NFL - American Football - how did you get into this sport?

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Share your story…

This particular ‘Blog’ category is just for each TFP member young or old, from anywhere in the world to share how they got into this great sport and how they came to choose to support the team they now do. Your story can be as long or as short as you wish it to be. Over time I am hoping this blog can give an insight to TFP members orgins stories whether occasional or heavy users on either the TFP forum (here) or the TFP server (Discord app).

Blog guidelines & rules:

  • Share your passion for American Football and the NFL.
  • Tell us how & why you support the team you do?
  • This category is not like other categories as comments, reactions and replies to others stories will be deleted - this will become purely a database of TFP users personal NFL origin stories. A blog if you will of how each of us came to love this great sport and chose to support the team(s) we now do.
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I was watching my first superbrawl when i was a kid. Was very impressed!

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Funny you ask about getting into NFL! It wasn’t until a friend dragged me to a game that I truly got it. But here’s the twist: while I appreciate football, my real passion lies in pickleball. Yup, that’s right! I stumbled upon this awesome sport and community through https://anypickleball.com/. It’s like a mix of tennis and ping pong, but with its own unique flair. Sometimes, unexpected experiences lead us to discover new passions, right?

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Washington Redskins fan and have been to DC a couple of times. Also mine and my old man’s second team were Miami Dolphins and have watched the game since the 80s. I used to buy First down newspaper and had to wait until it came out in a Thursday to get the stats with just Ceefax for the results until then. Although I did used to sneak a radio to bed when I was a kid on a Sunday night and managed to get a US forces commentary of some games.

I think my original choice was kit colour, loved the Redskins uniforms

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So how did I get into this amazing game? My memory reminds me of getting up in the middle of the night to sneak downstairs to catch a glimpse of Super Bowl although admittedly I understood very little of it except that two guys called Dan Marino and Joe Montana were in it. Somehow the hype got over to the UK on that basis and that was the first seed!

Later that year I was to visit California for summer hols and by the time I returned I was a 9ers crazy together with a celebratory champions baseball cap.

So 1985 was my first real year of following the sport, I remember Armed Forces Network being the main way of following the game - NFL is surprisingly good on radio! I also remember losing to the Rams and my heart was wrenching - yes that moment when you graduate as from a follower to a fan!

As the years rolled by I saw the TV coverage change from a one hour weeks delay to actual live games , buying USA today for the stats on Tuesday to first down and so on. I watched a bit of Britball live but late night college football soon became my thing, I remember seeing the Tennessee Vols Georgia Bulldogs game and just the colour Orange hooked me ! I even kept a scrap book of all the articles on the Vols - some great players in that era - Reggie Cobb, Alvin Harper and Carl Pickens to name a few.

To this day I’ve had my ups and downs with the 9ers and Vols but I wouldn’t change a thing! I’m older now and can ride the defeats but one thing I haven’t done yet is see the Vols play live in Neyland………watch this space

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Always been a sports fan, but never watched NFL until I moved into a shared house in 1995 when I got my first full time job out of college. Two of the other guys were fans, and we only had one tv in the house, so I grabbed a beer and watched. Picked the Chiefs for no better reason than they played in red (as I’m a Liverpool fan), and set myself up for 20 years of futility and disappointment!
Finally saw the Chiefs win a playoff game in Jan 2016 - in a London bar with several others from this forum also in attendance - and it has been a dream ride ever since. Never thought I’d see KC make it to a Super Bowl, now I’ve watched them win 3 !!

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Well I started this thread three years ago and finally a few folk have started to post on it so only right I weigh in with my story as well, so here goes…

I got into the NFL as a schoolboy in the mid to late 80’s and after a couple of seasons the rules just clicked and I found I enjoyed the games so much more understanding the strategy - “short bursts of skill and violence with the chance to re-group in between” to quote that NFL god like presenter Gary Imlack!

Well just like I follow an English footie team here at home I thought I could enjoy the NFL experience more if I were to follow the highs and lows of one particular team as opposed to being a neutral.

But who to pick, I was 14 years of age approx. - never been abroad, no relatives that I know of in the US. Emmm… !

Also everybody I knew wore the gear of the Jets, the Cowboys, 49’ers or the Raiders - but not for the love of the sport - for fashion!

Now I don’t like to be called a glory hunter either and my UK soccer team back then was never a big winner so to speak (some things never change)!

Then it came to me when I went to my bedroom in the children’s home (I was in care from age 11 - 16) - three of my four walls were plastered in ‘Madonna’ posters. Hell she’s American - well Italian American according to my ‘Smash Hits’ magazine of the time and so I looked up where she came from in one of their pop star fact boxes (internet hadn’t been invented then). I was sure she was going to be from NYC but no - it said born in Bay City, MI. I was sure I had seen that State abbreviation before connected with an NFL team. Turns out it was the Detroit Lions team which was also in MI!

So Detroit had a team - the Lions, they had never (and still haven’t to date) been to a Super Bowl so I could not be called a glory hunter (+1). They also had one of my two favourite players at that time - #20 (RB) BARRY SANDERS.(+2)

My other favourite player was #16 (QB) Joe Montana. But as he played for the 49’ers - a perennial Super Bowl contender and often winners it ruled them out for me as the equivalent of Liverpool at the time - these days that would be Manchester City.

So that was it, from that day forth I became a Lion!!!

However as Detroit hardly ever made the postseason I became partial to the 49’ers (due to my 2nd favourite player) and that became like my Play-Off team. However Detroit is and always remains my #1. So much so I have seen the Lions play every time I’ve been to the USA and they have been in every live NFL game I’ve seen in the States so far. I first went over back in 2000 and planed to see the Lions play in every one of the 32 NFL teams stadia before I retire and so far been to about 14 different stadia and about 30 games! PROBLEM IS TEAMS KEEP MOVING TO NEW STADIUMS!

Even worse I have been caught up in the USA’s security nightmare post 9/11 and sadly the visa burden became to much for a while and sadly not been over since 2012 but I do have a new visa which I got just before the Covid pandemic hit. Alas since the pandemic restrictions have been over I have found costs in the US just crazy high and procrastinated booking flights for last season - plus I have lost my direct connection / hook up for official tickets at Face Value. Also not having gone over for over a decade have kind of lost close connections with friends and that I used to crash with so no longer have any offers and need to start from scratch. Also now the Lions are finally decent ticket costs and interest in the Lions is ramped up like never before.

Am truly hoping if the Lions ever play in Europe again someone from TFP can help me source a ticket if I can’t myself as I am not a IS London season ticket holder.

Well that’s my story - GO LIONS

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