For the third straight year, the NFL has brought a regular season game to our shores in the hope of gaining popularity and treating long term fans to a taste of the glitz and glamour that oozes from every pour of ‘America’s game’.
84,000 people attended last nights match pitting the team of the decade, the New England Patriots against the Tampa Bay Bucs.
The game itself was pretty much a non-event, a rather predictable 35-7 trouncing of the Buccaneers by the Patriots.
Considering this game was supposed to be a home game for Tampa Bay, the team from Boston had more than the lions share of support. With more people donning the famous number 12 jersey worn by NFL legend and New England quarter-back Tom Brady than any other team or player in the entire 32 franchise league.
But putting the game, fireworks…. and cheerleaders aside, the NFL came armed with something extra this year. Yesterday marked the official launch of NFL 360, a website helping people learn about the rules, players and teams of America’s number one sport. It even has a way of helping you pick a team if you don’t already have one.
A piece in the Times describes that, even though it was quite the spectacle, it probably did not achieve exactly what it wanted. It wasn’t a good advert for the sport, watching the rampant Patriots brush aside a clearly inferior Buccaneers, it was devoid of any real intensity, especially with the first touch-down being scored within a minute or so of the game starting.
And just to prove I do look at other websites other than the Times, Tom Brady says in the Guardian that playing at Wembley was like playing in the Superbowl, which is probably about as high a praise you could get from a legend of the sport.
I would recommend the NFL to anybody. I’ve been following it since about 1998 and there really isn’t any other sport that relies so much on strategy, power and athleticism. Also, the Americans put on one hell of a show. I can honestly say I had more fun yesterday than at any of the countless Guinness Premiership rugby games I’ve attended. I won’t say football because we all know, football rules all.
