Being a UK American Sports Fan
So you’re reading this because you’re a fan of American sports, but live to the east of the big pond known as the Atlantic.
As little as a few years ago, this would have meant that you would have spent your life staying up until the early hours of the morning watching whatever baseball or football game channel 5 could get there hands on. A few of you may have been privileged enough to have sky sports. You would have the option to spend Sunday evenings watching all the football you could handle, or we’re allowed to by your wife, girlfriend, kids, pet alligator or whatever applies to you.
Those days have changed, now you can engulf yourself in as much sports, sports rumour, sports talk and assorted mumbo jumbo as you can handle. There’s twitter, Facebook, league websites, team websites, fan websites (all be it few as well informed as this one), the ubiquitous ESPN.com, smartphone apps, podcasts, YouTube, on demand video….. The list is virtually endless.
As a result of all this access and information to the sports I truly love, I have finally outgrown and abandoned the droning monotony of soccer. I no longer sit and watch talking heads like Alan Hansen and Mark Lawrenson drone on about how someone was “just onside” like two drunken uncles at a family reunion from hell. Now I get to watch characters like Michael Irving, Deion “Prime Time” Sanders and “QB Killa” Warren Sapp on my NFL Network online package, or the legendary studio combo of Charles Barkley, Kenny ” The Jet” Smith and Ernie Johnson through NBA.tv.
I will listen daily to (yesterday’s) sports talk radio on podcast with the likes of Tony Kornheiser, Dan Lebatard and Dan Patrick all of whom do shows considerably more entertaining than your provincial BBC station.
I could go on about the access to the players that social media offers, and how you can read the some of the best writers in the business from your 3 bed semi in the middle of “Whateverfordshire”, but you get the idea, and this is getting dangerously close to being a list.
Basically, we are at the start of a golden age for British fans of the best covered sports in the world, so just enjoy it, get involved and have your say.
Follow me on twitter @NFL_Andi
