![]() Wembley Stadium hosted the final in 1952. By the 1950s, Britain’s American Air Force bases were competing against each other and their European counterparts in a league that culminated in the USAFE Football Championship final. In Touchdown: UK, Nick Richards explains that the first recorded American football game in Britain was played in Kent in 1910 between the crews of two visiting US warships. It’s been a longer journey than you might think. And 30 years ago the idea of the NFL playing any competitive games in London was unthinkable. Even 10 years ago, it wouldn’t have made sense to complain about “only” three games. The best indication of how far we have come was when fans complained that the league will play just three games in London in 2018, compared to the four in 2017. And if you pay for a full Game Pass subscription then you can watch any game live and all the others in full later. A British fan today can watch four or five live games a week, so long as you have Sky, and go to three or four regular-season games in London every year. It doesn’t come close to today’s offering. While fans like me, in our 40s, have fond memories of the rise of the sport in the 1980s, I doubt that any of us would swap.īack then we had weekly highlights programmes, which evolved slowly into limited live coverage, and the occasional pre-season exhibition game at Wembley. This is the golden era for British NFL fans. American football has a surprisingly long history in the UK and it’s one filled with ups and downs.
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