If you are “into” football for the sheer love of the game, you will find this Harrisburg Patriot-News article about the Central Penn Piranha a great read.

by John Leciew

Never mind that they’re playing for a championship.

The hulking football players must wait for the spritely youth soccer players to clear the practice field.

It’s nearly 9 p.m. on a cold, dark November night when the team’s last walk-through finally begins.

There are no locker rooms.

The head coach scatters the players’ practice jerseys on the turf. Players strip off their streetclothes and pull on practice gear right on the sidelines.

Once on the field, cold-hardened footballs smack in the receivers’ hands. Linemen’s labored breaths bloom in the frigid air like steam engines.

Still, the slender, speedy receivers and defensive backs run around in shorts and no sleeves.

They go like this until 11 p.m.

Hard. Dedicated. Committed.

These men are professional football players in every sense but one:

They’re unpaid.

Worse, their efforts go all but unrecognized by the vast majority of central Pennsylvania sports enthusiasts: a fan base nationally known for its fierce support of minor league teams.

They are the Central Penn Piranha.

In the small world of minor league football, it’s considered a model franchise. The Packers or the Steelers of the semipro circuit.

Heck, the team didn’t lose a home game between 1995 and 2007. Its 37-year-old quarterback is the Brett Favre of the sport.

One of its immense, immovable offensive lineman is 42 and has played more than 200 games. The team’s speedy linebacker hails from North Carolina University and came a hair’s breadth from playing pro in Canada.

This Saturday night in Allentown, the Piranha will vie for their second championship since 2005 and their sixth all-time.

That’s the same number of Lombardi trophies crowding the Pittsburgh Steelers’ trophy case. Click here to read the entire article.