Da Bears! - British version

Neither Dinosaur or I had ever been to a professional football game before seeing one in…London.  A little strange for two Americans to get their first taste of live NFL action that way, but no complaints here. 

From what I gathered, there is just one official American football game in London each year.  That means that all fans of American football who are in the area attend the game, regardless of the allegiance of the fans to the teams playing.  Again, I’ve never attended an NFL game in America, but I assume that at those events, if the Bears were playing the Buccaneers, the majority of jerseys that you would see fans wearing would be either Bears jerseys or Buccs jerseys.  Not so in London.  If you’re an NFL fan in Britain, you have but one chance per year to let your pride show, so you throw on that NFL jersey, no matter what team it represents or whether or not that player’s name on your back is even still on that team’s roster.  As we made our way from the Tube to the stadium, the rainbow of jersey colors and spectrum of teams represented was astounding.  

The Buccaneers were the “home” team (is that just a bizarre American sport occurrence – to designate one team the “home” team, regardless of how far both teams actually are from their homes?), so the stands were filled with Buccaneers penants.  And because most of the British NFL fans filling the stadium held no allegiance toward either team that was actually playing, most seemed stoked to score a free NFL souvenir and waved the penants furiously.  Not that the stadium filled from top to bottom with waving Buccs penants actually helped that team in the game’s outcome (go Bears!).

The GooGoo Dolls played a few songs as the opening act.  That was entertaining.  And also funny that an American band was brought over to London to open.

Both the American and British national anthems were sung.

Looking around the stands (which were quite full), hardly a woman could be found.  Is this typical of an NFL game in America?  I can imagine that it is, but still, hardly to the extent that I witnessed in London.  I would hesitate to bet that even 10% of the audience was female.  I definitely felt…outnumbered.

The people sitting near us in the stands were very friendly.  The row of people behind us held retiree-aged Bears fans from Scotland.  To my right were five college-aged friends from Ireland who make a yearly journey to London for the NFL game.  Each of the five boys wore a different NFL jersey.  I was able to chat (well, yell) with the nearest three, to glean the stories of how they chose “their” teams.  Steelers jersey, sitting next to me:  “I used to have hair like Polamalu’s.”  Patriots jersey, who had been sipping Smirnoff Ices throughout the entire game:  “I’m in love with Tom Brady.”  Bengals jersey:  “My cat looks like Garfield.”  Beyond Bengals, the two others were sporting Broncos and Buccaneers.  I didn’t catch their stories, but Steelers fan sitting next to me shrugged and stated in his thick Irish accent, “We play a lot of Madden.”

Continuing on in thick Irish speak, Steelers fan entertained me throughout the game with his incredulity at the cheerleaders:  “What on earth are they doing??”  “Can you imagine, if in the middle of a rugby game, a bunch of girls in bikinis ran onto the field??  There’d be utter madness!”  “Not that I’m complaining…”  “Do you reckon they’re cold?”  “Who pays for them??”  “I like this sport.  All I need is the sport.  When did Americans get so bored with sport that they had to bring in girls in bikinis??”  “Who are these women?!?”  “Again, not that I’m complaining…”

Dinosaur and I enjoyed the easy Bears win, high-fiving the Scottish retirees behind us after touchdowns.  We sipped beers and munched on crispy chicken and chips (thick British French fries, not potato chips).  (I’ll admit, I was hoping for a warm, hand-held meat pie, a la Aussie footy games, but no such luck.)  We braved the crowded Tube and managed to maneuver back to our hotel.  All in all, our first NFL experience, though unconventional, was a thoroughly delightful one.