Eagles 6 Redskins 31 A History Project

My mother taught me that if I didn't have anything good to say then to not say anything at all.  This means I've got absolutely nothing to say regarding the Eagles latest  - and worst - defeat of the season.  Suffice to say that, the season is now over, wholesale changes are needed, Andy Reid must go, various players must go and new Co-ordinators are needed.  Aside from that, everything is looking good.

So instead of banging on about the Eagles and their deficiencies, I'm going to talk about something I'm currently working on and will forming the basis for this blog after the NFL season has concluded. I'm talking about the History of the NFL in the UK.  It started as a little bit of Internet research on a slow night in (aka girlfriend watching the soaps!) after reading an article about John Smith.  Smith was the kicker for the New England Patriots for 10 years from 1974 and is most famous for being the kicker during the infamous Snow Plough game against the Dolphins.  I found it interesting that Smith had been brought up in England and was offered a contract as a soccer* player.  He turned it down, moved to the US shortly after and the rest is history.

Me being me, I decided to look up other players from the UK who have appeared in the NFL.  It's not exactly a long list, but it does provide some great stories.  It certainly provided enough to intrigue me and set me off on a long train of thought. So long was the train, that it ended with me deciding to look into the entire history of the NFL in terms of it's connections to the UK.  Cue lots of research and more fascinating stories.

Broadly speaking, I categorised my findings into 5 categories:

* The Origins of the Sport - Like most US sports, American Football derives from an English sport  - in this case rugby.  How did the sport evolve from the time that William Webb Ellis supposedly pick up a ball during a game of football?  How did it get across the Atlantic and evolve into the sport we now watch and enjoy?

* The Early Days - Before Channel 4 got involved in the early 80's, the NFL was a mystery to the vast majority of the UK.  However, there were a few connections, aside from the previously mentioned Smith.  I am also trying to track down a story that I'm sure I read in the guardian a while ago, it concerns a kicker from the UK who ended up in the NFL after a franchise decided to run kicking trials over here.  If anybody has a link to that story or more information on what happened then please can you let me know, as I seem to recall it was a great story.

Possibly the greatest
TV logo ever!

* The 80's Boom - Everyone of a certain age (older than me I hasten to add) remember Channel 4's coverage of the NFL, it led to a massive growth of the NFL in the UK and exhibition games being played at Wembley stadium.  Ultimately, Channel 4's coverage was the catalyst for the League becoming what it has in this country.  They are plenty of interesting facts and anecdotes surrounding the sport and it's presence in the UK during this period.

* The London Monarchs and the World League - With all due respect the likes of the London Blitz and co, it seems ludicrous to think that an American Football team from the UK played and Wembley stadium and regularly attracted crowds of other 40,000.  It was a weird time for the sport in the UK, highlighted by the fact that my geography teacher used to put on Monarchs videos when he had time to kill at the end of a lesson!


*  Finally, after a late nineties dip, we have the "Second Boom" that exists to this day and is underlined by the playing of regular season NFL games at Wembley.  I still get amazed when people complain about aspects of the International Series - Team x are crap, the queues at the Tailgate are too long, tickets are too expensive etc - we shouldn't ever get complacent about the NFL playing in this country.  It is an incredible privilege that the overwhelming majority of sports fans never experience.  It is also growing year upon year -the Tailgates, the Fan Rallies etc and next year we have 2 games to look forward to.  What's more, they are also events such as the Super Bash and the Thanksgiving Party that help to raise the profile of the sport here, as well as more and more games being televised.  It's a fantastic time to be a UK based fan of the NFL, but what does the future hold and how can the sport continue to grow?

I'm still hunting around for stories and information about the NFL/UK connections, but after the end of the NFL season I'm going to start putting the stories together.  I've yet yet decided whether to use this blog to publish my work or to look at other avenues (websites, etc) or even to put it all together in one place.  Either way, I'm excited about working on a more substantial writing project and to find out more about the NFLs connections with the UK.

It's certainly better then writing about the Eagles every week!




(* Like most people in the UK I hate the word Soccer, but it's the simplest way to differentiate between football and American Football...so tough!)