American Football in the UK.

[Red_Feather]

I've recently started watching American football over the past year or so, and I quite enjoy it (even if I haven't quite understood all the subtleties of the game yet). I was fairly surprised to discover that there is a British league (The British American Football League or BAFL). 😀

They are an amateur league, but it definitely seems as though they're on the up. They are signing up more teams, and have had to have a 'division re-alignment' to deal with increasing popularity (even if it isn't anywhere near being on par with football). There is also a nationwide university league and a youth league. There has also been an apparent upsurge in team tryouts following the Dolphins v Giants match at Wembley.

So what do people think, could American Football ever do well in Britain? My opinion is that it will never compare with English football in terms of popularity (as it has been going for much longer) but, given the improvement of teams and increasing finance it could do fairly well as a spectator sport because it is very entertaining to watch (once the basic rules have been figured out by the viewer 😛).

Oh, and: Go Blitz. 😉

 

[Red_Feather]

BAFL Logo, A pretty obvious rip of the NFL Logo. 😀

There are eight teams in the Premier Division:
Birmingham Bulls---(Black Red & White)
Bristol Aztecs--(Black & Orange)
Coventry Cassidy Jets---(Navy Blue, Sky Blue & White)
East Kilbride Pirates--(Black & Red)
Gateshead Senators---(Turquoise, White & Orange)
London Blitz--(Navy Blue & White)
London Olympians--(White & Burgundy)
Southern Sundevils--(Yellow & Black)

Below that, there is the First Division (Twelve teams split into two conferences, North and South), and the Second Division (Twenty-two teams in four conferences, North, Central, South West and South East).

Some Premier Division team logos, Bulls, Aztecs, Pirates, Blitz and Olympians:

 

[Red_Feather]

The rest of the Premier Division team logos, Cassidy Jets, Senators and Sundevils.

 

[Artoo]

I have a friend in the university team - it's got quite a following, apparently.
Give me rugby league any day though 😀

 

[Red_Feather]

Yeah, Exeter Uni started a team a few years back, it's just starting to get going. 🙂

As to American football and Rugby, I sometimes feel like the only person in the western world who likes both. 😛 I think people in Britain get caught up in the similarities between the sports and then declare American football to be a lesser version of Rugby. Some people in America do the same in reverse. When you actually look at them though they are completely different games...

 

[Red_Feather]

I've also just discovered that there is a Universities league, the BUAFL. It has 42 teams and their regular season has just started. 😛