Will Raheem Win Over The British?
February 1st, 2011
The NFL continues to do anything to convince soccer-mad England that it should be watching gridiron greats every weekend.
Just leave these silly Englishmen alone to foolishly agonize over Manchester United having evil American owners that only brought them championship after championship after championship. They’re a world away and are never going to embrace football.
Now the NFL wants us to pay attention to NFLUK.com and care about how a bunch of crumpet munchers vote on NFL Coach of the Year.
Raheem Morris is a finalist, and the big announcement of the inaugural “NFL UK Awards” comes out on Sunday.
After the Bucs defecated in London in 2009, maybe Raheem actually has a shot of winning following the Bucs’ big revival in 2010. Then again. Who cares?
What’s next? NFL Ukraine names D-line coach of the decade?
February 1st, 2011 at 10:51 am
I may well be the only one, but I’m from England and am a huge Bucs fan! I’ve been following the Buccaneers since I was 13, and I’m now 22 – so that’s 9 years of loyal Bucs following right there – so there ARE some Brits who love the Bucs!
February 1st, 2011 at 10:55 am
My buddy went to the game in London last year and said that there is a huge Bucs following there. He said that the year we won the Super Bowl was the first year they had the NFL broadcast over there. (I’m not sure about that, but it makes sense; people love a winning bandwagon)
February 1st, 2011 at 10:58 am
Hey now Joe they’re not all bad over there. As a matter of fact there is a pretty big Bucs following over there.
Bucpower.com is a BucsUK fanclub sight.
Its pretty sweet anytime i want to look up any stat from any season in Bucs history thats where i find it.
February 1st, 2011 at 11:08 am
Just don’t wear that Affliction t shirt ever again.
February 1st, 2011 at 11:25 am
“After the Bucs defecated in London in 2009, maybe Raheem actually has a shot of winning following the Bucs’ big revival in 2010. Then again. Who cares?”
This line gave me a well needed chuckle this morning, thanks Joe!
There is a great deal of people from the UK living in the Tampa bay area, I have several friends from across the pond. They are all Bucs fans, I have one that is even though her husband is a Bill’s fan. BTW I have known him for 25 years and he lived her for about 10 years before I met him. I will take loyal Bucs fans from anywhere…but this article was a great piece to read.
February 1st, 2011 at 11:34 am
Thanks Joe,
Just happen to be British, have been a Bucs fan ever since Steve de Berg became their starting quarterback (don’t ask) back in the bad old days of the creamsicle uniforms, and an avid reader of your website.
Nice to feel denigrated and patronised all at the same time!
February 1st, 2011 at 11:36 am
@Joe. Just read this on PFT. You need to find out where the buses are funning from.
An intense ice storm has coated the Dallas area with a sheet of ice, but the Media Day circus will thankfully go on as planned Tuesday morning.
MDS and I are currently on a bus headed over to JerryWorld, complete with police escort.
February 1st, 2011 at 11:46 am
“Crumpet Munchers” made me LOL.
February 1st, 2011 at 11:52 am
LOL @ “Crumpet Munchers”
February 1st, 2011 at 12:10 pm
NFL Ukraine names D-line coach of the decade?
———————–
The Ukraine is weak
February 1st, 2011 at 12:23 pm
Joe here,
@Tercel — Joe owes you a beer. 😉
February 1st, 2011 at 1:10 pm
There are a lot of Bucs fans in the rest of the world. Not only in your country. Im from Spain and I watched every game of my Buccaneers. Its true that football is a minority sport but the people who follow football, like i, we follow it with passion.
By the way, congratulations for your web and go Bucs!
February 1st, 2011 at 1:20 pm
Ah well, something to “dunk” my crumpet in at least!
February 1st, 2011 at 2:06 pm
Wow, that is a stupid award. No offense to th UK though. 😀
February 1st, 2011 at 2:24 pm
d-money
I agree. That site is cool. You can also get every Buc’s draft, roster and season in detail.
February 1st, 2011 at 2:26 pm
Joe
Beer? Tercel would like a pint of lager, perferably warm!
February 1st, 2011 at 3:03 pm
No no no no no no no no. Larger is served cold, as is most beers. Only ale is served room temperature.
And, for what it’s worth, american football’s pretty big over here. We have a 48-team amateur league, a 72-team university league, a youth league, a flag league, and they’re starting a 5v5 women’s league
plus, for crying out loud, we sold out wembley for BRONCOS VS 49ERS! What does it tell you about the UK that we so love football, we sold out one of our largest stadiums for that POS!
February 1st, 2011 at 4:12 pm
I haven’t understood why Roger Goodell is so insistent about having NFL teams in Europe. It doesn’t seem like there is a passionate enough fan base to actually support a team over there. Instead, it seems much more realistic in working to keep and improve the TV fan base.
February 1st, 2011 at 5:43 pm
There is a pretty large NFL following in the UK, and a large part of them are Bucs fans.
@Pete 422
It’s because it is mostly an untapped market. Here, we all know American Football is better than “Soccer”, so it’s likely that eventually, an NFL Europe will catch on.
Businesses need to do their best to expand into untapped markets. There are more NFL fans in the UK than in the rest of Europe, so there is a good chance of success there.
I agree with you about the TV fan base though.
I think, in regard to NFLUK, they should have one conferences there, and they can come here to compete as much as we go there. Let them become a part of the regular playoffs. Give fans a reason to get behind the teams there.
Because NFL Europe failed because it wasn’t REALLY a part of our league…it was the minors. Let them participate in our draft as well, and free agency.
If you are going to do it, go all out. Out of conference games can be split between being played here and there, in conference games would be played there only.
They want home playoff games, make them earn it like we do.
February 1st, 2011 at 7:45 pm
@ Pete Dutcher: I don’t ever see the NFL becoming more popular than “football” in the UK. That is their passion over there, I just don’t see it. The traveling logistics would also be a nightmare.
On top of it all, I don’t think the NFL should add any teams period. It would dilute the talent level too much and the quality of play would suffer.
IMO a horrible idea.
February 1st, 2011 at 7:58 pm
I’d like to thank Sky Sports for their broadcast of a number of Bucs games this past year…in whatever way I might have legally/illegally accessed them.
I will also add that I liked their panel during intermissions and halftime, fairly entertaining.
February 1st, 2011 at 10:09 pm
I know of a handful of die hard NFL fans in the UK but hardly enough to fill up a few rows. If the NFL want’s to expand they should look South or North but not EAST..
February 1st, 2011 at 10:56 pm
I’m a Bucs fan in England too….a lifelong United supporter might I add…
February 1st, 2011 at 11:48 pm
And to think this is just a sample of those who follow the bucs. I never realized how big the NFL was abroad.
To be honest, I wouldn’t be surprised if the following of the nfl is equal to the following of the EPL here. I know most on this site could care less for soccer, but I know quite a few people who follow it passionately. Maybe the Glazers are evil geniuses after all, having their hands in both pots 😉
February 2nd, 2011 at 3:36 am
Joe, don’t hate, I’m a huge bucs fan living in london (I also hate manchester united but what would americans know about “soccer”). NFL is actually getting kinda big here – albeit with most people supporting the pats. I think were the biggest market outside north america, and we fill out 80 000 odd seats at wembley every year for our game..
February 2nd, 2011 at 6:19 pm
@ James Pearls; Do you think England would support their own NFL team?
February 2nd, 2011 at 7:04 pm
@pete, no probably not to be honest, the most hardcore fans of other teams may not switch allegiences, and I don’t think nfl could compete on a regular basis with other sports like english football and rugby but ya never know.. We fill out a stadium for one game a year which is more than the bucs are doing right now.. Maybe multiple a games a year could work
February 2nd, 2011 at 8:59 pm
@ james pearls; As I stated above, I agree with you. The NFL should keep going after the TV market over there. Interesting most are Patriots fans. My wife is from Ecuador and of course everything there is “futbol.” The NFL is confusing to them, but hey ask questions about the NFL.
February 7th, 2011 at 3:38 am
I grew up loving both football and soccer in Tampa, as a Bucs and Rowdies fan. I studied abroad in England in college back in Fall 1994. There was this weekly show on one of the BBC channels that was an hour that highlighted all of the NFL games from Sunday on Monday nights. We dubbed that as our “Monday Night Football,” since the real MNF was on in the middle of the night, and we weren’t able to watch it.
I went to the Bucs game with my parents in London, and it was really cool to see all of the Bucs fans there, even though more people I spoke with seated around us were Patriots fans. The guy sitting right behind me couldn’t shut up about Tom Brady. What also was cool was that pretty much every NFL team’s jersey was represented by fans from all over the UK and Europe wearing them, and they all had this one NFL game to go to in person.
On the train after the game, I had a conversation with fellow Arsenal fans of our love for the NFL, Arsenal and the Premier League. They said they pay the package to watch the NFL games online and go to soccer (“football”) matches in person.