So, Why Is The NFL So Big In Britain?

We've all heard the story by now, 500,000 ticket requests for the last UK game and three further games to be played in the UK in 08,09 and 2010, but how did American Football become so big in blighty?

To find the answer we have to look both at the current psyche of the British sports fan and the sporting climate in which he/she now lives.

Soccer is and always has been, the number one sport in Britain. The country is saturated with teams and leagues that run the length and breadth of the country. A town may not have a post office, a school or a population of more then 22, but it will almost certainly have a football team. That's just the way it is in Britain.

Though there have been numerous calls over the years for the FA to condense the leagues and force the small (and generally bankrupt) clubs to come together, they, like so many another cries for change in football, fallen on deaf ears. As a result of a staunch resistance to and lets not mince words here, a total fear of, any change, the leading sport in Britain has become an overindulged, predictable bore. No team outside the famous 'top four' has one the league in ten years and none outside that 'elite' has won the FA Cup in thirteen. The soccer season itself seems to get longer every year and there now appears to be scarcely any off-season.



This has lead to a backlash against soccer. Many long term fans, bored of seeing the same teams win every year whilst all the others struggle to avoid administration, have turned away from soccer in search of something more entertaining. Many have turned to Rugby and whilst attendances at soccer grounds have fallen, those at rugby grounds have seen a dramatic rise.

But where does the NFL fit in? Well, with the backlash against soccer, more fans are becoming open to new sports. The long term fans are finding it far easier to convert their friends to American Football then usual, such is the desire for some decent sporting action. With the growth of the internet has come better access to information for UK fans and sites like NFLUK.com have given these new fans a community in which to discuss their new passion.

It is often said that once you discover the American Football, it quickly becomes your favourite sport. Nowhere is this truer then in Great Britain. The majority of British NFL fans would site American Football as their favourite sport without hesitation and many of them now simply refer to it as 'Football' and to soccer as 'Soccer'.

The only downside to this is that a rift has formed between the fans of the two sports. Nowhere was this more evident then at the coin toss before the Wembley game. Whilst England rugby captain Martin Johnson and Formula-1 driver Lewis Hamilton received rapturous applause, England soccer captain John Terry was severely boo-ed. To put it simply, British football fans are sick of soccer being shoved down their throats and annoyed by the ignorance soccer fans and pundits show to other sports.

Some soccer fans tend to get angry at NFL fans and recently a well known talk radio host (and former soccer player) said British NFL fans "must have something missing from their lives". This reaction is common among British soccer fans who are not only unwilling to accept other cultures, but also terrified of the massive growth of a sport that they just don't understand.

But things are changing. This year the Superbowl was aired for the first time on the BBC (Britain's biggest TV network) as well as on Satellite and hundreds of thousands of new fans were created. With the incredible continued coverage on Sky TV, the unprecedented access that the internet provides and the regular season games being played in the UK, the NFL is definitely here to stay. And British Football fans are ever thankful for that.

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