It’s the No. 1 sport in the land of jacked-up trucks, junk food and diet beer, so there’ll be something that makes this sport a must-have for bragging about a night of sports talk. University football has some of the largest stadiums in the world (and filled to the brim), US football is also played under thirty centimeters of snow (and it’s really funny), US football is big contacts and frankly, watching them on TV is very entertaining and much less painful than on the field. We dissect it all.
First of all, you have to ask yourself what makes this sport so popular across the Atlantic and the first answer that comes to mind… It’s the food… Surprising, right? Yes, Americans have a knack for finding every way to have a good meal, usually in the form of barbecue. There, it’s called “tailgate”, in reference to the sometimes very sophisticated installations on the pickup deck. This type of demonstration takes shape during the pre-match in the stadium parking lot where fans gather for a competition for who has the biggest… prime rib.
The other thing that makes sport popular is the proximity it has with the population and on this point, it is rather university football which is in the spotlight. Because people from all walks of life attend America’s many universities, they often stick with it and this results in packed and boiling stadiums, unlike some of the NFL. Fans of ultra culture in the “fôte” remain calm, we are not in a Partizan Belgrade – Red Star Belgrade derby either, but the university atmospheres, although more family-friendly, can still be quite hot. For the originality of the songs, we’ll come back… We’re sticking with an American sport.
Stadiums
The best atmospheres are not always the biggest stadiums, but there is still a certain correlation.
We can think of Louisiana State University (LSU) and its famous boiling “Death Valley” (102,321 seats) especially during evening matches, particularly in rivalries against Alabama, Auburn and even Florida. This same Florida Gators team has a fortress nicknamed the “Swamp” (88,548 seats) which is also an enclosure specialized in nocturnal tinnitus. It is not good at all to go to these stadiums as visitors.
In other countries, the Penn State “White Out” is a fairly notable moment of the college season. The entire stadium of the Pennsylvania-based university is dressed in white, which gives real unity to the fans and makes Beaver Stadium (yes, Beaver Stadium) noisier than usual. We can also name the University of South Carolina and the entrance of its players under the music “Sandstorm” or for the oldest, the entrance of the players of Virginia Tech under the sound of guitars from Metallica et « Enter Sandman ». Obviously, to have a good atmosphere, everything is about the theme of sand.
What usually makes college football stadiums noisy is the student section. To imagine the scene, think of an atmosphere like « American Pie » and put 20,000 students between 18 and 21 years old in a forum and it can exceed 130 decibels, especially at LSU.
And for the more fearful, have no fear, no smoke bombs or firecrackers as we see in Europe. The culture is not at all close to that of ultra, well except if it is that of ultra soft.
Le « tailgate »
So that’s it, you won’t find anything more American than tailgate, except perhaps the assassination attempts on politicians. For the tailgate recipe, you will need:
- Take your raised pickup
- Attach a 3 m wide grill to the deck
- If you choose, you can add a smoker, a fryer or something else.
- Don’t forget the table and chairs (not necessarily camping depending on the size of the pick-up).
- Also think about plastic cutlery, because we’re in the United States, don’t mess around. Or put the metal cutlery away straight away, we are in a pure consumer society!
- The truck trailer-sized cooler is also needed to store the hop-flavored sparkling water.
- Start the vehicle and head to the stadium’s 35-acre parking lot, making sure to be there 8 hours before the game starts, in case you need to smoke your meat.
- Eat as much as you can and as poorly as possible while participating in the different activities offered during tailgate. For example, in Buffalo, there is the camping table breaking competition with the coccyx, another particularly American practice. Be careful not to put the solid oak dining room table on the pick-up that day.
It is certain that “tailgate” is one of the factors behind the good atmosphere in the world of American football. With a full stomach and after 62 beers at 2%, we are always happier to support our team.
Before continuing, we’re going to come back for just two minutes on the passion of Buffalo fans for breaking tables:
Conversely, there are really stadiums with atmospheres of death in certain recent franchises which have infinite difficulty creating a loyal fan base. The best image is that of the Jacksonville Jaguars who play one game a year in London (in this case it’s nice for European fans) instead of doing it in their stadium, or who have installed swimming pools in the enclosure for watch the game, or who have doggy daycares so people can bring their pooches to the stadium. Basically, since the team has always been bad, all means are good to try to bring in people.
All for show
Unlike the NBA which also does everything for show, but which has been “unwatchable” for 15 years because it bombs at 3 points and no one defends anymore, the NFL succeeds rather well because it does not distort (too much) its sport.
The approach is different to attract fans in stadiums and television audiences. We’ll bring you matches on all the important dates at the end of the year. NFL leaders already had a sense of business as early as 1934 since it was the date of the first Thanksgiving game, a public holiday in the United States, where fans had plenty of time to go there. This year, games were scheduled for Christmas Day in broad daylight in the United States (therefore watchable in Europe).
The NFL has also become very fond of Halftime Shows (or halftime concert for the more Quebecois among you) and not only at the Super Bowl. This year we were able to find Lainey Wilson, country star, at halftime of the Dallas Cowboys Thanksgiving game, Texas oblige. Or Beyoncé at halftime of the Houston Texans Christmas game, probably because she released a pseudo-country song. It doesn’t make the sport more interesting, but it fills the “all for show” box.
On the field, since that’s also what counts, the NFL hasn’t changed too much over time. Certainly, player protection has become much more important and generally speaking, it works rather well, but we can still see very grim scenes with a clearly concussed guy who staggers and returns to the field a few minutes later. This is the limit of a system where certain leaders are ready to do anything to win.
Another solution that the NFL has found to increase its audiences is quite simply… to extend the season! Frankly, it’s super clever. 17 matches instead of 16 in the regular season and 14 teams in the playoffs instead of 12. And presto! That’s some Chocapics (or rather a few good big handfuls of dollars)!
