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!
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!
Nice blog as always Simon. I've been to all five of the games that have been over here so far and have had a great time at them all. I would thoroughly recommend going to anyone that hasn't been.
ReplyDeleteGreat read. Funny you got home from last years IS game at the same time I did and I only live 2 minutes away from Wembley Park station lol. In my defense, I did go round to my mates pub on the High Road after the game and we had a lock in.
ReplyDeleteFrom my perspective, I don't see what is so spectacular about the view of the stadium from the station, but then I do walk past there almost every day.