NFL week 7. New England Patriots at Tampa Bay Buccaneers

The day before the big game, kick-started with a whirlwind of activity around London.

Game 15. NFL week 7. New England Patriots at Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Wembley stadium. 25th October 2009.

By Adam Goldstein

New England Patriots 35-7 Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

The day before the big game, kick-started with a whirlwind of activity around London. Firstly it was to the NFLUK office in central London to pick up my Tailgate tickets. Like last year you have to win these tickets by applying early. Then it was onto the Foot Locker store where Danish footballing legend, Morten Andersen was doing an interview and signing autographs. Then thirdly it was actually up to Wembley Stadium itself, to find a pub called the Green Man hotel. There were nearly 80 NFL fans in their favourite jerseys enjoying a pint or two in the shadows of the famous stadium when I finally found the place. It is here where the un-official Tailgate will take place before tomorrow’s big show down across the street.

Martin, from the Colchester Gladiator American football team, has organised this event for the past two years. He told me that the police were unsure about having so many home and away fans at this pub for an outdoor party two years ago, when the Giants and Saints came to town. But now the locals and the police know that the NFL fans can be trusted and give him much more support. This pub does not allow a mixture of fans to be present when there are large soccer games on at Wembley.

Peter (who runs this site) was in the pub with his two friends. It was great seeing Peter again. We first met back in April 2008 when my flag football team from London, decided to kit up and play against the Copenhagen Towers. We were successful in our game against the Towers and that may have been because we bought some great kit from Peter’s store in Copenhagen. At the time he thought I was an average yet slightly enthusiastic fan, taking pictures of all the shoulder pads, jerseys and helmets he had in his store. I told him about my trip about my going to every NFL stadium in one season and told me what I was doing was a “pilgrimage”: a football version of “Mecca!”

Game Day

A mere 10 hours later I was back at Wembley in the crisp morning. Myself and my girlfriend, Steph got to the tailgate section as early as 11am and it was already fairly busy. Straight away I could tell it was going to be a better tailgate party than last year, because there was just so much more space. There were local cheerleaders on the stage already, as well stilt performers, and lots of fans in NFL jerseys.

I decided to not wear any home team merchandise, and stuck with my precious Walter Payton jersey and my rather large Bears foam hat. Steph decided she was going to support the ‘Bucs, because we met such good tailgaters there last year, and we watched a ‘Bucs game from their famous pirate ship in their stadium. Plus Steph must be one of the few ladies in the world that is not attracted to the Pat’s golden boy; Tom Brady. Steph donned her red jacket, black jeans, and a black and red top and to top it off a Buccaneer bandanna, she really looked the part!

The first thing I noticed about this year’s tailgate was how much the NFLUK are appealing to the adult fans. Last year it was all about large inflatable’s, that younger fans, or people like me got involved with, but such things took up a lot of space and demanded a lot of queues. Not only was there far, far more merchandise this year, but it was all sorted into different teams. The AFC had a massive tent on one side of the lot while the NFC had just as a big a tent on the other side. The only problem would be if you wanted merchandise from two conferences then you would have to queue twice, but overall think the system worked well.

There were two large tents in the middle of the space in front of the stage. The left one was an open museum for every NFL team. 16 huge boards were in the room, with each face representing a different NFL team. Each team had some history of each club, and a ballot for a signed prize from each team. At the Bear’s wall, it was a signed Urlacher jersey that was to be won. I signed my name, but sadly haven’t heard anything yet.

As I walked around with my Bears hat on plenty of people stopped me to tell me they have been following my blogs this year and last year. It was great meeting so many people that have been so supportive of my trips, and it was just as well I was wearing a ridiculously large hat so everyone could find me!

The next stop was the closed off tent, that had the magical words on the side: Pro Football Hall of Fame. The queue was not too long to get inside. I should have been ecstatic by this temporary NFL museum to footballing greatness, but because I have been to the Hall of fame several times, I felt I should take a step back and let everyone else drool over the Vince Lombardi trophy and the famous jerseys and artefacts present at key games in NFL folklore. Just before Steph could land her eyes on the multi diamond encrusted Super Bowl rings we were asked to go into the theatre for a 3-D showing.

The theatre was packed and we grabbed our 3-D glasses. A fully 3-D film started up, accompanied by a soft deep voice, and euphoric music that took us through a magical footballing journey. Images from a Chargers-Pats game were beautiful photographed, and it really shows that NFL Films are at the cutting edge of video usage in sports. Steph and I were both elated at this 7 minute showing, though sadly we had to leave the theatre not the way we came in, which meant if we did want to go back into the hall of fame part we had to queue from the outside again. Still I was more than happy, and surprised by just how good the tailgate had been to this point. At the time, because I thought Steph and myself would be going back to America for the second half of the season, I didn’t feel too disgruntled that we missed some of the Hall of fame artefacts because we had planned to be at the real Hall in Ohio in a month’s time. Sadly, because our plans have changed and we are not going back to America this season (This might well be my last live NFL game of the season!!) we are kicking ourselves for not spending more time in that room. Still it just means me and Steph will check out the hall next year hopefully.

Next up it was a tricky attempt to find Peter, who told us he was in the Reebok VIP hospitality tent. Reebok are not ones to shy away from splashing their logo about, but ironically their tent was just plain white, which we must have walked past a dozen times before realizing Peter was inside. The security guard allowed us to walk into the tent without a pass. Peter came over to us, and it was nice being shaded from the elements as the afternoon chill started to pick up. We took a breather on the seats. There was a strong lavish smell from the rather swanky looking buffet. In the corner was a small homage to the NFL (via NFL products), and it looked like a tidy version of my bedroom. Steph jumped the rope so we could sneak in a cheeky picture. We were introduced to high some high flyers in the Reebok world and most people were very friendly even in the knowledge that they knew we were not supposed to be in the VIP tent.

Our next move was to go and find the Sky sports interviewer. There was a breakdown in communication, and Steph and I walked the length of Olympic way looking for the Sky sports team. Again because of my hat, a chap named Nick Richards spotted me. Nick is the author of TD:UK, a great book about how the game has boomed in the U.K. It was great to meet Nick as I really enjoyed his book. Sky sports then called and asked us to come and find them in the tailgate.

Back inside more people took pictures of my hat; it even caught the eye of a couple of Patriot cheerleaders! The sky sports team came by and we did our interview with the same crew that worked with us last year. The business of the tailgate really started to pick up. And that is when I saw the energetic Colin Mansell, who also had a stint on Sky sports. Colin and myself have been in touch for some time now, and he will be attempting to break the world record, by going to 33 NFL stadiums in 106 days. Which is what I did last season, though I ended up doing 40 football games in 18 weeks. The original record was all 32 clubs in107 days in 2002, but although I did it quicker, Guinness did not honour my record because I flew, and I counted London and Toronto as NFL stadiums. Still I wish Colin all the best and when he finds a season with a good schedule I will be supporting him any way I can!

Steph and I then we treated to some wonderful magic. There were a number of magicians that went around the tailgate, showing off their new tricks, much like what the NFL players were hoping to do some time later. The vibe was getting busy, but upbeat and the rain stayed away which was a pleasant surprise. I caught up with “Dodgy Dave” and “Raider Crusader” who I first met last year at an Oakland Raiders game. These two guys live not too far from where I grew up, and were having a great time at the tailgate.

Mike Carlson, the NFL pundit, recognised me and he was in good spirits about the game ahead, telling me he predicts a Patriots win by 14. Time was creeping up and we wanted to check out the Green man Hotel’s un-official tailgate party. So we walked to the pub, against the grain of the jubilant NFL fans making their way to the stadium. I saw Martin and he was happy that over 5000 people had passed through his tailgate. Things were calming down, and we had apparently missed the Colchester cheerleaders and the ‘Buc’s, honorary captain; radio and T.V presenter, Vernon Kay. There was food available to buy, and Steph picked up an “average” hot dog, which was not much better than my sub-par burger that I picked up just before meeting Sky sports. My burger was bought at a stand called “Premium burgers”, and when I asked for such, the girl behind didn’t know of the word “premium”, says it all really!

Steph and I rushed back to the stadium to see the pre-show, but we were plucked by a T.V crew and I couldn’t resist giving them an interview. We finally got a lovely thick game day programme and made our way high up into the stands. The game had kicked off, but we still managed to get our red and white freebie Buccaneer flags. I had planned to sit next to my friend J.C some time back, and he filled us in on the pre-game show that we missed. Apparently it was very good. He also showed us pictures of an impulsive full on tackle game that took place at the tailgate. Which was stopped when the security took their ball away. So bloody English!

It was hard to see who the home team was as there were so many Patriot jerseys, but there wasn’t too much crowd noise in the first possession, engineered by the ‘Bucs, which would imply they have plenty of support here, as they are supposed to be the home team. The first two Tampa Bay drives resulted in two Patriot interceptions. The crowd was mixed about the patriots first TD. I wanted to see scoring but realized then it could be a whitewash.

Several drives later and we all watched Tom Brady slice through the red and black secondary. Tampa Bay looked liked a far cry from their defensive powers they showed last year, and their QB was having a tough time against the genius of Belichick and he’s well organised team.

Although it is good to watch a competent team, lead by the efficient field general of Brady, but it all looked too easy and without drama. This was not the best of the three games that have come to London as the Patriots dominated in all areas and sadly it was probably the worst in terms of fan experience.

I have become used to, nay expecting interactive elements, such as funky video shots, Q and A’s, t-shirts being thrown out and all that American razz ma-tazz. The Tampa Bay cheerleaders were decent enough, as was their mascot, but apart from that there was no “extra show”. There wasn’t even a half time show. That is simply shocking! It sounds like the NFLUK put all their entertaining eggs into one basket for the pre-game show. Last year the stadium and tailgate was filled with New Orleans cultural titbits and flavour, such as a Mardi gras and Louisiana style food. There was nothing to suggest that London had been turned into Florida and that was shame.

The ‘Bucs finally did score and the crowd got more into the game. The full capacity of 85,000 completed at least 13 revolutions of the Mexican wave, which was nothing short of awesome.The second half was much of the same from Brady and co as they destroyed the so-called home team, but people still kept their red and white flags waving. To sum up I have to say the spectacle at the tailgate was far superior to the action inside the stadium.