NFL brings bells and whistles to London, but no sporting delight

When the NFL is in town, it is as if the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium belongs to a different universe. How can this ground, decked out in the dark green of the New York Jets, have possibly been hosting a 1-1 draw between Tottenham and Wolverhampton Wanderers only two weeks ago?

Prior to kick off on Sunday, it is easy to see the attraction of these games. Everything is turned up to 100. Two cast members from Hamilton sing the American and British national anthem. They are very good, and fans respond in kind, belting ‘God Save the King’ out with far more enthusiasm than is normally heard. 

It is the kind of musical booking that should be expected from the NFL. Although of course it can’t compare to when the FA put Emeli Sandé on top of Wembley Stadium to sing Abide With Me. Nothing can.

NFL London has all the bells and whistles that are required of American sport. There are kiss cams, sing a longs, and memes on the big screen. “This is a test on how loud Jets fans can be,” declares a robotic female voice, approximately ten thousand times throughout the game.

The T-shirt guns sends even members of the media into paroxysms of delight as they land in their vicinity. Why does lobbing some fabric into a large group of people send everyone feral? This is just another mystery of American sport, and perhaps life itself, to be figured out. It is loud. It is brash. It is admittedly pretty fun.

What NFL London does not currently have is much that resembles good sport.

The Denver Broncos beat the New York Jets 13-10 in a game which had only one touchdown, for the Broncos in the first quarter. The Jets could only manage negative 10 passing yards, the lowest recorded in an NFL game since 1998. Their quarterback, Justin Field, was sacked nine times. Their record this season is 0-6. This is not a good team. 

The Broncos certainly fancy themselves as being a good team, particularly after their comeback win over Super Bowl Champions the Philadelphia Eagles last week. Their defence has been one of the strongest in the NFL this year and they are going toe to toe with the Los Angeles Chargers in an AFC West that has been dominated by the Kansas City Chiefs for the past nine years.

But neither the Jets nor the Broncos are exciting. The Jets aren’t even bad in a fun way. This has become something of a pattern with NFL London. Getting to see a good team play football is not a guaranteed inclusion with the ticket. 

In fact, when the Los Angeles Rams play the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley next week, it will be the first time that a relatively recent Super Bowl winning team has been in London since the Philadelphia Eagles came over in 2018. There are still plenty of tickets available for that match, at least for those willing to shell out more than one hundred pounds for the pleasure.

On the train leaving the ground, one British fan remarks to an American tourist that these games no longer feel significant. He is part of a trio, all wearing different NFL jersey’s, none of which belong to the two teams who played on Sunday. Clearly for lots of British NFL fans going is an annual rite of passage - after all there were 61,000 people watching. But it is no longer the event that immediately sells out, even during an international break from men’s football.

These events become paradoxical in that their success generates more of them thus diminishing the novelty value and the interest. Only a small number of teams are very good and they do not necessarily want to have their seasons disrupted by going abroad. The majority of teams are bad or boring or both. That is the joyful reality of sport, but it is not a reality that lends itself to entertainment.

But when a side is flown across the world to be put on show for extortionate prices, it creates an additional level of spectacle that is closer to exhibition than competition. 

It was notable that there seemed to be just as many Americans who had decided to travel as there were British people wanting to enjoy a slice of the NFL. Overhearing the murmurings of conversation between fans was like listening in to a cultural show and tell. International games are often promoted as a way of bringing sport to new audiences. Based on this weekend’s evidence, the existing audience is actually just flying in.

NFL's international games are only expanding, and clearly they sell plenty of tickets. It is hard to see this becoming a bust yet. Perhaps the experience is enough to ignore what goes on down below when the teams start playing. Or perhaps the interest in these one off games which do little to generate loyalty or long-term following is starting to diminish.

There is one other possibility. It might just be impossible to run from the ghosts of the ground where the game is played. Because spiritually, this was very much Tottenham Hotspur 1 - Wolverhampton Wanderers 1.

Photograph by Ryan Pierse/Getty Images