Contents

First Quarter6 - Calling all Rugby players8 - Get started for less than £100

Second Quarter10 - Catching up with Carnegie12 - Jaguars visit Trent

Third Quarter16 - europe for gb women?18 - the man in black and white22 - one on one with tony allen

fourth quarter26 - Wembley: An NFL home?32 - NFL round up

gg

gg

Meet the team

Dan GolderEditor

Aaron O’HegartyCreative Director

Charlie BakerSub Editor

Scott AndersonFeatures Editor

Letter from the Editor

Hello and welcome to the very first edition of UK American Football! We are delighted to announce that our first edition has finally touched down. Whether you are big or small, male or female, young or old, we hope to offer anyone and everyone a real insight into what is one of the fastest growing sports here in the UK.It is our mission is to provide you with a range of news and action from across the game here in the UK, but above all, some good old fashioned entertainment. Whether you are experienced in the sport or have just taken inter-est, we have features ranging from lifetime achiever Tony Allen to the potential Wembley takeover, which are sure to grab your at-tention. Be sure to catch up with all the latest from the American football world here in the UK. We hope you enjoy the very first edi-tion of UKAF. It’s game on. Season’s greetings from me and the rest of the team.Dan Golder.

5

Rugby Players:We want you!W

hether you’re a prop or a fullback, stay-ing fit in the off-season is one of the most important part of the modern

day rugby player. American football offers play-ers a sport to enjoy and keep the physical skills at a premium.Hayden Smith, the American sec-ond-row, has just re-joined Saracens af-ter spending 18 months with the New York Jets playing American football. The 6 foot 7 inch giant was born in Australia and gained a scholarship to play Basket-ball at the New York Institute of Technol-ogy. He moved to play Rugby Union after graduating in 2008 and in the last 4 years became a Rugby All-American, won 49 caps for Saracens and 22 for his country (USA), before making the switch. Smith played tight end for the Jets and was quoted say-ing he “did get bigger, stronger and faster as a re-sult” during his time.Don’t think it’s just the big guys that can make the switch during the off-season. Although there aren’t any big names that have done so, wing-ers, fullbacks, utility backs and back-rowers can take many positions in American football. Many wingers and fullbacks will have the speed, agil-ity and catching skills needed to play wide re-ceivers or a defensive safety. While utility backs and back-rowers, having similar skills but being

slightly bigger and heavier, suit the running back and cornerback positions.It is a very sophisticated game, which can help you keep sharp, physically and mentally, in the off-sea-son. British teams are actively looking for rugby players that want to continue playing sport in the

summer. Our interviewee this week, esteemed coach Tony Allen, said himself going and getting young guys from rugby teams is part of the recruitment process. “They have everything a player needs before learning the game,” Allen says. “It’s just a case of teaching them the ba-sics after that.”It isn’t just the physical skills that will be kept in top shape by playing American football. Halfbacks can

join a team as a kicker, which mimics the kick-ing game of rugby. Kicking from the tee is slightly more challenging, with no tee to kick off, however it will certainly help to keep you sharp. While spe-cialist kicking coaches can fine-tune your punting, adding length and height to your kick. These posi-tions have the added bonus of no contact!Finding the right level and staying injury free is of course vital to off-season preparation. But with good coaching and more game time, it should come. So if you don’t fancy playing cricket in the summer, American football wants you!

A ‘field goal’. Copyright: James Willamore

The concept of getting the ball

over the line is the same in both sports!

Copyright: Dan Wunderlich

(left) Charlie (right)

6

First Quarter - Start Up Guide

kick off your american football adventure in style

Getting yourself up and run-ning in a complex sport such as American football

may not just seem a daunting pros-pect, but an expensive one. Like any sport, there is a massive range of equipment and clothing availa-ble, but getting started in American football isn’t as complicated as you may think. American football teams across the UK are eager for new par-ticipants, and will even provide the expensive equipment for you to use. By following this guide you can get well underway in one of the fastest growing sports in the UK for less than £100. So the real question is, what do you really need to get up and running? You may find your first training ses-sions in American football tough, especially if you are new to the sport. Starting a new sport is an exciting prospect, but planning is needed to ensure you are fully prepared. The expensive protection such as a hel-met and shoulder, hip and tail pads

by Scott Anderson

A standard Football jersey is fitted to accco-modate the protection you wear

are likely to be provided by your team, so pur-chasing this yourself is not a necessity. In terms of protection, the only item you will need to buy is a standard mouthpiece. These can be found online or at your local sports shop for around £5, and with as many as a third of all inju-ries treated by dentists related to sports, wearing a mouthpiece is vital. Football shoes are a must have when playing American football. Standard football or rugby boots are fine for initial training, but should you participate competitively, you will need Ameri-can football boots. The Nike Alpha Shark ¾ mid American football boots are top value at a retail price of £49.95, and are built to withstand four quarters of battle and deliver outstanding tract-

“New starters are always encouraged to come down to training.”

tion. These can be found on footballamerica.co.uk, who offer a wide range of top quality boots at af-fordable prices. Graeme Morrell, senior manager of Leeds Bob-cats, has emphasised the simplicity of getting start-ed in American football. He says: “New starters are always encouraged to come down to training. Due to the expensive nature of the sport, most of the teams around the country (ourselves included) provide necessary safety equipment that can be re-used by multiple people.” In relation to running costs of the club, Morrell says: “Across the year all teams split the running costs of the club among its players in the form of subscriptions. This varies across the teams de-pending on yearly running costs and number of players.” “With senior players (19+) who are in full time employment, once they have made a full commi-

Up and running: The nike Alpha Shark 3/4 mid American football boots are perfect for new starters

tment to the sport we suggest buying personal equip-ment so that the team equipment can be used by oth-er players trying out the sport. With under-19 play-ers and students we don’t expect this. We understand some players will be in full-time education without a great deal of income and we will take this into ac-count.” When taking up American football, you may need to look the part before you learn to play the part. A standard football jersey is essential for training as the fitted design is perfect for the extensive protection you are likely to be wearing. Top quality practice jer-seys in a wide range of colours and sizes start from £15 on footballamerica.co.uk. Football gloves are not worn by all players, but can be very useful for throwing and catching the ball due to their adhesive grip. The Adidas adiZero receiver gloves retail at £24 on epsports.com, and although they are optional, they will no doubt help perfor-mance, especially in tough weather conditions. Stretch spandex game pants are not essential, but are ideal for American football as these give you a wide range of movement. This means you won’t get caught by opponents, which could happen if you were to wear standard shorts. Finding out what colours your potential new team play in would be useful before purchasing game pants, which retail in a variety of colours for around £25. Football socks are another handy purchase and they should be of a good quality, light and comfortable. Retailing at around £5, football socks are affordable and are ideal for tucking your game pants into. En-sure they match the colours of your pants, or what-ever colours you team plays in, as this is a regulation in official games. You will now hopefully be fully prepared for that nerve wracking first training session with your new team. American football will be a challenge you can now not only enjoy, but also embrace.

9

Carnegie have picked up where they left off last sea-son in the league with two

domestic wins in as many match-es so far this campaign. In the cur-tain raiser they came up against York Centurions but at the mid-way point they found themselves trailing 0-2. However, despite a spirited York defence keeping the game tight in the second half, Rob Pygott opened the Carnegie scoring with a touchdown (TD) reception from Aliko Mwambin-gu. This was followed by a TD run from Luke Campbell and TD re-ception by Josh Butler with Luke Campbell kicking two out of the three available Point After Touch-down (PAT) attempts making the final score a comprehensive 20-10 to the Leeds Beckett outfit.

Their second game saw the Hud-dersfield Hawks make the short trip to Leeds. After a slow start in the first quarter Carnegie finally got in to a rhythm and got their second win in as many weeks securing a 40-28 victory. Luke Campbell led the scoring run-ning in three TDs, along with Spencer Hind, with a rush, and Connor Bibby, with a reception, grabbing one each on offense as well as Alex Humphrey running one in off an interception. Carn-egie’s 40 point total was complet-ed by Luke Campbell success-fully converting four out of four PAT attempts with two two point attempts missed for Carnegie.So, after an unbeaten start to the start to the season we caught up with Andy Loch, the stu-

dent-elected club chairman, to find out how far he feels his side can go this year. He says: “This season has begun very well on paper as we have recorded two wins from two. My only reserva-tions are that last year the mar-gin of victory against these sides was far greater but that is to be expected with such a new squad”. When asked what the aims are for the season the injured 2nd year Offensive Linesman replies: “We always aim high, and this year is no different, we want to get into the Northern Premier Confer-ence. This means qualifying for the play offs and then successfully competing in those”. Andy did go on to concede that if they were to achieve this goal this year then it would be something of a miracle.

“We always aim high, and this year is no different, we want to get into the Northern Premier Conference.”

undefeated carnegie begin new cycle

Second Quarter - Uni Watch

“We always aim high, and this year is no different, we want to get into the Northern Premier Conference.”

undefeated carnegie begin new cycle

He believes the clubs success is based around “three year cycles” in which the third year of the cycle is when the squad hits its peak and this year is the first.This is due to the fact that most undergraduate degrees last three years and therefore the club has a “massive turnover in players” at the end of each cycle. The clubs next two games are both away fixtures against Lin-coln and Bradford respective-ly, followed by a home derby to Leeds Uni. Loch says: “We view the next three fixtures as must win games. Lincoln are tradi-tionally the whipping boys with Bradford not too far behind them, and then of course every game against Leeds University is a like a cup final, with more than

just points at stake.” After these two the Beckett outfit faces what Loch regards as the “season decid-ers” against Hull Uni and Sheffield Hallam who are regarded as the side’s main rivals for playoff qual-ification. “Failure to pick up de-cent results in these games could be the be all and end all for our playoff hopes,” Loch states.Carnegie could have their work cut out for them however, as spec-ulation grows that they may have a new enemy to face this year, a more experienced foe than ever faced before – the American. The news comes as many teams in Carnegie’s conference are ru-moured to have signed up new squad members on scholarships from across the Atlantic, sponsor-ing their education in return for

them representing the side on the sporting stage. Now, this should, in theory be the equivalent of English boys going the other way to represent American Universi-ties in say ‘soccer’, bringing with them superior home grown skills, a higher tactical understanding of the game and greater experi-ence levels to raise the rest of the team. However, in typical Holly-wood coach like fashion, Carn-egie’s Head coach, Coach Wake, responded to the speculation by saying: “it doesn’t matter who they are or where they are from, if we execute our game plan, we will win.”

BY DAN GOLDER

Being selected for Carnegie is just the beginning. What

follows is a mettlesome cam-paign which requires skill and technique but also grit, pride and determination. Carnegie prides itself on its success, and bases its success upon its standards. Carnegie is not for the feint hearted.This stems right from the initial selection process in which the Leeds Beckett outfit recruits a squad each season in what Loch de-scribes as a “pretty vigorous selection process”. This year there were a massive 250 initial sign ups from which the coaches had to curtail

to between 40-50 students who were inspected via trial train-ing sessions. However, the club chairman also inspiringly main-tained that “if you have heart you will play; you will find a place here at Carnegie”.Squad members must attend four practices per week in pre-season and three during the in-season. These include squad training, strength and condi-tioning as well as classroom based sessions. Carnegie’s strict policy on training attendance means that it directly correlates with player’s game time. In the words of Coach Wake, “if you don’t train and you have not notified a member of staff, you will not play”.

The commitment expecta-tions are by no means one way traffic, however. The reciprocal arrangement ensures the play-ers can expect qualified and experienced coaching staff, free equipment and uniform use, workshops in sports nutrition, strength and conditioning, as well as practice and game day facilities all in a student-athlete development environment. For anyone aspiring to get involved in American foot-ball – a rapidly growing sport here in the UK both in terms of popularity and funding but also the standard of the game then get online and find your local team. or more details!

Could you cut it for Carnegie?

Check out www.britishamericanfootball.org f

12

Can the gap between the UK and the US be bridged?

As American football in the UK seems to be gaining popularity by the day, one question that

looms over everyone involved in the sport is, can we ever get anywhere near the standard that is played across the Atlantic? Being American himself and having experienced the sport both here and in the US, we asked Nottingham Trent’s President Chris Stone for his realistic but optimistic opinion on the matter.“If we get grassroots levels here in Eng-land, then yes, in time it can be bridged. Currently however, the earliest stage of entry for American Football is at Uni-versity level which gives the Americans who begin playing at the age of 7, about a ten

Stone went on to say that despite the Jacksonville Jaguars being the “young-est team in the NFL” with an average age of 25 years, they are “currently light-years” ahead of the boys in this country. A good comparison is that of soccer over here, the American game has only just started to get anywhere near the amazing standards set in England, a process that has taken in excess of two decades since the MLS (Major League Soccer) was founded in December 1993.

“if we get grassroots here in england, then yes, in time it can be bridged”

By Dan Golder

Training with the:

Nottingham Trent Renegades received a prize their players and staff are likely never to forget during the final week

of the 2014 NFL International series. After winning a competition on social media site Twitter, the Renegades won the right to spend a day with established NFL outfit Jack-sonville Jaguars of Jacksonville, Florida. The competition was set up by the premier division of American football in the US – the NFL, and was aimed at British Univer-sity teams. Each team was given their own unique “hashtag” and the aim was to get the most “Tweets” and “Retweets” in a des-ignated three-week period. The president of the Renegades, Chris Stone said: “We reached out to as much local media as pos-sible, including radio and TV news stations. There was a massive effort from everyone in-volved.” The University outfit arrived at the Jaguars’ UK base at The Grove in Watford in true style, courtesy of a £500,000 bus provided by the NFL. The day itself was threefold, beginning with the Renegades watching the Jaguars complete a training session based on positional drills and unkitted scrimmages. Stone stated: “It was nice for the team to see NFL players up close and personal. They are so big, so fast and so strong. It was very in-spirational.” Secondly, the boys got the opportunity to meet some of the players, most notably Toby Gerhart, Cecil Shorts and Dennard Robin-son, and were invited to ask questions about their pre-game routines, match habits and positional tactics. Media Manager Callum Chalmers described the insight as “invalua-bly helpful” for all involved. Finally, coaches with various NFL back-grounds were provided and were on hand to run the Renegades through drills and offer advice on how to better execute their roles on the pitch if they wish to take themselves to the next level. Stone was delighted with the education the boys received expressing that he regards the coaches to be “at the top of their class” and felt they provided an “ex-perience that could not be replicated from other sources.”

The Jacksonville Jaguars head coach Bradley felt it was the least they could do following great support for their side and the growth of American football here in England. He stat-ed on the Jaguars’ website: “We are always so happy at the support we receive from the UK Fans when we come over for the Wem-bley game. We’re excited to see people get behind our team but we also love getting to meet people who are playing the game in this country.“American football is growing in the UK so it’s important for us to reach out to that com-munity of players and give them the oppor-tunity to learn more and get better so they can pass it down to the next generation of players.“Hopefully all the guys took something away from the session. We certainly enjoyed host-ing them. Best of luck to the Renegades and all the coaches for the rest of their season”.

“They are so big, so fast and so strong. It was very inspriational”

15

Is continental Competition on the Horizon For GB’s Women?

The British Amer-ican Football As-sociation recently

announced that is has sub-mitted applications, which if successful, would see both the women’s national team and the u19 national team take part in Europe-an competition in 2015.

Third Quarter - League

The International Federation of American Football (IFAF) Europe Women’s championship is set to take place in early August in La Nucia, Spain. The u19s championship already has teams which have prequalified mean-ing that in order to gain entrance to the final stages of the tournament Great Britain will have to face one or more playoff matches against other applicant nations.Jo Kilby, Quarter back for both GB and the Birmingham Lions is relish-ing the possibility of playing Euro-pean level football. She said: “I’m not in a position to determine on wheth-er the application will or won’t be successful, alas, but I think the newly emerging Great Britain Women’s team has a lot to offer the European championships. We hope we’ll be given that opportunity as participat-ing in such a prestigious, inaugural event will do wonders for the profile and future appeal of the sport”.With regard to how far GB can go if the applications are successful Kilby

went on to say: “We have to be both realistic and ambitious. We are an emerging team and American football is an emerging sport in this country and whilst we’ve had fantas-tic support from our governing body (BAFA), experienced exponential growth and developed a pathway quickly for talent to be identified you cannot substitute keenness for expe-rience and knowledge”. BAFA is currently liaising with IFAF Europe on tournament formats and requirements with details on the position of Great Britain’s application to be announced in due course.

“We have to be both realistic and ambitious”.

17

1000 gamesin black

and white

by Scott Anderson

In 1984, a young man came across a magazine advert about officiating American football on a weekly ba-

sis. The man, a huge fan of the sport, immediately applied and took up the opportunity. It was soon clear that the position as an American football referee was perfect for him. Today, at 59-years-old, Brian Yates can look back proudly over an aston-ishing 30-year journey that has seen him fulfill many personal achievements, including the in-credible feat of officiating 1000 games. And he is by no means finished yet.

introducing the referee who’s 30 years in American football has seen him complete 1000 games.Meet Brian Yates, the manin black and white...

Making history: Taking charge of the first ever British American football championship was considered an honour for Yates (number 29).

Yates’ love for American foot-ball first began, like most others in the early 80s, by tuning into channel 4 for their weekly NFL show on Sunday evenings. This led to training for London-based side Luton Flyers, but as an FA qualified referee, his passion had always lied within officiating. After signing up to the British American Football Referee’s As-sociation (BAFRA), Brian soon established himself as a regular officiator across the UK. “At first it was just fun between groups of lads who shared an interest in the game,” says Bri-an. “The competition wasn’t too serious. Everyone was just look-ing to get involved and enjoy this wonderful new sport they had discovered.” Soon enough, Brian became an established referee in the UK, as the games profile grew phenomenally. “It was a very exciting new ven-ture and as a community we were all involved. As the game grew and strong leagues were estab-lished, I began to referee games that were attracting as many as 5,000 fans. It really was a special time.” In 1984, a national league was established after a successful meeting between representatives from 35 teams. Despite no offi-cial structure, the wheels were

“American Football was very

money driven in the 80s.”

set in motion. By 1985, approx-imately 70 teams were all set to take part in the inaugural season of British American football. With Brian’s reputation growing across the country, he was select-ed to officiate an occasion which has gone down in British Amer-ican football history. The first British American football cham-pionship between the Ravens and the Olympians took place at Villa Park, home of Aston Villa Football Club. The Ravens were victorious in a 47-5 win against their fellow London-based rivals. Officiating such a high profile game in front of over 7,000 fans was an event Brian remembers fondly. “To be selected for such a massive game

was a huge honour. The hype on the day was amazing. It will always be a wonderful occasion that I look back on with a great deal of pride.” The game has developed in many different ways since it first took off in Britain over 30 years ago, says Brian. “American foot-ball was very money driven in the 80s. It has changed phenom-enal amounts since then. People were even funded to play. It was the norm for teams to have 5-6 National Football League (NFL) trialists and even first class rugby players playing for them. It was a huge learning curve for players and officials to be side-to-side with some exceptional athletes.” In October 1985, the British game took a huge step with the announcement that Budweis-er were set to offer a £300,000 sponsorship to cover all areas of the sport in Britain. With two separate league in the UK – the American Football League and the British American Football Federation – Budweiser pro-posed a merger to form one single nationwide league. Con-sequently, a dispute erupted and the BAFF reformed as the Brit-ish American Football League (BAFL), a rival league to the new Budweiser League. After losses of £40,000, the BAFL went into liquidation during the following ’86 season and had no choice but to join up with the Budweiser League, which then covered 102 teams across 18 na-tionwide divisions. Refereeing in the Budweiser League was a huge step for Brian, who was only 29-years-old at the time. Looking back through his ex-periences in the black and white stripes he has sported so often, Brian recalls many personal highlights over the past 30

19

years. “Officiating the high-est level leagues in Britain is something I am extreme-ly proud of. I have covered everything including interna-tional games, local games and I even officiated in the highest EU league for 10 years.” Brian remains the only British ref-eree to feature in the US Air Force League, in which he spent two years between

“Every year you think the sport can’t possi-bily get any bigger, but it does.”

1991-93. He also spent 10 years refereeing the highest level of American football in Europe, and says that feats like these are achievements that bring him great personal pride. Speaking of the game today, Brian says that American football has undergone huge change since the boom of the 80s, and he feels that

Brian Yates officiating the 2009 Division 1 bowl at Doncaster between East Kilbride Pirates and London Cobras.

Dedication: The crew take charge of Alconbury v SHAPE in October 2014, Yates’ 1000th American football game.

the sport is not “money-ori-entated”, but played by people who simply want to enjoy par-ticipating in a sport which is growing more by the year. “This level is where I belong,” says Brian. “There is a lot to consider ahead of officiating a game, you don’t just turn up on a Saturday like most people think. There are crew discus-sions, which can be very com-plex. It requires lots of com-mitment and a serious amount of travelling. But by all means, it’s worthwhile.” Participation in American

football in Britain is growing more by the year, as are the rumours of an NFL franchise one day coming to the UK. “Whether there will one day be a franchise in the UK I don’t know,” said Brian. “Every year you think it can’t possibly get bigger, but it does. I would love to see a professional league over here.” The idea of a major league in the UK, where fans regularly attend and enjoy games, is something Brian says he would no doubt love to see one day. In 2012, Brian was inducted into the Minor League Football Hall of Fame, and despite completing the feat of 1000 games in Ameri-can football he has no intentions of quitting yet. He has expressed his desire to carry on for another 10 years and possibly reach the 40-year milestone. “I’ll know when I’m ready to give it up,” admits Bri-an. “But it hopefully won’t be any time soon. You can’t predict the future but at the moment I am en-joying the game as much as ever. Who knows, I may well pass 1500 games yet!”

20

Tony Allen:From Strength to Strength

Tony Allen has become the only coach to win the British title with two teams, making him British American football’s most prestigious coach

Tony Allen is one of the most recognisable names in Brit-ish American football. His

CV includes joining the undefeated London Ravens in the mid 80’s, go-ing on to coach the London Olym-pians to three British titles and two Eurobowls in the 90’s and most re-cently, coach the London Warriors to back-to-back British titles. The coach talks us through his past in the game, as well as the British breaking into the American game.From 1983 until 1988, The London Ravens went unbeaten for 61 games and won five championships, dom-inating the British game for many years. The next time a team domi-nated the British game in a similar way was in the early 90’s, when the London Olympians won three Brit-ish titles in a row, including two Eu-robowl titles. What is the thing that both these teams had in common? Tony Allen.Allen is very modest when it comes to his time with the Ravens, “it was back in the day, if you didn’t make it through the try-outs no one kept you around. It was an honour to play there.” Playing for the Ravens seemed like that start of a trend in the British league, if Tony’s name was on your team sheet, good things are going to happen.In 1990, a couple of years after hang-ing up his helmet, Tony became head coach of the London Olympi-ans based in Crystal Palace. “I took the challenge because they were the team that were always there, but nev-er quite made it,” says Allen about the Olympians, where he spent 4 years between 1991 and 1995. “They had never won a National Champi-onship. That was my long term goal at the time, but we won it in the first season and then I started thinking, I wonder if we could compete in Eu-rope?”Going into Europe had always been tough for British sides. In all the

Head Coach Allen talking with the current crop of Warriors.

seasons previous to the Olympians making it to the final only one Brit-ish team had made it that far, but, in keeping with his time with the side, Allen brought home two Eurobowls in successive seasons. In 1995, his final season with the O’s, the team won the British title and missed out on a hat trick of Eurobowls by 7 points to Düsseldorf.One of the major influences to Euro-pean success was American quarter-back Leonard Valentine, who played college football for Louisiana State and Division One football before coming to London. “We had prid-ed ourselves on being a British team but when we got into Europe we had to make an exception, that ex-ception was Valentine.” Allen went out to scout teams in Europe who, much like the majority of premier league sides in England at the time, had American coaches and Ameri-can quarterbacks. “If you wanted to go for the Championship you had to go like-for-like with an American quarterback. I didn’t feel you could do it with a British quarterback.” Valentine scored three touchdowns in the two finals the O’s won, an out-standing effort for a quarterback.It wasn’t what Valentine brought to the field as much as how he aided the rest of the squad that really im-pressed Allen. “From player to coach in terms of the passing game, you learnt from just being around him.

“If you wanted to go for the Championship,

you had to go like-for-like with an

American Quarterback”

23

Our wide receivers learnt a faster game because of it. As a defence, you were practicing against it every day, I mean they could only get better!”The lack of American quarterbacks is one of the main changes Allen has seen from his playing and ear-ly coaching days. “You were facing quarter-backs that if you weren’t sound in coverage they’d take you apart, if you weren’t sound in de-fensive structure they’d take advan-tage of your weakness. The game was more sophisticated, especially the passing game.” Speaking specif-ically about Valentine, “I saw young guys, even today, I see these guys get beaten, not because their coverage isn’t sound sorted by their defensive coaches, but they just don’t practice against that. If you don’t practice against that every day how can you prepare for it? The passing game is so much more sophisticated.”Although Allen was keen to go to Europe as soon as possible when at the Olympians, he doesn’t think this is the right time for the Warriors to take the step up. “I want to compete, I don’t want to go there to make up the numbers. There are five or six teams in Europe with big budg-ets, full-time coaches, professional Americans and the best sportsmen the country has to offer. There’s one team I know that has a budget of 1.2 million euros, how can you compete with that?“We’re an amateur sport and an amateur team, it would cost about

Allen (standing, third from left) with the Eurobowl winning London Olympians.

£60,000 to £75,000 for a season in Europe, and would cost a lot more in the case of players and coaches committing more of their time and efforts. Getting the funding for sea-son after season of European foot-ball would be extremely hard, but it’s something I will have to put to the guys and see what reaction I get. It’s their team at the end of it.”This reaction of course posed the question of another Valentine-type figure coming into the Warriors, something Allen isn’t promoting. “What would having an Ameri-can quarter-back do for the guys? It seems unfair, players would get moved around and some would lose their place. But of course, if we went into Europe it’s a different matter en-tirely. Universities have been clever and offered Americans the chance to finish their studies over here while continuing to play football, that’s very pro-active and that’s a good idea, but what would we gain from doing that as the Warriors?”At the Warriors, Allen is keen to push the youth and doesn’t feel the game needs an influx of Americans to succeed in bringing through the young players into the senior set-up. He believes that getting English players into the NFL is more impor-tant. “It’s vitally important that we have British players working their way through to the NFL. They be-come role models for young athletes in the game, and getting kids into the game.“There’s a myth that you can’t get to the NFL, that’s there’s no pathway. But there is. That was part of my job working with NFL international, to get the kids into squads or collages in the US. I think it’s important. We have to have our own players, heroes if you like, on the pitch.”Lawrence Okoye, the British Olym-pian, is the latest high-profile British name to get on the roster of a NFL side. His pre-draft measurables sur-prised many American coaches us-

“I want to compete, I

don’t want to go there to make up the

numbers”

Presented with a ‘Lifetime Con-tribution to Football’ by Former New York Giant Running Back Tiki Barber in 2011.

24

ing his previous promising youth rugby career as a base for this move. However, he struggled to make first string for the 49ers and is current-ly learning his trade on the practice squad. A favourite saying of Allen’s is to be “a student of the game”, some-thing that Okoye and other British hopefuls are certainly learning to be now.When asked about the coach’s path-way into the American game, Allen was a lot more positive. “The path-ways are definitely there, you have to earn your stripes. If guys are will to invest, put in the time and make the sacrifices. Don’t wait for someone to open that door for you, go force it open yourself, chase your dream, the opportunities are there.” As one of Britain’s most prestigious coach-es, Allen would be top of the NFL’s shortlists for British coaches. But the former Raven isn’t completely sold on the idea. “I’m not so sure. If I was approached I’d certainly think about

it, I’ve done the things I’ve wanted to do here and I guess I am looking to re-shape my goals, so I’ll leave that door open.”For now the Warriors coach is let-ting his side enjoy the glory of win-ning their second title before posing any questions. “We are going to keep trying to sell our brand of football, keep recruiting, keep getting kids in, keep developing our coaches and just keep trying to get better.”The coach’s modesty really came through upon ending the interview. “It’s not about Tony Allen at all, I’m lucky that people have bought into it. We have a saying, ‘if it’s not im-portant to you, why are you here?’ None of anything that’s happened can be done without the fantastic coaches I’ve had committed around me, as well as the players. I’m just very lucky.” Lucky or not, the Tony Allen winning trend cannot be com-pletely coincidental.

In 1996, Coaching the London Monarchs. “Don’t wait

for someone to open that door for you,

go force it open yourself.

chase your dreams, the

opportunities are there”

Charlie Baker spoke to Tony Allen after his Warriors side won their second consecutive Britbowl against the London Blitz.

25

are we going to wembley?

Photographs courtesy of Steve Parkinson (2008) cc

Que,sera,sera

Fourth Quarter - NFL

The year is 1991, Manchester United have yet to become the dominant force in English football, the Premier League

is yet to be created. In Manchester two broth-ers form a band with some of their mates that will go on to define the decade. Europe for the first time since the end of the Second World War is a united continent and an American football franchise takes up residency at Wem-bley Stadium. The team is called the London Monarchs and they regularly attracted 40,000 plus crowds at their home games, which is impressive for a new team, especially consid-ering that the highest football attendance in 1991 was 44,000.Ultimately for the London Monarchs the novel-ty soon wore off and they were forced to leave Wembley Stadium after just two seasons, their journey into obscurity eventually taking them to the Alexander Stadium, an athletics ground in Birmingham in 1997. In the end, the NFL had to re-evaluate their viability and the team was disbanded in 1998, soon to be-

are we going to wembley?Que,sera,sera

BY Aaron O’Hegarty

Wembley 3”To permanently relocate an NFL team to the UK is a massive, it’s not like putting a team in a US city.”

28

come almost totally forgotten by history. Their league, NFL Europe would last a further ten years be-fore a total lack of interest would lead to its closure in 2007.It was in 2007 that the new Wem-bley Stadium opened five years later than expected at a total cost of over £1 billion. The Football Association, who own Wembley, found themselves in desperate need to recoup money from the expensive project. As such it was decided that the England nation-al football team would take up residency at Wembley and play every friendly and qualifier there. Wembley would also host the FA Cup semi-finals and final as well as the League Cup final, it would also host the play off finals for the Football League and Confer-ence. Concerts and other sport-ing events such as the Rugby Challenge Cup final are also held at Wembley in an attempt to earn more money.The problem with this solution, however, is that the majority of football games at Wembley hard-ly ever sell out, leading to a half empty stadium and little to no at-mosphere. England’s permanent residency at Wembley has also lead to the team becoming very London centric, it is very difficult for somebody from the north to go and see the national team, which in turn decreases interest in the England national team and by extension attendances suf-fer. The FA is left with only a few games each year that are guar-anteed sellouts and concerts do not occur frequently enough to make up the difference. So what does all of this have to do with American football? Well since Wembley opened in 2007 it has played host to fourteen games in the NFL International Series, each one attracting sell

out crowds. Ticket prices ranged from £35 to over £100 with only three percent of attendees being American expats. This shows that there is enough interest in the NFL in the UK to start considering a permanent arrangement. This permanent arrangement is the pet project of Mark Waller, an Englishman who happens to be the head of international devel-opment for the NFL. He has made it his personal mission to have an American football team in resi-dency at Wembley by 2021, so it is very possible that there will be a London franchise up and running in seven years. So if the interest is there, then why will it take seven years? Waller was clear about the chal-lenge he has set himself. ”To per-manently relocate an NFL team to the UK is a massive, it’s not like putting a team in a US city. There are a whole set of logistical impli-cations for the players, coaches, back-office staff and so on,” he told the BBC in early November. “There are also implications for the rest of the league and issues for the stadium. We play at Wem-bley, England play at Wembley, so it’s important for both of us that the surface holds up. So we need to test playing games over consecutive weekends, followed by an England game.”The most staggering thing about these discussions is that London will most likely have an NFL fran-chise ahead of America’s second city Los Angeles. LA has a long history of failed NFL franchises with each team struggling to fill the 90,000 capacity Coliseum, the same number of seats at Wembley. This is one of the is-sues that faces the supporters of a London based franchise-will the record crowds that we have seen during the international series

games be sustained for a perma-nent franchise or will the novelty wear off like it did for the Mon-archs back in the nineties? The signs are that the interest in American football is only set to grow massively in the time it will take to set up a London team. Sky Sports have recently announced that they will be broadcasting live NFL games for the coming sea-sons, the NFL is currently Sky’s fifth most watched sport, mean-ing that more and more British people will be able to watch the sport. It has been estimated that there are around three million hardcore fans in the country with a further eight million casual fans, and with the lack of com-petition from other professional teams the new franchise would have an enviable fan base. Its already been proven that fans will flock to see NFL games in London, so with the added home team factor the sustainability of a new franchise is easy to see. A London franchise also has some very influential supporters in addition to the National Foot-ball League. Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne has said that “One of London’s mas-sive strengths is its sporting prow-ess, its great football teams”, he told the Evening Standard in Oc-tober. “This is primarily a deci-sion for the owners of the clubs and the NFL organisation but I’ve said to the NFL that anything the Government can do to make this happen we will do, because I think it would be a huge boost to London.” He said: ‘We could have not just the Star Spangled Banner at the beginning of NFL games but also God Save The Queen.’ Of course the Chancellors sup-port of the possibility of basing a franchise in London is driven by the economic benefits that it will

”It’s not just about putting a team in the marketplace, that team has to be able to win the Super-Bowl.”

bring. Early estimations of the revenue generated are about £3 million per game.Even the guardians of associa-tion football, the English FA have made a Wembley franchise one of their top priorities moving forward. They see it as a way of paying for what has been an ex-tremely expensive project and releasing the England team to tour around the country’s many impressive stadia. However the idea of a London based NFL team is not without it’s detractors, the main argument that people use is that the trave-ling distances involved will be just too massive for London based team to work. To put this into per-spective the closest team that a London team will play will the New England Patriots at a distance of 3,289 miles which is as far away as Tehran to give it some context. The furthest they would have to travel, should they make the play-offs, is the San Francisco 49ers, which is a staggering 5,351 miles away from London! Further away than Beijing! There have been many proposed solutions to this problem, at the present time any team that plays an International Series game at Wembley is grant-ed a week off for recuperation, if

there was a permanent team in London this would not be feasi-ble without expanding the NFL season to accommodate for this. It has also been suggested that the London team can play all of its away games in one go, howev-er this would mean that the team would spend half of it’s season as an American team, only going to London for the second half of the season. The effect of jet lag on athletes has been debated, as it hasn’t been an issue before, there is a belief that the British team will be able to manage with the ex-tra strain. For Mark Waller this has been something that he has thought long and hard about, “ At the moment, we give any team that comes over here the follow-ing weekend off. That is not go-ing to be practical in the future, so we will have to look at a team playing here one week, then back in the US a week later. So there is a lot still to be done, because any team we put here has to be com-petitive. It’s not just about putting a team in the marketplace, that team has to be able to win the Superbowl.” Another issue that London would have would be attracting play-ers of a high enough calibre

with which to compete. It would be highly risky for a footballer to choose to leave the United States and come to play in the UK. The much higher tax rates here would almost certainly act as a deterrent to the high earn-ers of the NFL. There is also the issue of the leagues salary caps that would hamper any London teams chance of competing with the richer teams. Even if the NFL was to overlook the salary cap in order to help get London off the ground then they would be dam-aging the integrity of the league, not something they want to do amidst allegations of corruption. More so will the impressive at-tendances be sustainable over time, the London Monarchs have already shown us that the high attendances that we have seen in London so far cannot be guaran-teed to last. British fans may be willing to pay high-ticket prices for a one off game, but will they be willing to spend the money to follow a London team week in and week out? Only time will tell whether any of these plans will come to fruition, what is certain though is that the NFL is gaining popularity in the UK.

Week 14

Brady’s NEW ENGLAND PATRI-OTS took on the SAN DIEGO CHARGERS on Monday night, coming out easy winners by 7 points. Brady threw two touchdowns and continued his good form this season and looks to be leading his team to their sixth consecutive play-offs.The GREEN BAY PACKERS took on the ATLANTA FALCONS away and managed to take the win 43

to 37, with Rodgers throwing four touchdowns, enhancing his reputa-tion as one of the best quarterbacks in the league.Both sides are unbeaten at home and along with the ARIZONA CARDI-NALS and DENVER BRONCOS look the most dangerous teams in this season’s competition heading towards Superbowl XLIV in Febru-ary.

Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers helped their franchises continue to Dominate with wins in week 14.

Rodgers and Brady edging towards Superbowl showdown

Charlie Baker, Our NFL Correspondant, looks at how

things are shaping up with three weeks remaining of regular

season

Tom BradyPicture Attribution: Football Schedule

Aaron RodgersPicture Attrbution: Elvis Kennedy

32

With just three weeks remaining of the regular season, the table taking shape with the aforementioned AR-IZONA CARDINALS and GREEN BAY PACKERS looking to have se-cured the top two spots in the NFC, sending them straight through to the Divisional Rounds.The ATLANTA FALCONS and NEW ORLEANS SAINTS have taken advantage of a weak South Division and are currently level on points with so few rounds to go. With it almost garneted that only one South Division side will head to post-season, it’s crunch time for the franchises. The pair face off on

NCF

INDIANAPOLIS COLTS quar-terback, Andrew Luck, is making headlines, having thrown the most yards of any QB all year. His franchise looks good for a play-off spot, sitting nicely behind the NEW ENGLAND PATRIOTS and DEN-VER BRONCOS with nine wins and 4 losses.The fight for the last 3 play-off places is a very tight affair, with the CINCINNATI BENGALS, PITTS-BURGH STEELERS, SAN DIEGO CHARGERS and BALTIMORE RAVENS all sitting pretty with eight wins.The CINCINNATI BENGALS

ACFare currently the North Division leaders, despite a loss away at the STEELERS this week. They take on the off-form CLEVELAND BROWNS next week with pressure on the win all three remaining games.The CHARGERS were outclassed by the PATRIOTS in week 14, put-ting extra pressure on Mike Mc-Coy’s side. Although they face an equally tough test in week 15, tak-ing on the BRONCOS, in Denver.

the 21st of December in Atlanta.Current Champions, SEATTLE SE-AHAWKS, will have to hold off the DETROIT LIONS and DALLAS COWBOYS for a wildcard spot. The Seahawks beat the PHILADEL-PHIA EAGLES in Seattle with 2014 Superbowl MVP, Malcolm Smith continuing his recovering from injury making an appearance. The Seahawks go up against the SAN FRANCISCO 49ERS, another team fighting for a wildcard place, next week.