On the 5th September, the Kansas City Chiefs will kick off their title defence against the Baltimore Ravens, as they aim to become the first team in the NFL’s history to win three Super Bowls in a row. The NFL, or National Football League, is the premier American Football competition in the world and will enter its 105th season next month. So, why is it only now that this superstar league is starting to bank on international interest, particularly in the UK? More pressingly - should you care?

Whether you are an avid fan of the sport or have simply seen it being played in a teen high-school movie, most will know that American Football is, unsurprisingly, a quintessentially American pastime. The NFL’s final, or Super Bowl, marks a national holiday in the American calendar, whilst the American Football played at the local level is often definitional for towns across the States. Yet, for many Brits, the NFL is imagined as a soft and glitzy version of rugby, with its massive shoulder pads and baffling popularity forcing our cherished football to be christened soccer by our friends across the Atlantic. Recent developments have, however, seen legitimate UK interest skyrocket, with viewership constantly expanding.

The International Series

Since its inception in 2007, the NFL’s commitment to playing games abroad has rewarded its avid foreign fans and grown its popularity in the host nations. 2024 will be no exception, as both Tottenham Hotspur and Wembley Stadium will welcome an audience of over 200,000 across three matches, with the pick of the bunch being between the New York Jets and the Minnesota Vikings. The clash will be played at the Tottenham Hotspur stadium, designed specifically to accommodate American Football matches, with its retractable football pitch hiding a synthetic turf field underneath for players like Sauce Gardner and Aaron Jones to do battle on when the 6th October comes around.

The games don’t stop in London, as the sport will be returning to Germany in November, and there will be a trip to Sao Paulo for the NFL’s first trip to Brazil. The NFL’s desire to spread its wings is certainly justified when you look at the viewership in the UK: February’s Super Bowl was the most-watched American Football game in history, with over three million Brits tuning in to watch the Chiefs comeback against the San Francisco 49ers. There was also a 13% year-over-year increase in female viewership for the big game, in part due to the presence of a certain global pop star.

The Taylor Swift Effect

Despite the decades of interest in the United Kingdom, the NFL, and in particular the Kansas City Chiefs, saw an uptick in popularity throughout last season, due to Taylor Swift’s romance with the Chiefs star, Travis Kelce. Al Jazeera reported that NFL viewership increased by 53% amongst teenage girls after Swift’s involvement with the Chiefs, whilst NFL figures reported that Kelce’s jersey sales spiked by an incredible 400%. Swift is undoubtedly the megastar of our generation, and hence seeing the Pennsylvanian singer’s endorsement for the NFL has allowed the sport to reach audiences that previously showed little interest. Of course, whilst a Swiftie’s interest in Travis Kelce may not directly correlate with a passion for the sport itself, the intrigue surrounding this alien sport can not have harmed any of the NFL’s brand marketing around the world.

Flag Football

The NFL’s equivalent of tag rugby, flag football, has made recent headlines, given that it will make its Olympics debut at the Los Angeles Games in 2028. This non-contact, inclusive, and less costly version of the sport is currently seeing an incredible rise in popularity in UK schools, where it is estimated that by 2026 there will be 100,000 participants. Schools are rapidly incorporating flag football within their PE curriculum and, as a sport that works both the mind and body, it is being rightfully rewarded by NFL funding.

Undoubtedly, the success of flag football will only serve to increase the UK population’s awareness of the NFL. So how can the league capitalise on this market? For starters, the NFL will be broadcasting its first ever match on Netflix this Christmas, enabling a whole new audience the chance to catch a live game. The league is also keen to keep reinventing its product, and this year will be no exception with an improved kick-off rule aimed to increase excitement and reduce injury, alongside the presence of the NFL’s G.O.A.T. Tom Brady in the commentary booth.

At a local level, the Cambridge Pythons represent our University, playing BUCS American Football across the country. No prior experience is required, and I would expect that the number of people interested in joining and supporting the team will continue to expand as the game sees more growth and promotion in the years to come.

The NFL Season 2024

Are you getting tired of Man City’s dominance in the Premier League? The NFL operates with a salary cap, to stop one team from spending more than another. Aren’t you bored of Chelsea winning the WSL year in and year out? The NFL offers a much more even playing field, where any given season’s worst team receives first dibs the following year on the best college prospects to join their team. Every year, multiple teams go from rotting away at the bottom of the league to becoming a true Super Bowl contender, as the Detroit Lions have fantastically demonstrated recently. With big stars making seismic moves, (Derrick Henry to Baltimore, Stefon Diggs to Houston), as well as possibly some of the best-named sports players in the world coming up to the league through the draft (take your pick from Jackson Powers-Johnson, Sedrick Van Pran-Granger, and Qwan’tez Stiggers), this year is the perfect time to get involved in American Football, whether through playing right here in Cambridge or watching on the sofa. If nothing else, get yourselves down to a Cambridge pub this February to watch the Super Bowl, briefly escaping the wintry cold and enjoying a night of high-octane drama, accompanied by a star-studded half-time show (Miley Cyrus, Lil Wayne, and Harry Styles are early favourites) and a potentially even bigger star supporting on the sidelines if the Chiefs are successful in their bid for a record-breaking Super Bowl.