There’s something special about the NFL’s games in London.
NFL Week 1! Kinda.
Oh man, what an experience. But beware, if you are American you will absolutely be asked about the NFL on exactly 4 Monday mornings in the fall. Every. Single. Year. With memories shorter than the field after a Flacco interception, it pays to ponder three deep(ish) thoughts on the game in the land of tea and crumpets.
- Travel in London is just plain better. I don’t live particularly close to Wembley but judging by the timestamps on the WhatsApp messages to my girlfriend assuring her that I’d be home in time for dinner with her family, it took me 40 minutes to get from Section 550 to dining room table. Not too shabby. Hell, it takes longer than 40 minutes to get out of the PARKING LOT in Arlington, TX.
There’s something to be said for comparable experiences in US cities with similar public transportation infrastructure (e.g. NYC) but there are few places in the world that can boast the reliability of British public transport AND the occasional NFL game. This stadium and others throughout the UK is designed to be rapidly filled to capacity and efficiently emptied afterward with a cadre of police officers and the occasional horse providing crowd control. Ultimately, ensuring that what could be a pretty intense Charlie Foxtrot moves like the proverbial BM through a goose.
Oh, and significantly fewer instances of drinking and driving. Probably could have led with that.
- Team loyalty. I won’t be silly enough to say that Americans take loyalty to their team more seriously than the Brits do. If you don’t believe me, wear green or blue in the wrong parts of Glasgow and tell me how that works out for you. And by “tell me”, I mean use the software that tracks your eye movement to text me after the severe beating you receive.
But I will say that it’s more than a little strange to be wandering around Wembley and be assaulted by the hodgepodge of jerseys that are dusted off from the back of the closet for their annual parade through West London. I don’t expect everybody to be decked out in Ravens or Jags gear (hell, I’m pretty sure you can’t find 50,000 Jags fans in Jacksonville) but clearly, the fans have just donned the only bit of NFL gear that they own. To be fair though, I don’t own a single football (soccer, more on that later) jersey so you could say I’m in the glass house here.
The strangest part though is that the British are clearly not updating their wardrobe for the changing times. I can personally attest to seeing: Manning on the Colts and the Broncos, Ware on the Cowboys and the Broncos, Charles on the Chiefs and Dawkins on the Eagles. Normally I would recommend that they either go classic (Aikman, Smith, Sanders or LT) or modern. But better the recently retired than the deluge of Tom Brady. Good lord, so much Tom Brady.
- AMERICAN football. I’m sure I don’t have to tell you that the English (and the rest of the world for that matter) have a different game called ‘football’. You could make the argument that the name is probably more appropriate for this sport. You know, what with the majority of play being conducted with the foot but the term ‘football’ as played by the NFL comes from the UK so they’ve really only got themselves to blame.
I digress. To differentiate between the sports, the NFL is called ‘American Football’ which is fine I guess except that it then becomes an excuse for an all-out America-palooza. You want a hot dog? Nope. American hot dog. How about a soda? American Soda. American flag banners, shoes, shirts, noisemakers, tattoos, you name it.
I spent six years in the army and the NFL games in London are the only times I’ve felt uncomfortable by shows of patriotism. Six years! That’s like a million Toby Keith songs. And yet, less intense than 3 hours at NFL UK.
But every year the organizers of NFL UK make a concerted effort to out-America America. Parades, cheerleaders, giant sodas; it’s like a contest where absolutely everybody loses. Really the only thing that isn’t American is the beer because, well, it’s like a sex in a canoe am I right?
So it’s a mixed bag. But you know what? It’s amazing and I can’t wait until the next game.
