The NFL heads to London, England this Sunday for the second of three games scheduled in the United Kingdom this season. Last week’s Vikings win over the Browns and this week’s Broncos vs. Jets matchup will be played at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, the newest and most exciting venue that London has to offer.
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Later this season, the Rams and Jaguars will play at London’s historic Wembley Stadium, home of the National Team and the FA Cup Final. The league has also hosted games in Brazil and Ireland already this season, with stops in Spain and Germany also on the docket.
And more than the NFL wanting to expand its global reach across the Atlantic and beyond, the fans in Europe—and the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland) especially—are responding in kind. According to the NFL’s official research, they’ve nabbed over 14 million British fans (of a total population of just under 70 million).
So the question is, once those fans decide they like the sport, how do they choose which club to support without a local team to latch onto? Well, resenter and podcaster Jay Lawrence asked London fans the same question, and the responses are, to say the least, pretty hilarious.
“Because I like pain and suffering,” said a Browns fan, laughing. “As a Browns fan, I’m not sure,” another added.
“Because they’re the best team. Simples,” a third Cleveland fan said.
Other British Browns fans were clearly able to laugh at their own misfortune early in their Cleveland fandom. They said they were fans because “it’s the greatest team in the whole NFL” and because “I was born into this misery, I didn’t choose it.”
As the top Instagram comment on this street interview video says, “The respect I have for the guys from the UK choosing the browns is incalculable. You truly love pain.”
The NFL’s global expansion is clearly working
A British Seahawks fan said he supports the club because “I love the colors, I love the city, and I love the 12s,” referring to the nickname Seattle’s fanbase has earned for itself over the last decade or two. When a Ravens fan was asked the same question, he said, “Um.. I don’t really know.” Right now, that’s not surprising.
A Minnesota fan decked out in Vikings gear said that he’s a fan because, “My friend, I was working with him, he said go into the NFL store, become an American, I chose the purple and gold and I’ve been following it ever since.” And that checks out: the Vikings have played in the U.K. five times since 2013, and they’ve won all five.
One fan said he supports the Jaguars because they play in the U.K. so often. That shows that their tactic of growing their fanbase globally with these overseas games (Jacksonville plays in Britain more than any other NFL team and has played there at least once every year since 2013) is working. Well, at least for that one fan.
Meanwhile, an Atlanta Falcons fan in London said he chose them because “my sister comes from Atlanta, Georgia.” Family ties, very reasonable.
One truly dedicated Buffalo Bills fan from London said, “I’ve been watching since the ’90s, and the first time I started watching it, Buffalo got to four Super Bowls, and I was begging them to win one. They never did. (Laughs)” That’s tough. Going through all that pain for a team a world away shows real love.
The second-most liked comment on the post was one we could really get behind: “The ’90s Bills fan deserves to go to Buffalo and experience a tailgate and game.” Another pointed out, “That Buffalo fan since the 90’s sounded heartbroken lol.” Hopefully, someone working for the Bills sees this and hooks the old boy up with some tickets. It would seem like no one deserves it more.
Funny enough, even with the Broncos and Jets playing there on Sunday, there were no Jets fans to be seen. This prompted a classic joke on the IG post: “They knew nothing about the NFL, but they still knew enough not to choose the Jets.”
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With their first game in neighboring Ireland just a couple of weeks ago, the NFL certainly isn’t slowing down its push to become one of the top secondary sports—over there, nothing’s passing “the real football,” which we call soccer on this side—in Europe and beyond.
These games regularly sell out months in advance. The NFL reports that over 95 percent of the tickets are sold to non-Americans. And that means the global fanbase continues to balloon for the NFL. In Roger Goodell we trust, eh?
