That’s not me with Steph at the London game!

Without going to any other live NFL games this season, apart from if the Bears get to the Super bowl, this 4th international series at Wembley is my only live game of the season.

Though the night before after the NFL fan rally in Trafalgar I got home and was a sick as a dog. After all night on the porcelain telephone to G-d, I finally got to bed. Come game I was supposed to go to the Sports café to meet some ex Bronco players and Bronco cheerleaders, but I stayed in bed to recover.

2 hours later the NFL tailgate party was in full swing and when I finally got out of bed and in the car, with my Broncos jersey on, I was giddy and numb. My sickness had be going nowhere.

Just 90 minutes before the kick off and with the tailgate party nearly over, I gave up fighting and I wanted someone to go to the game with Steph. I didn’t want to swallow the tickets or sell them, but give the ticket to either a fan or someone who might just want to go for the hell of it. And this is where I discovered something strange.

After asking 10 people many of whom quite like sport and live events all declined the chance to see the game with Steph for free, and this was a £80 ticket! They all told me that the NFL was not their thing. I can understand people not liking the game, but the NFL and mostly the NFLUK have done wonders, or so I thought, in making this yearly event about being fun regardless if you do not like the game.

I couldn’t understand how people were not interested in going to the game just for the razzmatazz of it all. Maybe I have been blinkered all these years, and thought that people would love the game, if only they went. Or this is still more to be done, to prove to people that seeing an NFL game with all it’s trimmings is a wonderful day out.

Finally I found my old friend, Kevin, a lions fan. He met up with Steph and he had a great night out even though they missed the tailgate. Which by the way I heard was the best of the four thus far. I was kicking myself. The space was bigger and better and they even erected a golden gate style bridge.

Not being at the game, it meant I watched the action on Skysports. This is the first international series game I have seen on Skysports, because in the past, I have been on the game. I have to hand it to Sky, they did a good job of cutting to a series of people between plays, showing highlights of the fan forum and rally, and game side interviews, which really made me want to be there more and more, and I was feeling more and more gutted.

The first half was weak, and Steph rung me to tell me she got me a game day program and the free 49ers flag. She was happy that her team the Jags were beating the Cowboys, but was rather annoyed that there was no half time show. Shocking!
She did tell me that she felt that the atmosphere was fun and that it felt more like a home game for the 49ers, than other past “home” teams in London, such as last year’s Bucs and the 08 Saints. This is probably because the 49ers are one of the most celebrated teams in the NFL, and just as NFL was getting big here in the U.K Montana and Rice were working their magic.

The game did come alive certainly in the last quarter. Two Heisman winning QB rushed in for scores, Brandon Lloyd showed the world what a great receiver he is, that Frank Gore is a battering ram and that 49er QB Troy Smith could be a player for the future. The openness of the game wowed the crowd, and in the end I was glad to see that 85000 fans got to see a good game, even though the two teams have been having a poor season. I was also happy that at least Steph and my friend Kevin got to have fun, and that’s what it is all about!