I’m an American and I get the impression that the NFL is kinda “forcing” this to work by having teams go over and play in London, but I don’t know anyone over there to ask. Do you guys even want that/like it? If so, who are your favorite teams and why?
I’m not a huge fan, actually I haven’t watched a game since before covid but, I’m curious to hear some perspectives on this.
42 comments
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There’s the odd fan but it’s not widely followed. We have our own sports that are shown at a normal time of the day and aren’t non-stop adverts. Why would we need American football?
There is a small but very dedicated fan base. I like watching all sports, even baseball but I have never been able to sit through an entire game of American football. There are just too many lengthy stoppages and trying to learn what all the thousands of players do is too confusing.
It’s quite a niche sport, definitely a lot of people who regularly watch it but you’d struggle to really bump into someone who’s a big fan.
The SuperBowl does seem to get more popular every year though.
I know of one person who watches casually, don’t think I know of anyone else who’s ever given the sport any thought tbh.
Not my thing, but it definitely has a fan base over here and it does seem to have gotten bigger over recent years. I know a handful of people who follow it quite closely, then a handful more who will watch the Superbowl.
I’ve tried. Honest to god, I’ve tried to watch American football, but it doesn’t work for me.
Some people like it, but it’s niche. I have a couple of friends who got into it after doing a lot of work travel to a given US city and getting into the culture/going to games with local colleagues.
It’s got a niche following amongst men of a certain age. I know a couple of guys who are into it. There was a small ‘world’ league about 30 years ago that had a London team so it’s not like it’s totally new.
Nah it’s shit.
There’s a small dedicated fanbase but I’m convinced if it were french instead of American people wouldn’t be interested at all.
There’s enough to sell out a large stadium like wembley if it comes a couple of times a year but a team playing every weekend would pick up a few thousand fans at best.
As a nation we already have rugby Union fighting with rugby league who both occasionally loose coverage to rugby sevens.
I can’t see another smashy hand eggball sport getting much coverage.
Not widely popular, but you get pockets of support. The games in the UK are infrequent enough and enough of a novelty to attract big crowds, although if they started doing it very often I suspect interest would fade.
When I was a teen in the late 80s I was quite into it. But eventually went off it.
There’s a good sport buried in there. But it’s buried deep. Make it 11 v 11 with no special teams or changes, take away the armour, and stoppages – and that would be a pretty exciting game.
My husband and I love American Football, we can’t wait each year for the season to start. We only get to see some of the games though! We were very lucky in 1992 to go and see the Washington Redskins versus the 49ers in London. I was a Washington fan and my husband a 49ers. They then stopped having any games on TV ☹️ However Sky now shows some and although we don’t follow any particular teams as the players swap about from team to team, it is still a FANTASTIC game, we 💖 it.
I’ve tried watching the Super Bowl twice. It looks like a good day out but I can’t get into the game itself
Watching the highlights of the violence is fun, but having tried to watch a game or two, it’s just absurdly slow.
I get the tactical and aggression appeal but my god. So much sitting around doing nothing.
As a whole, not really. There are some folk who watch it, but rhey are few and far between. It is much less popular than soccer is in the US.
It is just too stop start for most people, it isn’t an easy sport to get into. I love betting so really tried to get into American football, because there are so many opportunities to bet. I simply can’t do it. Its a game of very limited on field creativity and the adverts get boring.
There is a small fan base but no, most people don’t care for American football here.
I don’t but I’m friends with the woman who founded the first Welsh women’s AF team (The Valkyries). I’m friends with a few in the team. One of which is now in the British women’s team.
Nowhere near as good as hockey, went to the EIHL on Sunday, great game and good atmosphere. No idea why it’s dying in America
It’s not even in the top 10 most popular sports in the UK. Possibly not even top 15.
It’s incredibly niche and if you’re not actively searching, you could probably spend days walking around every major city without seeing a hint of anything NFL related apart from maybe Madden being sold in GAME. I don’t think they even sell the jerseys in places like Sports Direct or JD?
Pre COVID I went to one of the London games every year with my brothers, we just haven’t got round to organising it since. It was an enjoyable day out but the best part was catching up with my brothers.
I watch NFL Redzone on a Monday night for the last quarter of the early finishes that’s about it. I can’t say I follow one particular team.
A franchise in London would die on its arse within 5 years. The novelty would wear off quickly.
Yes, love it. Second favourite sport after rugby league. Quite similar in some aspects etc. Washington has always been my team!
Honestly, yes it’s an amazing sport.
Not in the slightest.
It’s rugby with body armour and more stoppage time than is healthy for a sport.
Its definitely trying to force it. They point to sell out crowds for the games held at Wembley, but fail to mention how that crowd pretty much contains every UK fan, a bunch of US ex-pats, a handful from the continent and one or two die-hards travelling over from the US.
I like it and watch Red Zone weekly. Is the best way to enjoy NFL until the play offs.
I live in London but don’t go to the London games. And they still sell out. Assuming a lot of people like me who watch and follow it casually, while loads follow it intensely and go to the games.
This was asked a few days ago.
Anyway, it is growing in popularity, but I doubt it will ever be a main sport.
I think one of the reasons for the popularity increase is that on a Sunday, the games are shown after Super Sunday games are shown on Sky. I guess it’s more accessible as well now with you be able to buy season passes to stream games, and with the London games.
I think the majority of people who watch it, do so as a secondary sport. It’s not as common over here for people to watch multiple sports. Football (football of rest of the world outside North America) is the most popular, followed by Rugby, and Cricket. Football fans and Rugby fans don’t usually follow the other sport, but cricket fans are more likely to do so. We also have 2 different version of Rugby as well. So in a sense it has competition.
Within the last week as well, the Premier League have said that they may have a Sunday 6:30pm KO for games. Most NFL games KO Sunday at 6pm over here. If that goes ahead then you would imagine less people would watch the NFL games over here. In the flip side broadcasters in the USA have already warned the Premier League that Sunday 6:30pm games over here will result in less people in the USA watching that game because of the NFL.
Yeah man, pretty good band. Got to see them play here once.
I’ve got a couple of friends who genuinely follow it, but they’re the only two people I’ve met.
It contains too much grandstanding and feels too corporate for me. I think most British people probably feel the same.
Yes, they’re trying to force it. No, it isn’t that popular.
No. Its popularity actually peaked in the 80s over here when it became quite popular ( especially the Superbowl and ‘The Fridge’). Gone back to a niche now
Yes, love it. Back in the 80s went to every home game of Brighton B52s local British American Football team. Was really popular in school, Channel 4 bigged NFL right up, til they ditched it for Italian soccer.
I accidentally got into the NFL off the back of Osi and Jay being so funny on the NFL Show. It used to be on after Newsnight and I’d keep it on just to watch those two clown about. Couple of years later and it turned out that I understood all the rules, had a fave team and was fully invested.
16 minutes of playtime per match on average isn’t it? . No thanks chaps. Brits like sports with plenty of sport in them. Increase the amount of sport please.
I love it but as a Broncos fan I currently hate NFL 😂 I normally go to one of the games over here every year but didn’t fancy any of the matchups this year
I don’t get the deal with all those pads and helmets. Plus all the stop start and lack of actual “playing time” so it seems.
Oh and the need to have a separate defense and attack. Is it a ploy to keep just keep more people out of unemployment?
I’ve tried to like it as I love sport in general and I watch the superbowl sometimes, but I can’t get into it tbh.
Kabadi on the other hand… that’s just nuts and I’m getting addicted to it.
I know a bunch of people that like it but I’m probably the most serious follower of it amongst them. It’s popular enough for sky to have a 24 hour channel for it and the only time they don’t have a game on is the London games (which they usually have on terrestrial TV to take advantage of the extra publicity to to try get more people to watch the game). I have no doubt sky get it cheap though since we even get redzone at no extra cost, which is probably part of the reason sky can have a 24 hour channel.
Long story short, there are definitely followers here, but there’s a lot more people that are indifferent or even don’t like it, I would say.
I wasn’t aware that it was a thing here.
I don’t know enough about it to form an opinion other than that I’m not about to sit through any American style sports. Their whole style of TV viewing is ghastly to me. I can’t even manage nascar with all the ads removed and I actually like motor racing. I generally don’t like ball based sports.
A lot of people have commented but there are a few historic ‘waves’ of interest in the NFL in the UK, in rough date order:
– the NFL Europe league (London Monarchs, Rhein Fire, Scottish Claymores etc.) in the earlyish 90s
– Blitz on C4 (hosted by Gary Imlach, who still presents on cycling now and is a class act) in the lateish 1990s
– UK NFL games in the early 2010s coming over
– Fantasy football – amplified by The League in the late 2010s getting airtime here.
As well as some people just picking up the game in between these slots. As for me, my dad worked in insurance with some computer geeks who programmed their own NFL matchup game, and he got into the 49ers as a result, then rode that wave thru the 80s. As his kid, I inherited the team and have watched them lose two superbowls since, F.
As for the sport itself: as much as people moan about the duration and style of play it’s nicely strategic, possibly more than rugby, but the trade off is it doesn’t flow. I’m into both and other sports, I appreciate the depth of strategy and skill.
All that to admit I’m just a sad 49ers fan still waiting to watch them win a Superb Owl.
Last comment – for those not into the sport for the sport, admire it for the Scorigami – https://nflscorigami.com/
Yes I fucking love it. I love every sport bar athletics which is worse than watching paint dry.
Redzone is the greatest program/channel to ever exist. I’d happily watch a single NFL match anyway but Redzone is that on steroids. Last Sunday night towards the end of the first batch of games was absolutely amazing. Lots of 1 score games and so much excitement. Once you understand the technical aspects of the game even slightly it’s so intriguing. I don’t think there’s another sport as technically tactical as American Football. I almost have to rewind the plays to see all the different matchups from the previous snap.
6 years ago I thought it was shite. Now it’s my favourite sport and this is coming from someone who settled into test cricket all day from 6 years old.
Having been to many London games, they consistently sell out a 90,000 capacity stadium. The place is packed with different jerseys, not really casual fans there for the spectacle. The UK fans tend to be all in as primetime games start at 1am for us, having spoken to many travelling US fans they tend to be shocked at how knowledgeable of the game and it’s history UK fans tend to be. It’s a minority sport here but there is definitely a larger support base than its usually given credit for by people who don’t really engage with it. I teach in a college and many of my students love it and on an average trip into my small city I’ll usually spot several people sporting merch.