Jordan’s Serial: ‘Gridiron’ mag makes its launch

This past week saw the pre-launch to a launch of something that has been whispered about, and then talked quite loudly about. A certain something that has been missing in all NFL UK fans lives for some time now.

Gridiron, a new magazine for UK fans, which is being produced, and the majority of which is being written, by UK enthusiasts of the game. Some of the tried and tested names will be putting pen to paper to give an alternative view of the game that we don’t always get to see or read about. That though will be the challenge.

During the original boom days for the sport back in the 1980’s, the real hardcore fans used to get their NFL fix by tuning into Armed Forces Radio (AFN), this was to be found by fine tuning your Medium Wave band on your radio, and largely you had to battle between some opera singing and live Spanish football commentary. It needed a keen ear, not to mention patience, but to hear the sport we love come through long enough to crystal clear commentary was simply a dream; it beat waiting a week to see the extended highlights early Sunday evening on Channel Four.

Having said that we couldn’t wait to see Mick Luckhurst, the Brit who made good in the NFL as kicker for Atlanta, present the weekly show (let’s face it he was far better than the Vicious Boys experiment) – we never had it so good. Then Channel Four went one step better and started showing live games. There was a couple of teasers, such as a Monday Night Football clash between the 49ers and the Giants who were then the top teams in a period of NFC dominance. Of course, the Super Bowl was shown live every year, and had been since 1983, but to get regular season games was as near to heaven we’d get back then.

Now though, we can see a touchdown or big play whenever we want, live; TV, laptops, tablet, mobile, it’s easy.

In fact it was only last year that everyone was on the message boards every hour trying to find out if Sky Sports would be extending their deal to show the NFL. There was no word forthcoming and we were left guessing until just a couple of days before the season started. Panic over we settled in and now take for granted that Sunday nights are filled with wall-to-wall football.

Somewhere between then and now we had our fair share of literature to read through. I stand to be corrected but I believe the first publication was Touchdown magazine. Albeit the first few issues weren’t really a magazine as such, rather a giant fold-out poster with features and game reports on each folded out section. This monthly publication was joined shortly after by Gridiron UK. This was a slightly alternative view of the game as it seemed to support the game as opposed to report on it, and in doing so it helped generate more interest in playing the game over here. From these small acorns a weekly newspaper was born, and it grew. Here we had something that gave us reports and statistics, insight and opinion, features and interviews. It was what Thursday (the day it hit the shelf) was made for!

This I feel is what the new Gridiron magazine has to capture. It needs to be as fresh and brave as the aforementioned publications were.

In a time where we capture every move by every player on Twitter before it’s even properly reported by an official source, the magazine has to be careful not to regurgitate old news. Being monthly, it does have to steer clear of run-of-the-mill news. It will have to dig deeper, beyond our quick-fire stat driven minds, and be more in depth.

If it comes up with fresh angles, and new ideas then it will be on to a winner. The target audience is big enough for it to survive. Let’s hope that it generates enough support and interest to give us something to hold on to (quite literally) for years to come.

To register your interest and order the launch issue sign up here www.gridiron-magazine.com