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[jaadam4]

Welcome London Lion! We have a few other Lions fans in the UK on this forum. Glad you’re here.

[Malto Marko]

Welcome TLL!

[Malto Marko]

Speaking about other fans in the UK.........anybody hear from Drew lately?

[TheLondonLion]

Welcome London Lion! We have a few other Lions fans in the UK on this forum. Glad you?re here.

Is that right? That's cool. I occasionally see another Lions fan out when I'm watching a game. I go to the NFL series games in London (which are weird games as the fans wear shirts from teams across the NFL rather than the two teams playing) and don't often see the Honolulu Blue.

Do the Lions have a big following from outside Detroit? For a team that isn't a big market team, I always notice a really good following on the road.

There was that great picture in Tampa full of Lions fans which is a fairly long way from Detroit!

[TheLondonLion]

Good taste.

Did you ever hear of this Barry Sanders jag?

Of course. I'm only 31 so he was before my time really, but how we could do with him now.

It is a real shame that we lost Megatron and Barry Sanders earlier than we should have.

Maybe it has been better in the long term as we have two 1,000+ yard receivers now but I'd have liked to have seen one more season with Calvin Johnson.

[Malto Marko]

Is that right? That's cool. I occasionally see another Lions fan out when I'm watching a game. I go to the NFL series games in London (which are weird games as the fans wear shirts from teams across the NFL rather than the two teams playing) and don't often see the Honolulu Blue.

Do the Lions have a big following from outside Detroit? For a team that isn't a big market team, I always notice a really good following on the road.

There was that great picture in Tampa full of Lions fans which is a fairly long way from Detroit!

That is because many from Michigan either spend the winter in FLA or have moved there after retirement. They are called snowbirds.

It is possible to move to FLA and find out someone you grew up with or have always lived near is once again, your neighbor.

[TheLondonLion]

I suppose with the economy there is a bit of a diaspora too. It’s the same in Europe, lots of people from Spain, Greece etc in England and Germany.

[jaadam4]

(which are weird games as the fans wear shirts from teams across the NFL rather than the two teams playing)

lol, I thought the same thing when I was in London a few years back watching the Lions / Falcons game. There were so many local fans and just about every team was represented instead of seeing tons of the teams playing.

Still I was amazed at the level of knowledge from the fans about the game from the locals. It was impressive.

[TheLondonLion]

lol, I thought the same thing when I was in London a few years back watching the Lions / Falcons game. There were so many local fans and just about every team was represented instead of seeing tons of the teams playing.

Still I was amazed at the level of knowledge from the fans about the game from the locals. It was impressive.

Yes and no.

To give you a brief history of the NFL and the UK (as I understand it, as I'm a relatively young 31) it was shown on one of our terrestrial channels (Channel 4) in the 80's and had a real cult following of hardened fans but relatively small in size. This is back when the Redskins and the 49ers were the boys and Dan Marino was gunslinging in Miami.

Then it vanished off television for a good decade and was brought back by SKY, which is our version of FOX which feeds in FOX coverage. We get the game of the week and NFL redzone simultaneously, as well as the London games.

I live in South West London and woke up one morning to check who was playing (it was a Lions bye week) and noticed the Cardinals and the Rams were playing at Twickenham stadium, which is literally a mile from my house which was pretty fucking cool. I walked down there. Terrible game, but still - cool to have the NFL on your doorstep like that in Europe.

Now I'd say it has a strong cult following. Some of the fans are knowledgeable but I don't like the noise they make when they're trying to put the away team off on 3rd down, it's like a pantomime "boo" rather than the cacophony you hear in the US. Sometimes they boo the home team on 3rd down as well, which is just rude.

But yeah, there's a following alright. And some of the people that do follow it really know their shit.

[edindetroit]

There was that great picture in Tampa full of Lions fans which is a fairly long way from Detroit!

Florida is where Lions fans go when they retire.

[Malto Marko]

Florida is where Lions fans go when they retire.

Thanks. You said it clearer than I did.

[TheLondonLion]

Who else is from the UK? I wouldn't mind being a retired Lions fan in Florida to be honest.

Takes me back to Panama City Beach as an 18 year old at Spring Break. Memories!

[DanO]

Welcome LondonLion.

[Panoptes]

Welcome neophyte from London.

Look up DeanUK

I have an old neighborhood friend from the states that lives in Tamworth

[DeanUK]

Hi London, I'm from Oxford, so if you're ever in the area feel free to visit! Marko69 (not to be confused with MaltoMarko) is from Edinburgh (Hibs fan with nice nails), Cleggy is another Brit on here. Drew in an American who's wife is stationed in Mildenhall. There's also Septem in Portugal and Essek in Croatia (Osijek fan). Jadaam is based in Africa I believe, but frequents Europe often, and is dying to get his nipple pierced.