Green Smoke

By Lou

I’m Lou, originally from Essex, and I grew up on a diet of Manchester United and Sunday local football with absolutely no access to American football. 

So when I told someone I was a New York Jets fan, they immediately asked, ‘What could you possibly know about the NFL? Well, let me take you back to the beginning and the why.

Some of us choose the team because of the area we are from, we like the colour, because of family links, or some of us have a tenuous link to a fictional American footballer who gets cast off to space to play with a golden egg and shouts 41!, 42! Hut hut!

What is it that captivates us enough to think, Yes! This is the team I am going to root for; this is the team that every time there is a single mention of them in a film, TV show, or song *  I am going to rewind and watch the section again. (Mangini in his Sopranos cameo?!)

“You should take a chunk of that and put it on the JETS. I’m telling you, we are GOLDEN here.” 

Every fan will have a reason for choosing their team, and I often think when you are a fan in a different country, your choice won’t always be because they are ‘the best’ or because they’ve won back-to-back super bowls because, let’s be honest, surely being good all the time must get boring? Right? Tell me I’m right… For some of us, it’s because we heard a line in our favourite film, ‘Flash Gordon. Quarterback. New York Jets’ or because a family member once went to The Big Apple and came home with a piece of merchandise (thankfully not a Giants mug).

I’ve been asked before, why, as a UK fan, would you choose the Jets when you didn’t have to? And it’s a fair question. But then, why not? Yes, being a Jets fan in recent years has seen a lot of low moments, and I still cannot work out how or why Gase was employed as our HC, but let’s save that debate for another day. I chose the Jets back in the 90s because of Flash Gordon, and I am very happy with that choice. Growing up and having decided I was an American football fan surrounded by ‘soccer’ enthusiasts was not easy, but I’ve stayed committed to this choice through thick and thin.

I chose to be different from my friends and family; I didn’t want to watch soccer on a Sunday. It’s how I’ve always been, and so here we are, many years later, with a deep-rooted fixation for the New York Jets because of Flash Gordon.

Access to the sport back then for me was reduced to the tiniest articles I could find; really, I’m not sure I could even say I knew my fumbles from my hail Mary, but we persisted. I’ve never really thought that my experience being female differed from anyone else back in the 90s. Access to the NFL really would have been harder for anyone; social media wasn’t around, dial-up didn’t make it easy, and if you have nobody to talk to about it, then like everyone else, you kind of just muddle through.

The ‘How’ really took until the early 2000’s when I met a guy (he’s a Bears fan, sadly for him) and we started chatting. Honestly, for the first time I met someone I could talk to about the sport, he taught me about the game. I listened and learned that the Bears definitely weren’t for me and that my choice of team pick was still the right one. We moved to London together shortly after this, and he joined a local American football team. For me, this is where I started to pick up on the nuances of the game.

I actually remember having to listen to one of the Super Bowls on the radio because we couldn’t get it on TV, and it felt like the golden age, but that was our commitment to the NFL! As the years passed, we watched every Super Bowl we could, inviting friends over to try and get them interested. They got a little repetitive after a while; nobody needs to see another Patriots Super Bowl!

I’m skipping through the years a little bit here, but 2015… who remembers that? Well, I do vividly remember when the other half called and announced that he had managed to secure season tickets to Wembley for all of the NFL games. Now this, for me, is when it all started to open up. Living in London and seeing all the jerseys around was like Christmas; finally, I was around people who got it, no matter who you supported—jerseys of every colour, people just there to watch the game! To top it off with a win against the Fins was utter perfection. I remember all of those games from our allocated seats, thinking this is why I’ve been a fan for so long. Finally getting to see these three games live was an absolute highlight.

Access to the NFL after this, I think, personally, felt like it opened up. With BBC/ITV and Channel 5 showing programmes, social media also plays a huge part in connecting people. I think what surprises me when looking back is how, even though it was on TV, it wasn’t accessible like it is now. Suddenly, we have Jason Bell and Osi Umenyiora giving us amazing breakdowns for new fans and explaining plays so that a new generation can enjoy the sport. We have the incredible Cori Yarckin on NFL End Zone, matching her outfits to the stadium she’s visiting and giving us the lowdown on teams we may not know much about. It’s programmes like these, giving us different perspectives on the sport, that I think have really helped diversify who is watching and supporting.  

When the announcement was made that the Jets would return in 2022, I was ready to experience that unmistakable buzz of energy surrounding the NFL in London, truly iconic being there surrounded by fans. Sadly, that awful Falcon screech won that game, but I’m convinced that just means a 2024 win is due.

Increasingly more female-led presenters are on our screens, and shows like Her Huddle are really generating a space that had previously been underrepresented. It’s cited that 38% of the NFL UK fanbase in 2021 was female. This number will have definitely increased now with so much more out there for people to get involved, and with the fantastic development of UK Girls Flag Football, it is only going to become an even bigger, more diverse fan base, and if we can get more people chanting J-E-T-S, then I am here for it. 

Being in London around other NFL fans is special; it’s unlike any other sport I’ve watched at a big stadium, with just people there to watch the game—you’ll be sitting next to a guy in his old Brady Pats shirt and his friend in a Marino jersey randomly cheering on the Falcons. It’s something you don’t see in other sports; the London games bring out the fans who just want to watch it with each other. 

I’m proud to be a Jets fan, and one of the highlights so far was being asked to be on the audio for the New York Jets in the UK pre-season video for last season, so if you are on the fence about whether or not you have a place at the table… I am pretty certain the UK Jets fans will budge up and let you in!

‘Come and live with us and be a Jets fan, not a Pats fan because we are a Jets family’ (Family Guy) ..Yes, I’ve taken this slightly out of context if you’ve seen this skit, but this part works as a nice ending to this blog, so please just roll with it. 

J! E! T! S!

See you Sunday, October 6th, at Tottenham