🏈NFL
When it comes to major league sports, few can compare to the excitement and sheer entertainment of American football. It’s the number one sport across the United States, with regular polls often putting it ahead of basketball, baseball, hockey and even soccer.
But American football is much more than just a sporting event for many fans. Sometimes known as Gridiron, American football is highly competitive and action-packed with intense rivalries. With competitions like the National Football League (NFL), there’s also a broader entertainment spectacle and atmosphere around games, which must be seen to be believed. Every game is like a show, and the football action on the field is just part of the sporting extravaganza.
Attending American football games is very much part of US sporting culture. From college level to the NFL, stadiums are often filled to capacity with fans, families and friends. The enthusiasm only intensifies when the season reaches the NFL Playoffs, which is then finally decided in spectacular fashion at the Super Bowl.
The popularity of American football and the NFL has spread far beyond the United States. It has firm roots in England, Europe and across the world.
All of this explains why tickets for NFL games are usually in hot demand. And that’s why Zenseats is always there to provide fans with everything you need.
History and Origins
The history of American football can be traced back to soccer and rugby, both having crossed the Atlantic Ocean during the 19th century. For sporting historians, the first American football game was played between the Universities of Rutgers and Princeton in 1869. Since then, colleges have played an instrumental role in developing the rules of the game, especially since the National Collegiate Athletic Association was established in 1906.
American football continued to evolve and in 1882 snaps and downs were introduced to fully separate the sport from rugby. The addition of five yard lines on the playing field, resembling the grid of metal bars over a barbeque, also led to the ‘gridiron’ name.
By 1920, the American Professional Football Association (APFA) was founded, ahead of being renamed as the National Football League (NFL) from the 1922 season. Originally, the end of season standings and number of games won decided the overall champions just like a regular league, but that was changed when the end of season Championship Game was introduced in 1933.
Although other professional leagues would rise and fall, the NFL retained a monopoly until the American Football League (AFL) came in 1960. This ushered in the Super Bowl era that began during the 1966 season. Once the leagues NFL and AFL merged, the competition was reorganised to form two conferences: the National Football Conference and the American Football Conference, both of which still exist today.
Super Bowl
The Super Bowl is the crowning jewel of American football, dating back to 1966. In this year, the Kansas City Chiefs were crowned champions of the AFL, while the Green Bay Packers had taken the NFL championship. A game was organised between the two in Los Angeles in what was known as the first AFL-NFL World Championship Game. If you’re interested, the Packers won by 35-10.
Although the ‘Super Bowl’ name had been mentioned by radio commentators, the title itself wasn’t first officially used until 1969, when the game was promoted as Super Bowl III. The previous title games were named Super Bowl I and Super Bowl II retrospectively. The tradition of using Roman numerals has continued to this day.
‘World Professional Football Championship’ was the name of the original trophy, designed by Tiffany & Co in Newark, New Jersey, and presented to the first four Super Bowl champions. This was later renamed as the Vince Lombardi Trophy from Super Bowl V onwards, honouring the legendary Green Bay Packers head coach who died in 1970.
The Super Bowl holds a special place in American popular culture. It has continued to grow into the remarkable cultural phenomenon we see today. Each year hundreds of millions of views tune in to watch the Super Bowl and its now famous halftime show, which has featured some of the biggest names from the music industry.
NFL in London and International
The idea for overseas events began with the American Bowl series in the 1980s. This is when the NFL scheduled pre-season exhibition games in different countries around the world, aiming to promote the global appeal of American football.
The first overseas pre-season NFL game was held at Wembley Stadium in London UK in 1986. The game saw the Chicago Bears defeat the Dallas Cowboys, before subsequent matches hosted in Japan, Spain, Germany, Mexico, Canada and Australia.
In 2005, the NFL hosted its first official Regular Season game outside the United States when the Arizona Cardinals played the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico. Played at the gigantic Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, the game attracted more than 103,000 spectators. This was a new record attendance for any NFL at that time.
Just as keen to reach the quickly growing fanbase in Europe, the NFL scheduled its first Regular Season game in the United Kingdom, when the New York Giants beat the Miami Dolphins at Wembley stadium in 2007. Ever since then, and with the sole exception of 2020, the NFL International Series has flourished.
The 2023 International Series will feature five official Regular Season games hosted at European venues:
- Wembley Stadium, London, 1st October 2023
- Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, 8th October 2023
- Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, London, 15th October 2023
- Frankfurt Stadium, Germany, 5th November 2023
- Frankfurt Stadium, Germany, 12th November 2023
Whenever the NFL International fixtures are announced, tickets are often sold out within a matter of hours, underlining the massive demand among fans across the whole of Europe. As the premier secondary ticket marketplace for live events, Zenseats offers you the safest and most trusted way to get your tickets for these NFL events. So, make sure you don’t miss out on watching the most famous American football teams when they visit Europe.
