Sports Fans Find Home Away From Home Field

By JEFF HOUCK The Tampa Tribune

Published: Sep 15, 2007

CLEARWATER - Behind enemy lines, deep in Tampa Bay Buccaneers territory, Debby Roggenbuck's love for the Green Bay Packers remains at full strength.

"Packer Deb's" cell phone number spells "HEY PACK." Her right ankle features a Packers helmet tattoo. A Packers belly ring dangles from her navel. In her grandson Nikolai's room, decorated top to bottom in hunter-green-and-yellow team gear, there's a $1,200 team jersey autographed by quarterback Brett Favre. At 11 months old, it will take him some time to grow into it.

Nikolai is a big hit on game day at the Varsity All-American Sports Bar & Grille on U.S. 19 in Clearwater. That's where his 56-year-old grandma hangs out with dozens of her fellow Packer backers in exile.

The Varsity is one of dozens of sports pubs and restaurants that cater to fans who want to cheer with NFL brethren far from their home turf. Eagles fans, for example, gather at 4th and Inches on Gunn Highway in Tampa or at The Bull Ring on Fowler Avenue. Bobalouie's Grille and Sports Garden on East Bearss Avenue in Tampa and Two Buks on North Hercules in Clearwater are havens for those who love the New York Giants. And AJ's Sports Bar & Grill on Ulmerton Road in Largo caters to the New York Jets' local flock. Still other bars cater to college football alumni.

David Berlo, the Varsity's owner since 1989, says a table full of Packers fans started showing up on game day about 15 years ago. He encouraged them to bring their friends, including those who were showing up at other nearby bars. Before long, he had enough to fill the 80 seats in the front section of his restaurant. The rest of the place is partitioned into a room for fans of other teams, including, of course, the Bucs. On days when the Packers aren't nationally televised, it's standing-room only.

"They're great fans, very devoted," Berlo says. "The other bar I have up the road [on Sunset Point Road] has Penn State fans."

Roggenbuck, a nurse, feels such a bond to her local gathering spot that after a car accident on a Sunday a few years back, she had the ambulance take her to the Varsity so she could watch the game.

Last Sunday, as the Packers opened with a nail-biting 16-13 win against the Philadelphia Eagles, a babysitting Roggenbuck and her husband, Norman, perched Nikolai in a high chair covered with the blanket she made with knitted footballs, team helmets and logos. Dressed in a Packer onesie, he remained unfazed by intermittent explosions of cheering and applause. Being goo-gooed by a waitress in a Packer jersey helped soothe his nerves. (Roggenbuck brought it so the server would make better tips.)

During lulls in the game, Roggenbuck showed the baby off to nearby friends she has met at the bar, including "Packer Dave" Tausend, a FedEx driver and former Wisconsin resident. Now living in Dunedin, he has watched nearly every Packer game for a decade at his reserved high-top table. The only games he hasn't watched at the pub are the ones he attended in person at Lambeau Field in Green Bay. He will make his annual pilgrimage Sept. 23 to see the Packers take on the San Diego Chargers. Absent that, the Varsity is his home.

Tausend could do what a lot of football fans do: buy a gigantic flat-screen, high-definition television that would put him closer to the game than any luxury box ever could. He could embed himself like a tick in the recliner next to his wife, Phyllis, down a plate of nachos, and sip on his game-day ritual Captain Morgan and Diet Coke. He could yell anything he wants in the privacy of his home.

But, you know, that wouldn't be any fun. Tausend and Roggenbuck both say that the camaraderie is what brings them to the Varsity. Yelling and shouting and sulking and screaming is a communal act. Doing so with those who feel as passionately as they do makes them feel as though they're at the game.

"These people are like family," Tausend says. "The people sitting to my left? I met them here. They were standing against the back wall. I invited them to sit down with me a couple years ago. Now they're old friends. That waitress over there? She's like an adopted daughter."

And, in a way, the fans root for their teams like they are family members. Although Roggenbuck venerates Favre to near sainthood - "I would die if I ever met him," she says - she also roots for six-year veteran Aaron Kampman, who plays the very unglamorous position of defensive end. She respects the passion he displays on the field.

On Oct. 10, someone in the group will bring a birthday cake to the Varsity. Yes, it's a Wednesday. It's also Brett Favre's 38th birthday.

"On game day, I let the scruff grow out a bit," Tausend says. "Just like Favre."

GAMEDAY HOMES

We know that a lot of you have moved here from someplace else. We know that those longtime sports allegiances are ties that bind. We also know that there are places you can go to cheer your out-of-town and out-of-state teams with your brethren. Here are some of our favorites:

NFL

PATRIOTS: KD's Pub, 13949 W. Hillsborough Ave., Tampa; (813) 855-7090

STEELERS: Rudy's, 11100 66th St. N., Largo; (727) 546-2616; O'Brien's Irish Pub, 11744 N. Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa; (813) 961-4092

BILLS: Buffalo City Bar & Grille, 5631 Park St. N., St. Petersburg; (727) 549-9464

COLLEGE

IOWA and TENNESSEE: Boston's, 9316 Anderson Road, Tampa; 813-901-9590

Reporter Jeff Houck can be reached at jhouck@tampatrib.com or (813) 259-7324.