With the Washington Redskins in London this week to play the Cincinnati Bengals as part of the international series, my editor asked me to share my experience of trying to follow an NFL team from across the pond. Without doubt, the time difference is one of the most difficult things to deal with as part of being an NFL fan in the U.K. We’re five hours ahead of east coast time. A typical Sunday schedule in the U.S. consists of the 1 p.m. kick-offs, closely followed by the 4:30 p.m. games. Then Sunday Night Football kicks off at 8:30 in the evening, prime time in the U.S. For us in the U.K., the Sunday schedule is rather different.
The first batch of games start at 6 p.m. our time. Those games are fine, though it can sometimes be awkward trying to organize and eat dinner during the game. The later games start at about 9:30 our time. Again, the start isn’t too bad, but those games can run past midnight and sometimes even until 1 a.m., which can make getting up for work pretty difficult on Monday morning. But the toughest task, which separates the pretenders from the real die-hard fans here in the U.K., is the late game. It’s a 1:30 a.m. kick off and often won’t finish until 5 in the morning. That applies to Monday and Thursday night games too.
Sometimes a group of friends will take time off work and plan to stay up all night to watch their team in the prime-time spotlight. But staying up late for those games just isn’t worth it sometimes. I vividly remember staying up for a Monday night game a few years ago and instantly regretting it. Washington hosted Philadelphia, and the game had been built up all week. My friend and I prepared before the game, stocking up on drinks and snacks to keep ourselves awake throughout the night. Then, on the first play of the game, Michael Vick connected with DeSean Jackson on an 88-yard touchdown pass. It was 1:31 a.m and with just one play having been run I already I knew I had made a mistake. But having already committed to staying up to that point, I forced myself to stick with it and watch the whole game, hoping I had actually fallen asleep and was just having a bad dream.
The social aspect of the sport varies drastically here. Pre-game routines vary up and down the country. While the sport is growing, it still hasn’t caught onto the point where you’ll come across fellow NFL fans regularly. It’s not like in the States, where if you walk down the street you’ll see multiple people in the local team’s jersey and others wearing baseball caps or other team apparel. I can’t go into a barbershop and ask “Did you see Odell Beckham made another ludicrous one-handed catch?” I’d be met with strange looks and the question, “You mean David Beckham?”
One of the most annoying parts of being a fan in the U.K. is not getting to see your team every week. The games aren’t all available to us here on TV. They aren’t split between different networks. Instead, it’s all on one network, SkySports, which picks one early game, one later game and also shows all three prime-time games each week. If you aren’t lucky enough to have your team picked, then the only way you can watch your team is paying for NFL GamePass online.
The first batch of games start at 6 p.m. our time. Those games are fine, though it can sometimes be awkward trying to organize and eat dinner during the game. The later games start at about 9:30 our time. Again, the start isn’t too bad, but those games can run past midnight and sometimes even until 1 a.m., which can make getting up for work pretty difficult on Monday morning. But the toughest task, which separates the pretenders from the real die-hard fans here in the U.K., is the late game. It’s a 1:30 a.m. kick off and often won’t finish until 5 in the morning. That applies to Monday and Thursday night games too.
Sometimes a group of friends will take time off work and plan to stay up all night to watch their team in the prime-time spotlight. But staying up late for those games just isn’t worth it sometimes. I vividly remember staying up for a Monday night game a few years ago and instantly regretting it. Washington hosted Philadelphia, and the game had been built up all week. My friend and I prepared before the game, stocking up on drinks and snacks to keep ourselves awake throughout the night. Then, on the first play of the game, Michael Vick connected with DeSean Jackson on an 88-yard touchdown pass. It was 1:31 a.m and with just one play having been run I already I knew I had made a mistake. But having already committed to staying up to that point, I forced myself to stick with it and watch the whole game, hoping I had actually fallen asleep and was just having a bad dream.
The social aspect of the sport varies drastically here. Pre-game routines vary up and down the country. While the sport is growing, it still hasn’t caught onto the point where you’ll come across fellow NFL fans regularly. It’s not like in the States, where if you walk down the street you’ll see multiple people in the local team’s jersey and others wearing baseball caps or other team apparel. I can’t go into a barbershop and ask “Did you see Odell Beckham made another ludicrous one-handed catch?” I’d be met with strange looks and the question, “You mean David Beckham?”
One of the most annoying parts of being a fan in the U.K. is not getting to see your team every week. The games aren’t all available to us here on TV. They aren’t split between different networks. Instead, it’s all on one network, SkySports, which picks one early game, one later game and also shows all three prime-time games each week. If you aren’t lucky enough to have your team picked, then the only way you can watch your team is paying for NFL GamePass online.
