Special Relationship , livre ebook

Pitch Publishing Ltd - Andrew Gamble

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216 pages

English

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The Special Relationship: The History of American Football in the United Kingdom charts the arrival and development of gridiron football on this side of the Atlantic. This comprehensive account presents the story across three key sections, outlining how and why the sport became so popular in Britain - from the first match at Crystal Palace back in 1910 to the birth of the incredibly popular International Series, which has become a permanent fixture in the NFL regular season. It covers every match played in London from 2007 to 2021, with anecdotes intertwined throughout to bring the deeper NFL history, its greatest players and franchises to life. The book also tells the unique tales of the British players who have played in the NFL, with each player providing special insight into their journey from Britain to the National Football League. The Special Relationship is the captivating story of how the sport arrived on the doorstep of America's great allies - and survived to become the ever-growing presence it is today.

Informations

Publié par	Pitch Publishing Ltd
Date de parution	05 septembre 2022
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781801503228
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0500€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

Extrait

First published by Pitch Publishing, 2022
Pitch Publishing
A2 Yeoman Gate
Yeoman Way
Durrington
BN13 3QZ
www.pitchpublishing.co.uk
Andrew Gamble, 2022
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright.
Any oversight will be rectified in future editions at the earliest opportunity by the publisher.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the Publisher.
A CIP catalogue record is available for this book from the British Library
Print ISBN 9781801501637
eBook ISBN 9781801503228
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eBook Conversion by www.eBookPartnership.com
Contents
Introduction
SECTION 1: THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN THE UK
1. The Silver Cup and a Golden Reception
2. A Spot of Tea and Coffee
3. The GI Bowl and the End of WWII
4. The US Air Force Europe Sports League
5. The 1980s: Greed, Gridiron and Channel 4
6. The World League of American Football: The Rise and Fall of the Monarchy
7. NFL Europe
SECTION 2: THE INTERNATIONAL SERIES
2007: The Dawn of a New Era
2008: Big Easy Win in the Big Smoke
2009: New England Conquer Old England
2010: Two Historic Franchises Ignite Wembley
2011: The Bears Welcome Return to London
2012: The GOAT Against the Rams
2013: Wembley Double-Header.
2014: The Trilogy
2015: A Year of Firsts
2016: Twickenham Debut
2017: Fantastic Four
2018: Super Bowl Champions Headline London
2019: A New Home in North London
2021: The Triumphant Return
SECTION 3: BRITISH PLAYERS IN THE NFL
Bobby Howfield
Allan Watson
Mike Walker
John Smith
Mick Luckhurst
Vince Abbott
Lawrence Tynes
Osi Umenyiora
Rhys Lloyd
Tim Shaw
Graham Gano
Jack Crawford
Menelik Watson
Jay Ajayi
Efe Obada
Jermaine Eluemunor
Jamie Gillan
Afterword
Acknowledgements
Notes
Photos
For Dad, Mum, Christian, and my wonderful friends and family who believed in me
I would never have had the courage nor the belief to embark on this challenge, let alone complete it, without your consistent love and support. I will forever be indebted.
Winning is not everything - but making the effort to win is
- Vince Lombardi, Green Bay Packers
Introduction
WILLINGLY OR not, those who know me will be acutely aware that I adore the American sports. Sure, I fell in love with football - soccer in this instance - at a young age. For better or worse, Arsenal were my team. But I thought the United States major league sports were fascinating. They were emblematic of everything that amazed and intrigued me about American culture: the bright lights, larger than life personalities and exhilarating drama. This feeling was only enhanced as I grew up, and over years my infatuation with these sports now trumps almost every other aspect of my life.
Basketball, ice hockey and baseball are all great, but it was American football and the NFL that ultimately piqued my interest. The hard-hitting, high-octane, physically taxing yet mentally intense gridiron game has simply taken a hold of my conscious self. Like so many modern international fans around the world, I wasn t born into a family that followed American football.
I had certainly never heard of the sport or the NFL as I walked into a second-hand video games shop when visiting my family in Wollongong, Australia. I entered the store and spotted the Madden 2003 case, with Marshall Faulk - the star running back for the St Louis Rams exciting offence famously known as the Greatest Show on Turf - emblazoned on the cover. Clad in blue and gold, I thought Faulk looked like a superhero. The game was safely packed in my luggage ahead of the long trip home and my life was never the same again.
By playing Madden 2003 on my Nintendo GameCube, I learned the rules and truly fell in love with the sport, absorbing each and every line of captivating, recorded commentary uttered by the great John Madden. An icon, Madden encapsulates everything that is great about American football: the passion, the personality, the delicate knowledge of a sport so profoundly technical it beggars belief. The way the late, great Madden could elucidate any aspect of professional football so any fan, rookie or veteran could follow it was mesmerising, and I will always have the deepest respect and appreciation for him. I can still hear his voice describing the plays that once emanated from my television while playing the game against and alongside my brother, Christian. Madden managed to captivate and educate a young boy so remarkably that it has shaped his life forever. I guarantee I m not the only one, either.
I ve always enjoyed educating people on American football when they express interest, and the sport is wonderfully enriched by a history filled with great personalities, fascinating stories and iconic milestones. The National Football League was founded in 1920 and, like association football, champions were originally determined through end-of-season standings until the playoff system, still in place today, was implemented in 1933 concluding with the NFL Championship Game. Thirty-three years later and the NFL merged with the American Football League (AFL), leading to the birth of the Super Bowl in January 1967. Super Bowl I - billed as the First AFL-NFL World Championship Game - pitted the Green Bay Packers against the Kansas City Chiefs. Led by Bart Starr, the Packers emerged 35-10 winners at the Los Angeles Coliseum, and the Super Bowl has gone on to become one of the leading sporting events in the world. Four decades after the Super Bowl emerged to become the centrepiece of the American sporting landscape, the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins contested the first International Series clash in London. The National Football League had become international.
The rise of the professional game since the NFL was formed in 1920 has been nothing short of exceptional - but let s rewind once more. The history of American football can be traced to early editions of rugby and association football, the leading sports in the United Kingdom. While undoubtedly taking inspiration from both rugby and football, American football was devised with a number of major differences from the two sports. Walter Camp, a Yale University athlete and coach often referred to as the Father of American Football , formulated key rule changes, including the introduction of the line of scrimmage and down-and-distance rules - the key pillars of the sport today. Camp also instituted the forward pass and blocking, clearly leaving a lasting influence on the game. American football continued to develop in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with college coaches such as Glenn Pop Warner and John Heisman taking advantage of the new passing rule to great success. Their influence led to the explosion of college football, which was the dominant version of the sport until the NFL came to the fore in the 1960s. It was at this time that American football surpassed baseball as the most popular sport in the States, primarily transitioning from Midwestern industrial towns to the sprawling spectacle it is today.
Of course, college football remains incredibly popular to this day, but the professional game is a different beast. Before the formation of the first pro league in the form of the APFA, Pudge Heffelfinger claimed the honour of becoming the first professional American footballer when he agreed a contract worth $500 - $14,445.75 in 2022 - to play for the Allegheny Athletic Association against the Pittsburgh Athletic Club back in 1892. Just 18 years later, American football touched down on British shores for the very first time thanks to the sport s inclusion in military athletic programmes since the Spanish-American War of 1898.
Nowadays, American football is on the cusp of becoming an international phenomenon with London and the United Kingdom at the epicentre of such emerging passion. When the likes of Patrick Mahomes, Aaron Donald and Efe Obada make a sensational play on the other side of the Atlantic, they are notably contributing to the incredible history of this great sport that is unfolding before our very eyes. I hope The Special Relationship serves as a comprehensive origins story for American football s triumphant, colourful and widely accepted arrival in the United Kingdom.
SECTION 1:
THE HISTORY OF AMERICAN FOOTBALL IN THE UK
CHAPTER 1
The Silver Cup and a Golden Reception
North American football has the reputation of being more dangerous than the South American revolution! - Ernest Prater, The Graphic, December 1910
THE UNITED States of America and the United Kingdom have always shared a common history and the special relationship between the countries is unlike most nations in the world. Given the nature of this kinship, it makes sense that America s greatest sport arrived in the UK early in the 20th century - a chaotic but ultimately fortifying period for the Anglo-American bond.
The first taste of American football on these shores came in 1910, during the reign of King George V. The Daily Mirror , a British tabloid, sponsored a clash between two teams of US Navy servicemen from the USS Idaho and the USS Michigan , pitting the Navy s Division III winners against the Division I champions. It was the first time an organised game of the sport was to be played in the country and, beginning a tradition that runs to this day in the National Football League, it was scheduled to be played on 23 November - Thanksgiving Day 1910. In the build-up to the anticipated match, the Michigan team were