Such a wild ending!

Our third sports review...

Philadephia Eagles vs Jacksonville Jaguars : Tottenham Hotspur Stadium

I love my London NFL games and this year I'm lucky enough to be going to two of them - next weekend I'm off with the kids to Wembley, but last weekend it was just me heading off to Tottenham. Imho the Tottenham games are better because the stadium is just a bit more compact - but the kids can't go because they're all Arsenal fans (obviously the fact that the tickets are more expensive doesn't enter into my thoughts at all).

All the London games have a nominal home team (the Jags in this instance), but generally the crowd rock up wearing the jersey of whichever team they actually follow which leads to a many-flavoured crowd, very few of whom actually care who wins the game. But this weekend was very, very different!

Just walking to the stadium, it was clear that at least half of the attendees were wearing Eagles jerseys, which was unexpected because I wasn't aware that they had a particularly strong English following. And once inside the stadium, walking to my seat, the situation was even more one-sided, with nearly everyone around me decked out in green (whereas I am inclined towards the Jags because they've played at least one game in London for years). 

And the reason for this was, as I had plenty of people explain to me is "we travel". Yup, despite the Eagles not having a great season so far, most of them crazy bastards had flown over from the US. And they were here for a good time, as became clear when the teams came on to the field to warm up, with the Eagles being rapturously greeted and the Jaguars being massively booed. I obviously politely clapped both teams and just hoped the game would live up to expectations.

Well - the start was certainly anything but boring with the Eagles kicking off and the Jags returning the ball all the way back for a touchdown (which made a load of Eagles fans VERY unhappy). But there were three flags on the play which meant the whole thing was called back (which made them VERY happy indeed) - but in the meantime a couple of players had a massive fight in the middle of the pitch which meant they both got ejected from the game. And that was just the first ten seconds!

Things did calm down somewhat after that - it's fair to say neither of the teams were playing brilliantly, but the Jags can at least claim they were being disrupted by the massive amount of noise being made by the Eagles fans. Man, they were noisy but what they certainly weren't, despite leading 14-10 going in to the last quarter, was confident - so when the Jags scored a touchdown with 3:20 left on the clock, there was a massive collective groan around the ground. However, the extra point was missed, so the lead was only two points, which meant that a field goal could win it for them, provided they managed the time on the clock correctly...

...and, well, they got the field goal - but (and this is somewhat unusual), there were still eight seconds left on the clock. Which allowed time for the kick-off and maybe one more play - all the Eagles needed to do to win the game was either stop the Jaguars making any progress up field or allow them to make so much progress that the time ran out. Well, they totally failed to stop the returner but they did eventually catch up with him and tackle him - just as the clock ticked over to 0:00. Cue MASSIVE celebrations! Until...

...the referee announced that the returner hit the ground just before time expired, so the clock needed to be reset to 0:01 - people were not happy with that decision! This gave the Jaguars a chance for a winning field goal, which Cam Little slotted through with ease (despite the noisiest crowd I have ever experienced doing everything they could to put him off) and this resulted in a massive wave of people heading to the exit - I think the stadium was half empty before I'd finished celebrating! At this point, I also need to give a shout-out to Emily's boss who made the schoolboy error of deciding to leave after the Eagles field goal - silly boy!

Given the result (from my point of view) and the exciting way in which it was achieved, this was easily the best match I've ever seen. However, I also have to say that the Eagles fans really helped - having a crowd that actually cared who won made a huge difference. They were massively vocal and passionate, but always sportingly so (although some would claim the booing wasn't exactly good-natured) - they were far harsher on the Eagles than they ever were on the Jags.

They were also pretty friendly to the only Jags supporter in their immediate vicinity - I had a great chat with my seat neighbour who had, along with his wife, quite obviously flown in from Florida ("we travel"). Apparently they'd live in Philadelphia for most of their lives until retiring to warmer climes but are still season ticket holders so make the trip back up North on a regular basis. 

And boy did I learn some interesting facts about season tickets in the US (or Philadephia, at least) - they're almost impossible to get hold of and they only have them because his GRANDPARENTS bought them (he was easily mid 60s, so we're talking quite some time ago here). I also learned that season tickets only give you the right to buy tickets to the game (which are $250) but you always buy them because if you don't go to the game then you just sell them on the secondary market for three times the amount. He was a really interesting guy and I learned loads of stuff from him - but he really didn't hang around for more than three milliseconds after the final kick of the game.

The other main area of amusement was the beers available at the ground - we had Lager, Premium IPA, Irish Stout and Fruit Cider, which may not be brands you're aware of. I assumed there was some sponsorship thang going on but had to wait until I was at the main bar to see that the only named brand in the arena was Budweiser - it made me laugh that they also had to cover up all the existing names on the taps.

I always enjoy the games no matter what the conditions, but the great ground, the decent weather, the close game with a very exciting finish and the vibrant atmosphere with a large number of passionate fans made this an exceptionally enjoyable experience - I loved it. So thanks to the Philadelphia fans for making it such a great day - I intend to go and see an NFL game in the US some day and given I've never been to the city, they've certainly put their team into the frame as a possible destination.