(Before I begin, please know that this is not a rant, I'm just trying to have a bit of fun)
Its 1:00 pm on a Sunday afternoon. I'm sitting in front of my laptop, twiddling my thumbs, abusing the refresh page button on the Cincy Jungle home page. I'm scavenging for any gameday news I can get my scrubby little hands on, in an attempt to feed the beast that is my unnatural hunger for Bengals information. What's that I hear you say? "What do you think you're doing? Are you mad? Get your ass to the closest TV and put on the game!". That's the problem. Kickoff seems a lifetime away. In fact, NFL Gameday Morning hasn't even started yet, and chances are, you're still in your bed.
A Sunday doesn't go by, that, when the clock strikes 1:00 pm, I don't think of you all in the States. If I was over there, the game would be kicking off now. I still struggle to get my head around it. It just seems so early!
If you haven't seen me in the comments before (I rarely comment), I live in Ireland. I first started following football (or as we know it over here, american football. Over here, the word football means soccer, and we also have a sport called "Gaelic" football) around Christmas 2010. I will admit, I wasn't really that into it to begin with, I didn't really understand it. I thought it was all quite strange, and I struggled to get my head around the rules.
Here's where everything changed. The first NFL game that my brother watched involved the Rams, and without much thought, he decided to follow them, although not very closely. I suppose he kind of pushed me towards picking "my team". I thought about it for a while, and decided I may as well pick a team for the fun. I didn't even know any teams at the time, and I could count the amount of games I'd ever seen on my left hand. I went onto Wikipedia and searched "NFL". I found the list of teams, and began my selection process. I looked at the team names for a while ("what's a 49er?"), and then began looking at uniforms ("ooh stripy helmets!"). I had marked a few teams for "cool" names and had actually noticed the bengals sick (sick in a good way) helmets. I was still uncertain, until I noticed some columns to the right of the team names, on of which contained the title "Founded". I glanced through the boring ol' dates until I stopped on one. May 23rd. My birthday! I excitedly layed my eyes back on the left side of the page, seeing the name on that same row to be none other than the Cincinnati Bengals. So long story short, I support the Bengals today because good ol' Paul Brown signed all his papers on my birthday! (note: not the same year, that would just reek of destiny). And I say the truth in telling you that you would not find a man or woman that loves the Bengals more than I do.
I was very happy with my choice, going on to grow very fond of Chad Ochocinco. I still didn't follow that closely, but I can remember the sick feeling in my stomach when Carson pathetically chucked the ball out of bounds on 4th down on the last play of the 2010 season against the Ravens. Not that I was an avid follower of the NFL before hand, but during the offseason my interest in the Bengals waned. But my interest was re-ignited when my brother informed me that the Bengals had acquired a ginger quarterback in the draft! ("What the f*ck is a draft!?"). And no, I'm not ginger. Did you know there are more gingers in Scotland than Ireland? We're not all ginger over here! Anyway, as the new season finally began ("Why are they locked out? Where did they leave the key?"), I watched the games, happy with our good start. But I was super excited, because I was to be going to the Wembley game between the Bucs and Bears in week 7. Bear (get it?) in mind, at this stage, I still wasn't really that into it (football). I'll always remember the day of that game. As I walked up the 10 or so steps into the main section of the stadium, something clicked for me. I looked down onto the field, seeing all the players warming up before the game, music blaring out of the speakers, admiring Devin Hester fielding punts, and seeing players on one knee praying in the endzone. As Howie Long said in his book, I thought "Wow, this is the game for me."
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and I think it is from then on that I became the obsessive supporter that I am today. I remember watching our dominant performance at the Seahawks the week after. I remember turning off my TV in disgust as Adam Jones gave away that PI penalty and Walter caught the touchdown against the Texans. I felt so low after the playoff game, but I would never quit. And here I am.
Now I'll talk about being a foreign NFL fan in general, not just my personal experience in supporting the Bengals. Sky Sports is the only NFL broadcaster over here. We get 3 games a week, one early game, one late game, and the Thursday Night Game. We got MNF on ESPN last year but we don't get it anymore. As there isn't many people like me here, as in people that follow a specific team, and didn't hop on a bandwagon, they tend to only show the "big team" games, like the Packers, Giants, Broncos, Pats, Saints etc. They might show 1 Bengals game a year, probably game against the Steelers or Ravens.We also get Redzone which I watched all last year to see snippets of the Bengals game, but it is a horrible way to watch a Bengals game. But this year I invested in Game Pass, and I don't know how I would live without it. I watch every game live, and I'll talk more about that in the next paragraph. Unfortunately, I have a dreadfully slow internet connection. Literally, the only way it could be any slower is if I didn't have Internet at all. It's THAT slow. And I won't be getting a good internet speed until maybe after the bye week.
When I watch the game at the moment, the only way I can watch them without buffering is on the lowest quality picture. So basically, I'm watching green and orange pixels flying around the screen. If the commentary was turned off, i wouldn't have any idea what was happening. It's so bad that when they bring up stats, I can't read them. But I live with it for the moment. I even bought a very expensive mobile broadband stick a few weeks to try and help, but that was an "epic fail" and it didn't work. I'll have to get back to the company about that now that I think of it.
Anyway, here's what I most want to talk about. I'll talk straight facts here for a while: The Sunday early afternoon games kick off at 6:00 pm, the late games start at 9:05 pm. TNF and Sunday night games begin at 01:20 am, and MNF starts at 01:30 am. The early games have a whole different feel to them when you're watching them at 6:00 pm. It's kind of like how it would feel for you to watch a Primetime game. I kind of like the 6:00 start, but the Primetime games are a nightmare, as you can imagine. And it's even worse when they lose! I didn't get to bed til 5:00 am when we played the Ravens, and won't when we face the Steelers and Eagles. NFL Gameday Morning starts at 2:00 pm. NFL AM is at 11:00 am. I live in a different world to you all! I know there are lots of other foreign fans around the world, and I speak for them as well.
The NFL is getting lots of exposure here and in Europe. There is an amateur league in Ireland (IAFL), even a sports radio show here has a weekly segment where they talk about american football. I will be going to the Pats-Rams game at the end of this month, and I'll tell you all about it after. You guys don't realize how lucky you are! I can't imagine all NFL games and shows being at a time where I'm naturally awake!
I would love to go to PBS one day and cheer on the Bengals. Let's hope I can. I'll leave you with this final thought. It is harder for me as a fan to follow the sport, but I think I like it this way . It makes it even better, because of the limited extent to which I can follow the Bengals, I treasure every game. I don't really know how to put it. It is very enjoyable following the NFL like I do. If anyone knows how to put it better, please tell. My whole week leads up to Sunday evening! I'm hooked on this team. I'm proud that I started following them when they were in a bad place, and look at them now, we have a bright future. I know you've all been through worse than me, but I feel like I deserve this exciting team, as opposed to my patriots supporting friend!
I hope you all enjoyed my story. I'd love to talk to more of you in the comments section. Sláinte!
(Before I begin, please know that this is not a rant, I'm just trying to have a bit of fun)
Its 1:00 pm on a Sunday afternoon. I'm sitting in front of my laptop, twiddling my thumbs, abusing the refresh page button on the Cincy Jungle home page. I'm scavenging for any gameday news I can get my scrubby little hands on, in an attempt to feed the beast that is my unnatural hunger for Bengals information. What's that I hear you say? "What do you think you're doing? Are you mad? Get your ass to the closest TV and put on the game!". That's the problem. Kickoff seems a lifetime away. In fact, NFL Gameday Morning hasn't even started yet, and chances are, you're still in your bed.
A Sunday doesn't go by, that, when the clock strikes 1:00 pm, I don't think of you all in the States. If I was over there, the game would be kicking off now. I still struggle to get my head around it. It just seems so early!
If you haven't seen me in the comments before (I rarely comment), I live in Ireland. I first started following football (or as we know it over here, american football. Over here, the word football means soccer, and we also have a sport called "Gaelic" football) around Christmas 2010. I will admit, I wasn't really that into it to begin with, I didn't really understand it. I thought it was all quite strange, and I struggled to get my head around the rules.
Here's where everything changed. The first NFL game that my brother watched involved the Rams, and without much thought, he decided to follow them, although not very closely. I suppose he kind of pushed me towards picking "my team". I thought about it for a while, and decided I may as well pick a team for the fun. I didn't even know any teams at the time, and I could count the amount of games I'd ever seen on my left hand. I went onto Wikipedia and searched "NFL". I found the list of teams, and began my selection process. I looked at the team names for a while ("what's a 49er?"), and then began looking at uniforms ("ooh stripy helmets!"). I had marked a few teams for "cool" names and had actually noticed the bengals sick (sick in a good way) helmets. I was still uncertain, until I noticed some columns to the right of the team names, on of which contained the title "Founded". I glanced through the boring ol' dates until I stopped on one. May 23rd. My birthday! I excitedly layed my eyes back on the left side of the page, seeing the name on that same row to be none other than the Cincinnati Bengals. So long story short, I support the Bengals today because good ol' Paul Brown signed all his papers on my birthday! (note: not the same year, that would just reek of destiny). And I say the truth in telling you that you would not find a man or woman that loves the Bengals more than I do.
I was very happy with my choice, going on to grow very fond of Chad Ochocinco. I still didn't follow that closely, but I can remember the sick feeling in my stomach when Carson pathetically chucked the ball out of bounds on 4th down on the last play of the 2010 season against the Ravens. Not that I was an avid follower of the NFL before hand, but during the offseason my interest in the Bengals waned. But my interest was re-ignited when my brother informed me that the Bengals had acquired a ginger quarterback in the draft! ("What the f*ck is a draft!?"). And no, I'm not ginger. Did you know there are more gingers in Scotland than Ireland? We're not all ginger over here! Anyway, as the new season finally began ("Why are they locked out? Where did they leave the key?"), I watched the games, happy with our good start. But I was super excited, because I was to be going to the Wembley game between the Bucs and Bears in week 7. Bear (get it?) in mind, at this stage, I still wasn't really that into it (football). I'll always remember the day of that game. As I walked up the 10 or so steps into the main section of the stadium, something clicked for me. I looked down onto the field, seeing all the players warming up before the game, music blaring out of the speakers, admiring Devin Hester fielding punts, and seeing players on one knee praying in the endzone. As Howie Long said in his book, I thought "Wow, this is the game for me."
I thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and I think it is from then on that I became the obsessive supporter that I am today. I remember watching our dominant performance at the Seahawks the week after. I remember turning off my TV in disgust as Adam Jones gave away that PI penalty and Walter caught the touchdown against the Texans. I felt so low after the playoff game, but I would never quit. And here I am.
Now I'll talk about being a foreign NFL fan in general, not just my personal experience in supporting the Bengals. Sky Sports is the only NFL broadcaster over here. We get 3 games a week, one early game, one late game, and the Thursday Night Game. We got MNF on ESPN last year but we don't get it anymore. As there isn't many people like me here, as in people that follow a specific team, and didn't hop on a bandwagon, they tend to only show the "big team" games, like the Packers, Giants, Broncos, Pats, Saints etc. They might show 1 Bengals game a year, probably game against the Steelers or Ravens.We also get Redzone which I watched all last year to see snippets of the Bengals game, but it is a horrible way to watch a Bengals game. But this year I invested in Game Pass, and I don't know how I would live without it. I watch every game live, and I'll talk more about that in the next paragraph. Unfortunately, I have a dreadfully slow internet connection. Literally, the only way it could be any slower is if I didn't have Internet at all. It's THAT slow. And I won't be getting a good internet speed until maybe after the bye week.
When I watch the game at the moment, the only way I can watch them without buffering is on the lowest quality picture. So basically, I'm watching green and orange pixels flying around the screen. If the commentary was turned off, i wouldn't have any idea what was happening. It's so bad that when they bring up stats, I can't read them. But I live with it for the moment. I even bought a very expensive mobile broadband stick a few weeks to try and help, but that was an "epic fail" and it didn't work. I'll have to get back to the company about that now that I think of it.
Anyway, here's what I most want to talk about. I'll talk straight facts here for a while: The Sunday early afternoon games kick off at 6:00 pm, the late games start at 9:05 pm. TNF and Sunday night games begin at 01:20 am, and MNF starts at 01:30 am. The early games have a whole different feel to them when you're watching them at 6:00 pm. It's kind of like how it would feel for you to watch a Primetime game. I kind of like the 6:00 start, but the Primetime games are a nightmare, as you can imagine. And it's even worse when they lose! I didn't get to bed til 5:00 am when we played the Ravens, and won't when we face the Steelers and Eagles. NFL Gameday Morning starts at 2:00 pm. NFL AM is at 11:00 am. I live in a different world to you all! I know there are lots of other foreign fans around the world, and I speak for them as well.
The NFL is getting lots of exposure here and in Europe. There is an amateur league in Ireland (IAFL), even a sports radio show here has a weekly segment where they talk about american football. I will be going to the Pats-Rams game at the end of this month, and I'll tell you all about it after. You guys don't realize how lucky you are! I can't imagine all NFL games and shows being at a time where I'm naturally awake!
I would love to go to PBS one day and cheer on the Bengals. Let's hope I can. I'll leave you with this final thought. It is harder for me as a fan to follow the sport, but I think I like it this way . It makes it even better, because of the limited extent to which I can follow the Bengals, I treasure every game. I don't really know how to put it. It is very enjoyable following the NFL like I do. If anyone knows how to put it better, please tell. My whole week leads up to Sunday evening! I'm hooked on this team. I'm proud that I started following them when they were in a bad place, and look at them now, we have a bright future. I know you've all been through worse than me, but I feel like I deserve this exciting team, as opposed to my patriots supporting friend!
I hope you all enjoyed my story. I'd love to talk to more of you in the comments section. Sláinte!