college, so this allows us to stay in touch, especially in the summer. We hope to keep it going even after college."

And there’s no doubt where everyone will be on Aug. 2. At The Battlefield for BFL Bowl VI, of course.

"I won the first two championships and again last year," Goldstein said. "But I don’t know if I’ll win this year. There’s some pretty good competition. I think the talent has grown over the years and kids take it pretty seriously. Some kids even work out in the off-season to get better."

No matter who wins this year’s championship, though, the biggest winners are everyone involved with the BFL, especially Kenny Goldstein.

"Everything I like to do is in this league, from filming to video editing to graphic designing to commentating to backyard touch football," he said.

"I guess that’s why I created the BFL."