We love American football but just don't want to play it

More than four million people in this country turned into live coverage of this year's Super Bowl, but British players seem more reluctant now to take up the sport

By Elliot Belliss

Before 2007 the only taste of The National Football League (NFL) action Britain could enjoy in person was a rare pre-season game which really had no competitive edge whatsoever. It wasn't until 2007 when the first actual game took place at Wembley Stadium between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins that the NFL signed a long term deal to host multiple games per year at the stadium.

Fast forward to 2022, the NFL will host three games in London for the upcoming season, one at Wembley as well as two at the new Tottenham Hotspur stadium in the north of the city. The games have been hugely popular since arriving on UK shores with the popularity growing more and more with each passing season.

We can clearly see a popularity increase in the past few years, especially with UK fans watching the Super Bowl way past their bedtime. NFL UK claims that over four million people watched Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers win Super Bowl VL last year. Sunday night regular season games also had a rise of eight percent in 2020 with Sky Sports viewers.

It remains to be seen if American Football will ever be a mainstream sport but it is certainly getting attention in Britain.

brown Wilson football on field

Photo by Dave Adamson on Unsplash

The roots of American Football in the UK

The first ever reported American football game in the UK was in 1910 which was played between US Navy servicemen stationed in Britain. However the sport didn't become popular in terms of British people watching or playing until at least the 1980s. Channel 4 started to show highlights of each NFL regular season week and UK leagues were set up by the British American Football Association. This association has 70 teams, the most successful being the London Warriors who have won the BritBowl six times. The league is split into north and south much like the NFL and teams compete in playoff style games after the regular season.

A short clip of a successful onside kick in the latest Britbowl

But why the decline?

The strangest thing about American football in the UK is how the viewership has drastically improved over the years but the number of young people actually playing the game has been on a steady decline over the past decade. This could be be down to a combination of many factors including the popularity of other sports in recent years. Are people doing less exercise or could people be afraid to play the contact sport?

As you can see from the most recent data in the graph below, it's obvious that fewer and fewer people are playing the sport in Britain.

Young UK American Football Players

Although the overall number of people in the UK playing American football has dropped, there is still some very good young talent rising through the British ranks.

Finley Irwin-Hill played three seasons with the Berkshire-based Rushmoor Knights, who were previously called the Farnham Knights. He has had to stop playing just before this upcoming season due to injury. Finley, 19, was a Wide Receiver and was hoping to make it to USA for college and eventually to the NFL.

He said "I would recommend the sport to anyone interested in physical sport with great tactical depth". However repeat injuries to the leg have been the downfall of his young career. Finley talked about how local UK games in the BAFA National Leagues are different from an NFL game. He said, "Obviously the play is a lot less intense and games are a lot shorter without advertisement breaks every 30 seconds". On average an American professional game would last over four hours, in Britain the game would be over within two hours on average.

He also added how players are able to get open much easier from defenders as they are less experienced.

Here is a video of Finley breaking free from his defender on the left but the Quarterback unfortunately rushed the throw.

Finley had seven touchdowns in his last season and won player of the year for the Farnham Knights in 2018.

Finley said that although his position was to catch the ball his hero was Tom Brady, the seven-time Super Bowl champion Quarterback. He said, "Brady has everything you need to succeed and after his Super Bowl 51 comeback I have always looked up to him as a role model".

Finley making a catch in his last game

Finley making a catch in his last game

Famous British-born NFL players

There have been many British successes in the NFL over the years, in fact there has been five British Super Bowl Champions.

Firstly we will look at the most recent U.K. NFL title winner in Jay Ajayi, who won Super Bowl 52 with the Philadelphia Eagles. He rushed for 57 yards in the big game. He was born in London but moved to USA aged seven and grew a passion for American Football almost instantly, Jay has recently retired after five seasons in the NFL due to injuries and was tipped to become an all time great running back. He carried on his love for sports by becoming a professional sports gamer with the Philadelphia Union.

The most successful U.K. born NFL player is Osi Umenyiora, being a two time NFL Champion. The London-born defensive end won both his titles with the New York Giants. He is known an as NFL legend is is favoured to one day make it to the Hall Of Fame. Since Osi's retirement in 2014 he has become a NFL U.K. pundit, working mainly for the BBC and even won the 2018 Sports Journalists Association British Pundit Of The Year, almost as good as a Super Bowl, or two!

Jay Ajayi

Jay Ajayi

Osi Umenyiora, 2X Super Bowl champion

Osi Umenyiora, 2X Super Bowl champion

Could the UK ever host the Super Bowl?

If this question was asked a decade ago it would be very unlikely to even imagine London being the host of the big game, but times have changed and with the introduction of Tottenham Hotspur's new stadium NFL UK are looking the make a bid to host the 2026 Super Bowl.

Daniel Levy the Spurs owner is reportedly trying to cement his relationship with the NFL, of course this will be difficult for many reasons, mainly due to time zones with some West Coast states being eight hours behind London.

The big question is if the NFL would let their pride and joy outside of USA. England isn't the only country with the idea of hosting the Super Bowl with Australia also eyeing up a big to bring the big game to the land down under. This was especially surprising to fans as Australia doesn't even host regular season games and doesn't quite have a fanbase the UK has.

Tottenham Hotspur's new stadium in London

Could we ever see a London-based NFL team?

There has been talk for years now over the logistics of actually bringing a team to the UK With the Jacksonville Jaguars the most likely to relocate over the pond from Florida.

The NFL has said it aims to have a London team by 2025 and this has support from the British government.

The obvious questions are logistics and how feasible it would be for the London team to have to fly to USA for every away game, and vice versa with the other 31 teams having to potentially fly to London. Other legal issues could include visas, tax and sponsorship, the NFL is trying to find a way around all of this.

Another question to be asked is where would this potential team play and train, as discussed before in the article the Tottenham Hotspur stadium seems likely to become the new home of NFL UK and Wembley looks to have taken a step back from that honour. If a team is established in London by 2025 the likelihood is it will be Spurs based with Daniel Levy being joint owner.

This all remains to be seen, how will the UK fan base grow, will they support the idea of a Super Bowl hosted in London, how will Americans react? The NFL will never be as popular as football in this country but that doesn't mean it can't become a phenomenon over here!

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