Tuesday 29 May 2012

Mario Balotelli, 31 Teams and a Green Man

or "a Day Out at the 2011 NFL International Series."


If you've been to the International Series, you may well identify with elements of the day, if you haven't then hopefully it'll give you a taste of what a great day it is...

Like all good sporting trips, this one started early in the morning.  The NFL only comes to the UK once a year, so it seems rude not to make a day of it.  So, my Uni friend and myself found ourselves at Aldgate East tube station on a warm October morning ready for the journey across London.  We'd been to the 08 and 09 International Series games, but I now considered myself a much bigger fan than I was back then.
This was easily the most I'd been looking forward to watching the NFL.

The journey through London was a great appetite whetter.  At every station (and there are plenty!) on the way to Wembley, there were NFL fans getting on board.  A wide variety of accents, languages and clothing were on display - leaving us feeling a tad boring in our civvies.  It reminded me of the World Cup games I'd been to in Germany, there was no real indication of what teams were playing, just a big collection of fans from various backgrounds.  By the time we got to Wembley, it was jam packed with NFL fans and this was still 6 hours before kick off!

Say what you want about Wembley Stadium, but the view of it as you leave Wembley Park station is truly spectacular.  This was my 4th visit to the new Wembley and the sight never fails to impress me.  I'm not a big fan of everything about the new Wembley (more of that later!) but ascetically it's mighty impressive.

In previous years we'd been to the NFL Tailgate outside the ground.  To be honest, we hadn't been overly impressed with it.  Long queues, expensive food/drink and average entertainment had been the order of the day.  I'm not adverse to watching cheerleaders, but after a couple of minutes it can get a bit dull, plus the quality of music in previous years had been pretty poor.  I enjoyed the New Orleans style Mardi Gras in 08, but aside from that I wasn't a fan of the entertainment on offer.  So we decided to give the Tailgate a miss this time, and instead headed to the Green Man pub for the official British Tailgate. I'd only got wind of the British Tailgate a few days ago via the nfluk forum and wasn't sure what to expect.  It turned out to be a great place to soak up the pre match atmosphere.

The Green Man is a short steep walk from the stadium, and whilst it doesn't like like a great pub from the outside, it does a fantastic job of hosting the pre match hoards wanting to socialize with other NFL fans.  The pub has a large beer garden and marquee to help it's efforts and we had a couple of beers in the garden and chatted to some other fans.  The marquee was full of merchandise and food stalls and was doing a great trade.  Despite it being an NFL day, we still wanted to watch the Manchester derby on tv so headed into the packed bar area area.  The happy mood was lifted even further by Man United getting humiliated 1-6, complete with Mario Balotelli's "Why always me?" t-shirt after opening the scoring.  There's something very satisfying about a thrashing in football - the 6th goal was celebrated as much as the first.  It doesn't seem to be this way in the NFL - one sided matches usually bore the crowd and even the winning team's fans find it hard to get excited in the second half.

Anyway, many beers later it was time to visit the bbq, before making our way to Wembley. It would have still been hard to work out which teams were playing if you are were just looking at fans around the stadium.   Throughout the course of the day we spotted 31 different NFL shirts...the only one we were missing was a Jaguars shirt.  I'm sure there must have been a few Jags fans present, but they managed to escape our attention.

Entry into the ground was pretty rapid, despite the 80,000+ crowd.  Luckily, the stadium is equipped with plenty of escalators, so getting to our top tier Endzone seats wasn't much of a problem.  There has been plenty of bad press written about the refreshments available at Wembley...and I completely agree with all the criticism.  Vastly overpriced, sub standard lager and even more overpriced and sub standard food.  We decided to forgo the queues and took or seats for the pre match show.  This is where the NFL truly leads the way, the fireworks, giant flags and cheerleaders create an amazing visual experience. Even from near the rafters we could see it all with tremendous clarity.  Pre match band the Goo Goo Dolls were an improvement on the previous years' acts - Stereophonics and Calvin Harris - and we were all set for the Bears and Bucs to go at it.


Truth be told, it wasn't a classic. But you could still appreciated the quality of the play, even from our position somewhere near the clouds.  Matt Forte's 1st half TD run was at our end, and when he received the ball you could have sworn he wouldn't get passed the line of scrimmage. The speed and athleticism of the RB came across far better live than it does on TV.  As did Roy Williams' drops - the poor Bears WR was getting plenty of abuse from the crowd for his soapy hands.  Everyone had a Bucs flag on their seat so whilst most people were neutral, the Bucs were getting the majority of support.  Unfortunately, they weren't responding very well to it.  In fact, at half time, it appeared that the game could be over.

One thing that was noticeable, was the massive screen behind the endzone that was showing a combination of score updates from around the NFL (much laughter at Denver being stuck on 0 for most of the evening), stats and video footage.  This varied from compilations of TDs to tedious games like "Find the Lady" (what cup is the ball under!).  To be honest, I found all this a bit distracting and unhelpful.  Yes, American Football has plenty of breaks in it, but so do most sports. The time in between the action is for toilet/food/drinks breaks or to talk about the match.  There's no need to distracts fans, it just breaks the intensity of the game.  Yes, show highlights from the game but I don't want to hear a cheerleader explain why she loves cats and wants world peace.

After a flurry of punts, the Bucs eventually got some offence together in the 2nd half.  This put an end to the dreaded Mexican wave that had been sweeping round the stadium for large chunks of play.  Nothing says "This is a dull game" more than the Mexican wave.  A couple of touchdowns later and it was game on.  Sadly for Tampa Bay, the Bears were able to run over a lot of clock on their final drive and the Bucs had too much to do in the final few seconds.

Unfortunately, I'd had half an eye on the clock as we'd pre booked a train and only had 90 mins to get to Euston.  Much of that 90 minutes was spent on Wembley Way with the majority of the crowd!  The upshot being that we missed our train and ended up forking out an extra £40 for the privilege of getting the last train home to Birmingham.  We eventually made it home at around 2am...just in time for the late night game on Channel 4!

Ok, the ending wasn't ideal but overall I'd massively recommend a trip to the International Series game, if you're new to the sport it's a brilliant introduction and gives you a great feel for the game.  You also get to meet other fans and being there live really helps you to appreciated how the games unfold.  This year's IS is almost sold out, but there will be plenty of chances to go in the future!  Do it, and give the NFL a try.

Meanwhile, for those of you who are going this year, here are some do's and don'st I've discovered during my visits...

Do - Make a full day of it.  It's more of a festival than a game.  Allow yourself a good 6 hours of pre match fun!
Don't - Go to to pubs on Wembley High St.  Rammed, expensive and bad beer.  A couple of years ago, we went in one and were served John Smiths in cans...at pint prices!!

Do - Try the Great British Tailgate party.  Great place to meet fans, have a chat, have a few drinks and enjoy the build up to the game.
Don't - Plan to have a few drinks at the ground - unless flat, overpriced, poor quality beer is your thing.

Do - Book a hotel for the Sunday night - saves a lot of hassle after the game.
Don't - Book a train you're probably not going to make!!!


Do - Wear an NFL jersey...any jersey.  If it's a Eagles one I'll probably come and say hello!
Don't - Wear a Jags jersey, you'll stand out like sore thumb.

Do - Cheer on the home team.  It'd be great if the Rams felt at home for the next 3 years.
Don't - Cheer for the Pats this year...they probably don't need your support to beat the Rams!

That's just my view of the International Series.  I hope it's giving you a taste of how much fun it is, and also how the NFL is a big deal here in the UK.

Next time, I'm going to attempt the rather difficult act of explaining how an NFL game works for the benefit of a complete novice!

Tuesday 22 May 2012

Try Something New

"As your mother tells you, and my mother certainly told me, it is important, she always used to say, always to try new things"


This is the story of why I love the NFL, why it's become one of my favourite sports and why I think all sports fans should give it a go.


I'm a massive sports fan.  Now, I realise phrases like that get banded around far too much.  "Meet my friend, he's a massive cricket fan", you then meet the friend and find out he occasionally watches Twenty20, but can't name more than a couple of England players. But I genuinely am a massive sports fan and have been since I was a small boy.
I love playing sports, attending sporting events and watching sport on TV.  


A few years ago I started watching the NFL.  There's no real story behind why. I just decided to give it a try. Fast forward a few years and it's become an addiction. But what's so special about the sport? Why do I watch it avidly, write about it and want other people to give it a try?  Here are 7 reasons:


1. The Games!
Pretty obvious, you can tub thump about any sport as much as you want, but if the on field product isn't up to much you're wasting your breath.  American Football is an exciting and fascinating sport to watch.  You find yourself marvelling at a whole host of skills on show - strength, agility, reflexes, timing, accuracy, speed.  More importantly, the action is exciting.  
I've heard plenty of people say they've tried watching the NFL for a bit and got bored.  But it's a sport that needs to be given more time.  Yes, there are lots of rules and yes it does take time to work out what's going on, but trust me it's worth the investment.
I'll be going into more details about the actual games in future articles, but for now I want to focus on other elements of the sport.


2. Parity
Fed up of the same teams winning the trophies?  Had enough of teams buying their way to success?  Or maybe you just want to support a team that has a chance of winning a title! If so, then the NFL is the place to be.  
The League is structured to ensure a level playing field.  The weaker teams get to pick the best new players the following season.  All teams have the same squad size and wage budget.  Even the fixture schedules are put together with fairness in mind.  
I recently wrote an article for the excellent 1amsports.com, in which I tried to predict the results of the 16 games taking place in Week 1 of the 2012 season (Early Sept).  I found that only 2 of the match ups had clear favourites.  In the 14 other games, I could make a strong case for either side winning.  It's a similar story throughout the season, NFL matches are extremely tough to predict and often have very close finishes.


3.  Media Coverage
NFL Gamepass enables fans to watch all of their teams matches throughout the season.  In fact it enables them to watch any match they want at any time.  Gamepass costs about £180 a season (2012 price tbc) and has plenty of other features that you can watch either on your computer or stream onto your TV.
Away from the games, there are a number of excellent websites, podcasts and tv shows that offer high quality analysis of the sport.  As a new fan, I've found this invaluable in building up my knowledge of the sport.
Now I have a greater depth of knowledge of the sport I find the more technical analysis excellent in expanding my appreciation of the sport.
Certainly I've found the NFL to have the most intelligent and comprehensive media coverage of any sport I've followed.


4.  The Draft
Every year, the best players leaving the US college system join the NFL.  These are the most talented young American Footballers around and almost all NFL players arrive via this college system.  As I mentioned above, the teams pick in reverse order of their ranking for the previous season (ie the worst team have the 1st, 33rd, 65th etc pick) so it allows for the weaker teams to strengthen their squads.
The Draft is a massively popular event with NFL fans - it receives months of hype and speculation.  Every expert (and non expert!) will offer their opinions on the Draft and have a go at completing their own Mock Draft.  


5. Fantasy Football
I've previously talked about Fantasy Football (HERE).  Quite simply, NFL Fantasy Football is streets ahead of round ball Fantasy Football.  NFL Fantasy Football is a massive industry, the level of coverage almost rivals that of the real thing and fantasy advice is available from a wide amount of sources.
When it comes to actually playing the game, Fantasy Leagues are far more advanced than their "soccer" counterparts.  League formats can vary but in most of them you Draft your team so each player can only be owned by one fantasy player.  you then play a 1v1 match-up against another member of your league each week (Usually 10 teams per league but this can vary) until for the final 3 weeks of the regular season the top 4 teams are involved in the knockout playoffs.
It's a great game to play and the 1v1 element means that you can follow your teams progress whilst the game are being played.  
All in all, playing Fantasy Football is a great compliment to watching the NFL.


6. It's the Best Players all in one place
The NFL is the number one American Football league in the world and it's not even close.  As such, you get to see the best players compete on the a regular basis.  There's no chance that some of the top players play outside of the NFL - so you get to see the best in the world every week.


7.  Going to a match
The experience of going to an NFL game compares favorably with most other sports.  I've been to a lot of different sporting events and I'd only rank the football World Cup ahead of the NFL in terms of match day experience.  
Luckily for UK fans, we have an annual game at Wembley to enjoy.  Again, I'm going to go into more detail on this at a later date, in fact my very next article will be an account of a day at the International Series game in 2011.




I'm not expecting any non NFL fans to read this and immediately convert to the sport, but I just wanted to give you a flavour of why I love the sport.  


Over the next few weeks, I'm going to write about various elements of the sport, as well as looking at my personal experiences of the NFL.  It'd be great if some non NFL fans took the time to have a read and see what all the fuss is about, after all... there aren't that many ad breaks!


(The quote at the top of this article is the last line from which 2001 film?)

Wednesday 16 May 2012

There aren't THAT many adverts!

So I've got my team to support and I've got my 30 Things to Do, but I want to do more than that. I want to spread the word about how much fun the NFL is and what a great league it is to follow.

One of the most popular recent threads on the nfluk forum is entitled "The mindless idiots who slag off American Football".  Whilst the title of the thread is a tad harsh, the content is a selection of comments people have heard from the many people who don't watch the NFL.  "Too slow", "Too many adverts", "Why do they wear pads", "Too complicated" are just some of the many, many comments on there.
To be honest, I would have been saying plenty of them myself a few years ago.  The NFL looked like a pretty stupid, over hyped, complicated and disjointed sport.  I didn't understand the rules and most of the time nothing was happening.

Luckily, I'm a) a complete sports geek and b) I'm a complete obsessive.  So for some reason, I gave the NFL a try and the rest is history.  But I want to reach out to people who don't like the sport and tell them what they're missing out on.  If you're an NFL fan reading this, I'm sure you know plenty of sceptics - people who switch off as soon as you mention the sport.

The NFL is growing at a rapid rate in the UK.  Sky viewing figures went up by 18% in 2011, the International Series has been a massive success and it'd be great for that growth to continue.  Clearly, there is a lot of great work going on to that effect - NFLUK do a great job of promoting the sport, as do the TV networks that cover the league (recent quibbles aside!), but as a fan I'd love to help that growth.  I'm not saying that I can convert the masses to the sport, but what I can do is share my experiences and knowledge of the sport to try and make it more accessible and appealing to those sceptics.

And how can I go about doing this?

Well, I don't want to be too preachy and I don't want to be too technical.  The bottom line is that the NFL is fun and it's important to convey that fun. So, I'm going to focus on both my experiences of the NFL and some of the elements of the league that are appealing.  For example, I'm currently thinking of writing articles on subjects such as:

- Reasons I grew to love the NFL
- A Day out at Wembley
- Parity in the League
- A Brief Guide to how the game works
- Articles on the various player positions
- A brief look at the 32 teams
- Season Preview
- Some other stuff I haven't thought of yet!

And that's all before the season even starts!

So, I'm going to carry on my 30 Things to Do (The Baby Gift Set has arrived!), but a lot of those "things" are either long term goals or only applicable once the season has started.  As such, I wanted another focus and hopefully this is that focus.  It'd be great if any NFL fans reading my future articles could forward/send/tweet/however else you do that kind of thing them on to non fans and sceptics.

You never know, I few more people might start liking the NFL!

Thursday 10 May 2012

Video Games

I've never been a great exponent of video games.

When I was 11, I used to go round friends' houses to be routinely beating to a pulp whilst playing Streetfighter II.  When I got my first computer (an Amiga 500!) I was more interested in sports games like Championship Manager and Brian Lara Cricket, than trying to kill aliens or rip someone's head off.
I did occasionally play an early version of John Madden Football at a mate's house, but my knowledge of the NFL was so limited that I opted for the QB run pretty much every play!

The Madden franchise is as synonymous with the NFL, as the Tiger Woods series is with golf or the FIFA franchise is with football.  Most people wouldn't even be able to name another American Football based video game.  The first Madden game was released in 1991 and whilst it was basic compared to today's efforts, it was pretty cutting edge at the time.  You controlled the players, you could pick plays and even call audibles.  It also featured some brilliant images such as this:

An early version of "parking the bus"
Through the years the game has evolved, but it has always been considered the beat NFL video game around.  Features such as create your own player, franchise mode and playing games online have added to the brand, whilst it's graphics, playbooks and player accuracy have evolved significantly.

My own Madden experience is limited, so this won't be a detailed look at the game.  However, due to the Grand Final of my Search for a Team, I possess a 2nd hand copy of the 2007 version of the game and due to my 30 Things to Do I need to win a Superbowl for the Eagles on it!

Well, I haven't achieved that as of yet.  However, I have started the journey.  After a few practice games to get me up to scratch with the game play, I set the Difficulty Level to it's highest rung and started my quest.
I decided to play as the Eagles, but have a fantasy draft.  I consider drafting players to be part of the art of the game, so wanted to include this in my quest.  Draft strategy is an interesting topic and I could talk all day about how I went through all my picks.  But for the purposes of keeping you awake I'll be brief.

I had pick 11 in the First Round, so remembering my penchant for QB running I plumped for Michael Vick!  By the time the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rounds came along, there were no elite running backs left, so I opted for Ed Reed, Brian Urlacher and Champ Bailey to give me a high class Defence. I then picked up Reggie Bush and Andre Johnson to add to my offense.  Due to my lack of Madden expertise and knowledge of NFL players pre 2008, I generally went for players I'd heard off in the later rounds.  This policy saw me land players such as Asante Samuel, Nate Burleson, Antonio Gates and Nmandi Asomugha.  I ended up pretty happy with my team, but as good as they were, they'd still have me controlling them!  A heavy burden for even the strongest team to overcome.

I can't be bothered with Training Camps or Pre Season so I skipped that nonsense and went straight into my first game, away at the Texans.  What Vick has in speed, he lacks in pass accuracy.  This led to lots of runs from both himself and Bush, but a pretty dull outing for my receivers.  I was 14-6 down at half time, but thanks to a QB sneak from Vick and a couple of FG from my kicker (Janikowski) I was soon ahead.  My so called elite Defense weren't making many plays and the Texans were scoring very easily.
It all came down to a bizarre last minute that included a muffed punt return from my late round wild card Devin Hester (not a patch on the real life Hester), a FG from the Texans and a last ditch TD from Burelson after a defender deflected a wayward effort from Vick.
Into Overtime and an Asante Samuel interception plus another Sea Bass kick left me 1-0 for my season.  More through luck than skill, but hey, that's how the real thing works!

So I'm on my way to ticking off the next item on my list, but don't be surprised if it takes me more than a season to complete.  I won't be providing game-by-game reports (largely because it's pretty dull) of my season, but I'll keep you posted on how I'm getting on.

Next up, I'll be looking at the various NFL competitions out there, as I start my quest to "Win an NFL related prize".  Hmm, that could also take a bit of time!

Tuesday 8 May 2012

Pet Hates 3 - The Lambeau Leap

It's Boxing Day 1993, The Green Bay Packers are hosting the LA Raiders and are winning 14-0 in a must win game.  Hall of Famer Reggie White recovers an LA fumble and laterals it to LeRoy Butler, Butler takes it into the end zone for a vital touchdown.  In his excitement, Butler jumps up the fan barrier and is mobbed by Packers fans.  And so the Lambeau Leap was born.

Butler's celebration is a brilliant example of a player being overwhelmingly excited at scoring. You can come up with dance routines, store stuff down your socks and kiss your badge, but I think the best celebrations are ones where the player is just overcome with happiness and excitement.  Look at the pictures below, these aren't pre-planned celebrations!










You can't see Butler's face as he leaps into the crowd, but I'd imagine it would be pretty similar to the ones above.  Butler's "Lambeau Leap" created a celebration that lives to this day.  Most home touchdowns are followed by a leap into the crowd. It's a nice tradition and unique in the NFL.  Some players have trademark celebrations, but the Lambeau Leap is the only stadium specific celebration.

So why is this a "Pet Hate" of mine?

The answer lies in the NFL rulebook.  Specifically the rules concerning celebrating a touchdown.  Reasonably enough, the league bans taunting.  They have also stopped "prop based" displays, following players using items such as phones, pens and flags.  Again, this is fair enough,  and failure to adhere to either of these results in a 15 yard penalty from kick off for "excessive celebrating", but the rules can be a bit Draconian.  For example, it's a penalty to "drop to your knees" during a celebration.  I've no idea what harm this does. Maybe the league want to help protect players knees from getting grass stains.
The aspect of the rulebook that covers the "Lambeau Leap" states that it is a penalty if the "Two-or-more players engage in prolonged, excessive, premeditated, or choreographed celebrations".  Hmm, so the rules suggests that it's perfectly OK for one player to leap into the crowd. That makes no sense to me whatsoever - you can't drop to your knees but you can throw yourself head first into the crowd!

To illustrate the point, here's evil Eric Decker getting penalised for shamelessly dropping to his knee to celebrate a touchdown:

Disgusting Behaviour. Look at the distressed
cheerleader in the background.
Meanwhile, over in Green Bay, here's Aaron Rogers performing a perfectly legal celebration:

Perfectly Safe

Now, I'm thinking the below picture is slightly more dangerous, time consuming, stupid and inflammatory than Decker's salute to the US troops.  So why is the Lambeau Leap allowed?

According to NFL rules expert, Mike Pereira the Leap was "grandfathered" in to the League when the new rules were introduced in 2005.  "Grandfathered"?! Now there's a term I've never heard before, it appears that Pereira was stating that the Leap is a tradition and, as such, it can transcend the rulebook.  Again, this makes no real sense, there were "traditional" celebrations in place long before the Leap was born.  It's all a bit "one rule for them, one rule for us"

So my problem isn't with the Leap itself, I think it was a nice tradition and a good way of celebrating.  My problem is with the NFL rules and their lack of consistency.  Why should exceptions be made to the rules?
And more importantly, what is the point of the rules?  Don't use props or taunt the opposition/fans, but why shouldn't you drop to your knees or fall to the floor to celebrate a touchdown? If you're overcome with excitement then why not be allowed to express it?

This is why the Leap annoys me. It sums up the absurdity of the NFL rules on celebrating. So sorry Packers fans, it's going into my personal NFL Room 101!

===============================================================

I still haven't received my Eagles baby gift set, but credit to the NFLUK shop, they were very quick to respond to my query on the matter.  Apparently they don't have any stocked in the UK so are awaiting the delivery from the US.  And there was me thinking this would be a best selling item and they'd have plenty in stock here!
As for my attempt to recruit a new Eagles fan.  Let's just say it's a work in progress, hopefully I'll have this box ticked in a couple of weeks.

Next up, I'll be starting my attempt to win a Madden franchise with the Eagles. WARNING - I am woeful at video games. Seriously appalling.

Thursday 3 May 2012

An Open Invitation to support the Eagles

If you're reading this, then you fall into 1 of 4 categories:

1. You're an NFL fan and support a team.
2. You're an NFL fan, but don't support a team
3. You're an NFL fan who casual follows a team, but has no real passion for them.
4. You don't follow the NFL, and are reading this because either you stumbled upon it, you're a friend/family member, you read any old crap on the net or you're my stalker.

If you're in category 2 or 3, then I think your NFL viewing experience would be enhanced by throwing your support fully behind a team.  Going through the highs and lows of being a fan is the best aspect of following a sport.  To be a neutral, is to miss out on this excitement.

I support the Philadelphia Eagles, and if you're in the market for a team to support, I think they could be the team for you as well.
But why the Eagles? There are 31 other perfectly good franchises int he NFL, what's so special about Philadelphia?  Luckily, that's a very easy question to answer and there are many reasons why you should support the Eagles:

The best place to start is with the actual team.  The Eagles are in a great position, currently 4th favourites with the bookies for next season's Superbowl.  They have built a highly competitive team, full of star names and young, exciting talent.

On offence, they have one of the most dynamic QB's in the league in Michael Vick.  Vick is a reformed man after a spell behind bars, and everybody loves a good redemption story.  Alongside Vick, there's Lesean McCoy, DeSean Jackson, Jeremy Macklin and Brent Celek amongst others. Plus Vick has one of the best Offensive lines in the league to protect him.  Expect the Eagles to rack up plenty of points this season.

On the other side of the ball, you've got a formidable front 4 in Trent Cole, Jason Babin, Cullen Jenkins and 1st round Draft pick Fletcher Cox.  Opposing QBs won't be looking forward to playing the Eagles this season. Behind them, is the Eagles big off season signing DeMeco Ryans.  Ryans is a Pro Bowl calibre Linebacker acquired from the Texans and will shore up a problematic area for Philadelphia.
At secondary, the Eagles have 2 elite performers in Nmandi Asumugha and Dominic Rogers-Cromartie, both are fast and aggressive Cornerbacks who are capable of making big plays on a regular basis.

The team won their final 4 games of the 2011 season, and if they can carry on that form they will be very hard to beat this season.

Away from the pitch, there are plenty more reasons to be an Eagles fan. Not least, there are the fans. The Eagles home stadium (the Linc) is always a sell out and reverberates to the noise created by the passionate fans.  The atmosphere can be extremely intimidating for the away team.  The fans are also quick to let the Eagles know when they are under-performing, so win or lose you can be guaranteed a fervent atmosphere.

The Eagles play in the NFC East, one of the strongest Divisions in football. However, the 2 other members of the Divisions are very dislikeable.  You've got the New York Giants  - support them and you'll be labelled a glory hunter.  The Dallas Cowboys - self proclaimed "America's Team", but in reality everybody else thinks they're annoying and self-important.  Finally, there are the Washington Redskins, who are just terrible.

If you're planning a trip top the US, then they are few places better tan the city of brotherly love. You can see the famous Liberty Bell or the Dead Sea Scrolls. Plus, how can you revisit a chance to run up the steps at the front of the Museum of Art - made famous by the Rocky films.

Of course, if you're reading this in the UK, you'll be supporting the Eagles from a long distance.  but don't worry, the Eagles have one of the best UK Fan Clubs (http://britisheagles.co.uk/) .  The British Eagles have grown at a rapid rate since they were founded last year.  Since becoming an Eagles fan, I have found the BE to be a great source of information and they are doing some great things to promote the Eagles in the UK.


There are a few other, some would say less important, factors to consider as well:
- The Eagles have one of the best jerseys in the NFL, Midnight Green is a great name for a colour.
- Their mascot is Swoop, he rides a quad bike.  Err, that's about all I can say about him.
- Celebrity fans include Will Smith, Matthew Fox (He was in Lost and a few rubbish films) and Ryan Phillippe (He was in Cruel Intentions and a few other rubbish films).
- Finally, I'm willing to buy a pint for any new Eagles fans!  I will dip into my pocket for a drink for anybody who becomes an Eagles fan after reading this.  You may have to wait until the international series to cash in your prize but i will honour my end of the bargain!

That's right, unashamed bribery.  That's how keen I am to recruit a new fan.  If you are considering becoming a new Eagles fan then let me know either in the comments below, via nfluk or on twitter.

Tuesday 1 May 2012

Draft Thoughts & Where to Next?

Andrew Luck predicts how many
games the Colts will win in 2012
The 2012 NFL Draft is now over and it's being hailed as one of the most dramatic and unpredictable Drafts of all time.  For me, it was my first experience of following the months of hype and speculation.  In previous years, I hadn't really noticed the Draft.  Between the SuperBowl and August I didn't really pay any attention to the NFL, but that all changed this year.  My NFL fandom has moved onto the next level and this year I was all over the Draft build up.  Being an Eagles fan certainly added to that and I even completed my first ever Mock (more of that later).
There are hundreds of Draft blogs, reports and verdicts you can read, so I'm not going to spend too long talking about it. But here are my seven (one for each round) random thoughts from the 2012 NFL Draft:

1.  Mock Drafts are pointless but fun!  14 trades in the first round meant that it was pretty much impossible to accurately guess the outcome.  nfl.com reported that of over 1.6 million entrants in their "Predict the Pick" contest, not one single person guessed the Seahawks 1st round pick!
Incidentally, it'd be remiss of me not to mention that I finished 801st out of the 1.6 million. Oh and I also won the nfluk Draft prediction contest.  Just thought I'd thrown that in.

2.  The Eagles did well.  I wasn't expecting them to Trade up for a player, but the small jump to number 12 meant they could land Fletcher Cox.  Cox was widely expected to have gone in the top ten so it was something of a coup for the Eagles.  In addition, they picked up a highly rated 2nd Round linebacker in Mychal Kendricks and a certified Eagles fan in Vinny Curry in the 3rd Round.
I can't really comment on the rest of the selections, but 6th Round WR Melvin McNutt has a brilliant name!

3.  American names are hilarious.  In addition to Mr McNutt, the Draft also saw the likes of Tim Fugger and Long Ding gain a degree of fame.  And a word of advice to Mr and Mrs Bullock; your son was going to have a tough time at school whatever, but you shouldn't have made things worse by calling him Randy!

4.  Where's the Coverage?  I didn't stay up for the Draft, but even I had have done, I would have had to follow it without live pictures.  I can fully understand that Sky are still negotiating their contract for next season so couldn't show the event, but ESPN pulled it form their schedule at a late stage.  Given the growth of the sport in the UK, that seemed like a very odd decision. To make matters worse, nfl.com didn't show the Draft live in the UK.  This seems like a terrible piece of marketing.

5.  The NFC East just got even harder.  Traditionally one of the toughest Divisions to get out of, the NFC East looks particularly brutal this season.  By trading up for Morris Clariborne and picking up Brandon Carr in Free Agency, the Cowboys created one of the strongest CB tandems in the league.  As previously mentioned, the Eagles have stocked up on defence, whilst the Redskins have invested their future in the talents of QB Robert Griffin III.  I may just have ended up supporting a team in the toughest Division of the NFL.

6. There are some truly outstanding NFL analysts out there.  Rich Elsen, Mike Mayock and Peter King are always worth a read/watch. But during the Draft they (and a few others) excelled themselves.  As a Draft novice, I didn't know much about the prospects, but thanks to the aforementioned experts, I felt pretty knowledgeable when it came to draft time (Did I mention the success of my Mock Draft effort?).
Being from a (round ball) football background, the difference in the quality of punditry is immense. Instead of the inane, pally "banter" of Hansen, Redknapp etc, the NFL gives us intelligent, insightful comments from experts who help people understand the game.

7. It's going to be a long long wait until Week 1. Franchises have declared their intentions for 2012, they've got the players they want (or not!) and now it's just a case of Training Camp battles and getting everybody game ready.  But for fans, it's going to be an achingly slow 4 months. Yes, there are Fantasy Drafts, predictions and preseason to look forward to, but the sooner the Cowboys-Giants clash comes around the better!

Well, that was the Draft and I'm more than pleased that I followed it closely for the first time.  However, it has proved to be a bit of a distraction from my "30 Things to Do", so I want to pick up the baton this week. My "Eagles Baby Gift Set" is on its way and I want to move on to my next task...Recruit a new Eagles fan!

Hmm, maybe this should have been in the Medium category!  I'm going to make my next blog article an open invitation for anyone to become an Eagles fan, a sales pitch I guess. I'll come up with some reasons why you should support the Eagles.  I'm not looking to convert fans of other teams, but if you're yet to discover the right team for you or are fed up with the team you support then the Eagles might just be for you!