The Parma Panthers are an American football team based in Parma, Italy. The team was founded in 1980 by Vic Dasaro, an American veterinary student attending university in Parma. Dasaro created the team from an amalgam of power lifters from a local high school gym, ex-rugby players, other vet students, and a mixed bunch of soccer goalies, track and field athletes, and local kids who had seen football on the occasional tv broadcast and liked the helmet and shoulderpad look.
In 2006, the team reached the Italian Super Bowl for the first time ever. In 2007, the team reached the XXVII Super Bowl, losing against the Bergamo Lions. In 2010 and in 2011 Panthers won the title of italian champion by beating respectively Catania Elephants and Bologna Warriors.
American football teams in Italy are only allowed to have three Americans on their team, which usually are the quarterback, the running back, and the head coach.
Playing for Pizza is a novel by John Grisham about a quarterback who signs for Parma after being blamed for the defeat of the Cleveland Browns in an AFC Championship final.