Post by Irish Stu on Oct 29, 2007 14:47:45 GMT -6
Miami Dolphins V New York Giants
Wembley Stadium, London
28th October 2007
Wembley Stadium, London
28th October 2007
"I've never seen so many American's in one place..." I said as we walked out of the Tube station at Wembley "well apart from in America of course... and Jamaica... and on the Caribbean Cruise I went on a couple of years ago. But apart from that..."
I decided to post this in the Trip Reports section as, being a relative newcomer to what we here in the UK call American Football, I can't talk with any authority about the finer points of the historic game we watched yesterday, other than to say that to many in the USA it may have been a 'sleeper' (as Joe described it in the other thread I started in the Sports forums) but to the 81,000 of us gathered in Wembley Stadium it was the real thing being enacted on British soil... and we loved every second of it!!
Yesterday was a case of classic British weather for the history making event of the first NFL game to be played outside North America, and it hadn't seemed to have stopped raining from the moment I woke up. My friend and I elected to drive into London and parked the car in the docklands area in the South East, then took the Tube to North London's Wembley Park station, gathering more and more people who were also heading for the game as we passed through central London. Once there we got our first sight of the recently completed Wembley Stadium which replaced our old historic national football stadium with it's famous twin towers that sadly had to make way for a more modern sports facility, and were immediately in awe of the giant arch which can be seen for miles around that supports the entire roof so that no seat inside has a restricted view due roof supports. We then joined the ocean of people making their way up the historic Olympic Way (or Wembley Way as us football fans always call it) from the Tube station directly to the stadium, before taking our seats in the third row from the front of the top level behind the goal. The view from up in the 'Gods' was stunning and left us in no doubt what a magnificent piece of architecture and home for our national football team this new stadium is.
We got to see some of our own favourites sportsmen on the field for the coin toss. The Giants were represented by England football (the correctly named original played with a round ball which is struck with the foot
) captain John Terry, who plays for Chelsea and was soundly booed by many in the stadium for England's atrocious performance against Russia last week. Former England rugby captain Martin Johnson stood in for the Dolphins, and our new Formula One hero Lewis Hamilton also was on hand. David Beckham was also apparently lurking around somewhere but thankfully didn't come out onto the pitch.After the singing of both the British and American national anthems the game began, and from our vantage point I could really appreciate for the first time the dynamics of the game as the teams vied to advance up and down the field during each set piece. I'd expected support to be fairly evenly spilt between both teams, but it was the Dolphins fans who dominated the afternoon, both in numbers, which was evident by the sea of replica shirts around and below us, and with the noise that they made whenever their team was threatening to score a touchdown. But with that said, every NFL team was represented in the crowd, something we had also noticed as we had made our way up Wembley Way earlier. The only fan not wearing a team's colours was the streaker who ran onto the pitch just before the second half started dressed as a referee, then ripped off his outfit as he ran to the centre of the pitch where, now naked, he moonwalked before dropping onto his hands and performing several push ups in front of the bemused players... and the delighted crowd who gave him the biggest cheer of the afternoon, and booed the security guys as they dragged him away.
It may not have been the greatest game ever, but there were few who didn't seem to have enjoyed this history making afternoon, and that included the many Dolphin fans who had flown over from the USA especially for the occasion, only to see their team lose. We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and were still taking excitedly about the afternoon as we shuffled slowly back down Wembley Way amongst the thousands of other people to catch the Tube back to the car. If this is to become an annual fixture in the NFL calendar, as many here hope, then I have every intention of becoming a regular at these events.
Old Wembley
New Wembley
A bunch of lads at Wembley Park Tube station enjoying the big day
Simon on Wembley Way
All NFL teams were represented among the crowd
Simon about to leave after a great afternoon
Dolphins fans making their way home at Baker Street Tube station
Tube stations along the Jubilee and the Metropolitan lines that go to Wembley were decorated to celebrate the historic day.
Simon
