SkinnedAussie Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 This is amazing to me. I always thought American football was obsolete outside of the States. I thought the OTHER football was all the rest of the world watched. I didn't think American football was even televised outside of the U.S. Hail to the global Redskins Nation! Cheers! We've been getting the SB live since the early 80's. Then, from the early 90's, we would get a replay late on a Tuesday night on free-to-air tv until pay tv commenced in 1995. We now get four regulat season games a week live, with replays later that day. We also get all playoff games live. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skins4eva Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 Irish, lived in Dublin and Cork growing up, but now located two miles from Redskins Park.For those who are curious, you can get a birds-eye view of the 'Skins training facility at: http://maps.google.com/maps?q=Redskins+Park+Dr,+Ashburn,+VA&hl=en&cid=39043611,-77487778,5709167366200078512&li=lmd&z=14&t=m Click on the 'Satellite' button on the right once the map comes up. I just looked at that--really cool! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aberdeenredskin Posted January 12, 2006 Author Share Posted January 12, 2006 Have the Barcelona Dragons folded? Sadly yes its now 5 German teams and 1 from the Netherlands, I dont know how much this is due to German interest and how much of it is due to big US air bases that were based there during the cold war. http://www.nfleurope.com/ for link to nfl europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skins4eva Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 I think it would be cool if our redskins brothers from around the world would let us know how they became skins fans Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aberdeenredskin Posted January 12, 2006 Author Share Posted January 12, 2006 I think it would be cool if our redskins brothers from around the world would let us know how they became skins fans Mines a bit sad, Hearts are the football team (soccer to you guys) team I support plays in Maroon and the capital city of Scotland so when I started watching American football The redskins were the natural choice ! Id be interested to hear pepoles stories as to why they chose the Redskins over all the other inferior teams in the NFL. :helmet: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashburnskinsfan Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 I've added myself to the Redskins Worldwide group at http://www.frappr.com/redskinsworldwide This could both be interesting, but also may be helpful if you're an isolated fan looking for fellow Extremers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aberdeenredskin Posted January 12, 2006 Author Share Posted January 12, 2006 I think it would be cool if our redskins brothers from around the world would let us know how they became skins fans Id be interested to know how you end up supporting the skins if like me you have no connection. :dallasuck (yes I know their out but its still true Dallas really suck :laugh: ) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinsFTW Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 I'm from Virginia and just work over here in Japan temporarily. Can't wait until I get to watch all the games again. The only live games I get over here are the playoff games so the first whole live Redskins game I saw this year was against the bucs. I did go in early to the base a few times this year to watch the games though but it sucks having to sit in my office at 3AM to watch a Redskins game, lol. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
scally666 Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 I think it would be cool if our redskins brothers from around the world would let us know how they became skins fans i support Liverpool FC and in Mid 80s there colors where red,white with a bit of yellow the same as the skins Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ashburnskinsfan Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 I've added myself to the Redskins Worldwide group at http://www.frappr.com/redskinsworldwideThis could both be interesting, but also may be helpful if you're an isolated fan looking for fellow Extremers. Bump. Four pins so far on the World map. Washington Redskins - The World's Team Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PleaseGoForTheWin Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 So how do you Euros/Aussies follow the games? I'll be moving to Greece soon, and aside from refreshing the page on Yahoo! every 30 seconds, I don't know of any way to watch the games. Some buddies I had were able to watch baseball games on the Internet; is there a place to do that with NFL games? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SkinnedAussie Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 When the game isn't on either ESPN or Fox Sports, I just go to nfl.com's Game Centre and follow the game there. It automatically refreshes every 30 seconds, but can be quite slow at certain times. Woo Hoo, my 300th post and I'm finally off the bench! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grimm Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 Grimm from Saskatchewan - where?I'm in Manitoba, Canada Watson, Sk, about 90 minutes east of saskatoon, nice little town with a 20 ft. santa on main street http://www.bigthings.ca/sask/watson.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tizzod Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 montreal baby Gorgeous city. I love it up there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
skins4eva Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 I grew up in Northern Virginia, so I didn't have much of a choice but to be a Skins fan--I guess I was fortunate to be born in the area of the greatest NFL franchise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChiefPowhatan17 Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 My Wife is from Barcelona, but I'm a Virginian.:logo::logo::logo: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chipie Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 I became a redskin fan since my early childhood.... I have a vague memory about watching a cowboys vs redskins game with my father (a cowboys fan, here in mexico football is on tv since 60's I believe and there are a lot of cowboys :dallasuck ) and I couldn't help but falling in love with the logo and colours, besides, at that age, i used to play "cowboys and indians" with my friends and cousins, always lovin' being an indian ... I guess my passion for the team wil never end.... :point2sky :helmet: :logo: Greetings! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aberdeenredskin Posted January 12, 2006 Author Share Posted January 12, 2006 BUMP http://www.frappr.com/redskinsworldwide Come on guys (and gals) let dallas claim to be Americas team (they are not) if they want but we can show. WASHINGTON REDSKINS - THE WORLDS TEAM :point2sky :point2sky :point2sky Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LaVarGreen2856 Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 Mexico City right here.... Born: 1981 Fan Since: 1988 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3TIMECHAMPS Posted January 12, 2006 Share Posted January 12, 2006 Skins fan in Guam. I'm from Virginia Beach, but we have been stationed here in Guam for 2 years. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aberdeenredskin Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 Bump. All we need is a fan in south America and in a fan in Africa come on I know your out there. :applause: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrisbob74 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Another Englishman here. As stated by someone else, the Skins fan club here has about 200 members, the President is a friend of mind. It did have over 500 members at one point but I think the internet killed off some of the interest as the fanzine used to be the only way of reading stuff from the Washington post and the like years ago. I think it would be cool if our redskins brothers from around the world would let us know how they became skins fans I've posted this up before, I'll throw it up again: What are you doing watching this?Over the past few years of spending time on internet message boards - especially those relating to the Redskins and the world of the NFL in general - one of the most common questions posed to me is "How did you get interested in the Redskins and the NFL?". Well, seeing as I now have this avenue to share my thoughts, I figure I may as well tell (some of) my story as well and at the same time, explain a little about the history of the sport in this country and how interest in it amongst the British public came about. As most of you must be aware, football - or American Football as it is more commonly called here - is pretty much a minority sport. For a sport that has such a massive following and that is a major part of American culture, the awareness of the game over this side of the pond is almost non-exsistent. Until 1983, when the game first got aired on TV in the UK, I have no doubt that hardly anyone in this country was aware of the game. American Football (ok, I'll stop calling it that now!!) first started getting shown here almost out of desperation out of a brand new TV channel to get some exclusive sports to show. A TV station called Channel 4 started in this country back in 1982 and you have to realise, at that time, cable and satellite TV in this country wasn't really around meaning us Brits had the limited choice of 3 channels to watch - two of them controlled by the same company (the BBC) - and they had control of all the major British sports that generate interest in the viewing public, football (er, I mean soccer........if I'm confusing you, don't worry, I may well confuse myself by the end of this article!), cricket, rugby etc. Channel 4 decided that if it couldn't get a piece of those sports, it would give the British public something "different" to watch and so the birth of American Football (ok, that's the last time, I promise) in this country happened. It wasn't wall-to-wall coverage, just some highlights of the previous weeks action in a one hour show, but it quickly generated some interest. The obvious comparisions to rugby were made and for those that took an instant dislike to the game, the sneering comments such as "Why do they wear pads and helmets?", "Why does it take three hours to play a one hour game?" and "Why does it stop and start all the time?" (which, if anyone thinks about it, answers the previous question) were made. Channel 4 started it all for most British American Football fans. But it quickly developed a hardcore audience, many of whom still follow the game religiously today. Myself, I became aware of the game after hearing about it off some friends at school, arounds the 1983/4 season. The first game I ever watched was the Redskins beating the Cowboys (no, that wasn't the last time my 'Skins beat them!! Grrr!!) and John Riggens was the first superstar of the NFL to be known in these parts so they became my team. The Redskins enjoyed a great season in 1983, setting a points scoring record and easily advancing to Super Bowl XVIII before meeting the Los Angeles Raiders and being on the wrong end of a butt whipping (see, I'm learning, I could have called that a arse kicking!) by the Silver and Black. But by then, my allegiance was set and has remained ever since. Over the next couple of years, the interest in the game continued to grow. Many jumped on the bandwagon that was the Chicago Bears of 1986. Talk to any Brit today about football (hurrah, remembered!) and the one player that will come to mind for many is still William "The Refrigerator" Perry, a guy more remembered by true football fans for underachieving talent in a hugh body and robbing the great Walter Payton of a touchdown in Super Bowl XX (I hope you're proud Mike Dikta!). The Niners, Redskins, Raiders and Dolphins all have loyal followings in this country due to their success in the 1980's when interest in football was at it's peak. Well, in the Dolphins case it may have had more to do with Dan Marino and Florida being a favourite holiday spot for Brits. The one other team that got a loyal following back then was every NFL teams favourite kicktoy, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Yes, us Brits love a loser! The fanzine produced by the teams fan club in the UK was called "There's always next year". I guess they had to change the name after Super Bowl XXXVII. (Actually, as far as I am aware, the fanzine is now an internet based subscription service). My own interest in football steadily grew over the next few years. What is it that attrached me to football? I honestly think it's a case of a tactically interesting, hard hitting, mano-a-mano game all wrapped up into a bloody good soap opera. Sex, drugs and rock n' roll...........the NFL has it all, and that's just off the field!! As I got more and more hooked, I got to learn about the things like the draft, how player movement happened in the NFL (something that has changed dramatically over the years...........bring back Plan B I say!) and more about the tactical side of the game. Also, as a fan of Rugby League (there are two types of rugby, league and union), I could see some similarities between the games but on the NFL stage, everything is just bigger and better. Arounds 1987, as the Skins progressed towards another Super Bowl appearance, I was looking for ways to watch or listen to games live. The highlights package we got on Channel 4 was shown on a Tuesday and Sunday, showing clips and news from the previous week and as my interest got deeper, this wasn't enough. A friend of mind (a Raiders fan for his sins) informed me of something called AFRTS, the Armed Forces Radio and Television Network. At the time, this was a godsend..............live footballvia a radio!! Ok, you didn't get to choose which games you could listen to but my friend assured me that they offered live score updates and information. Hell, I'll take that I thought to myself. AFRTS, positively my favourite radio station...........I just loved those service annoucements He provided me with the details and I started to tune in. Not as easy as it sounded. AFRTS could be received on a radio in this country due to the signal in Frankfurt for American troops based in Germany but it was a weak signal and for some strange reason (that I still don't really know) it could only be received after dark. That wasn't too bad as NFL games in the UK start in the early evening due to the time difference, but that wasn't the only catch! The signal came and went and was based in between a Welsh radio station and a Spainish Sports station! Have you ever heard the Welsh dialect? It sounds like the speaker has had his or her tongue rolled up in the "y" section of the dictionary! Every second letter seems to be "y" and every word has at least 45 letters in it (I have that very famous Welsh train station name tattoed on my penis.................................................................Rhyl....!!). Add in a Spainsh guy screaming "Goooooooooooaaaaaaaal" or "Ole" every few seconds and it could make for some "interesting" listening! Games involved a commentary such as: "First and Ten for the Redskins at the Giants 25 yard line...................Williams sends Monk in motion........play action.................Goooooooooooaaaaal................Ole..............Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch..............2nd and 3 from the Giants 17................Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch...................Rogers gets the hand off.....................Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch........................tackled at the 13................ole, ole, ole" It was always worse when it came to critical downs or goal line situations. You could guarantee that the signal would fade and you would be trying to detect the slightest sound on your headphones of good or bad news. Then, by the time the signal had come back you had to wait for an update and try and catch up with the game and by the time you did, off went the precious signal again into a mass of Spanish Welsh. I love football..........er, soccer, but if I could have banned it in Spain in the 1980's and 90's, I would of! Still, those were good days, I had some of my best memories of following football and the Redskins listening to my mums old batter hi-fi in my bedroom, staying up until the late hours if the Skins were on Sunday or Monday Night Football because you knew they were certain to get aired. As it is, with the development of satellite TV and more choice of channels, the game receives much better coverage in this country now. Although it will probably never be accepted as a "major" sport in this country, it's loyal hardcore base offer Sky and Channel 5 (Channel 4, who started it all, bailed out of the game when it got it's hands on some of the more popular British sports such as cricket), the two main channels who cover the sport here now, a safe set of ratings at times when they don't have much else to show. We get two live Sunday games off Sky, then, once the baseball season is finished, we get Sunday Night Football off Channel 5 (they are committed to showing baseball on Sundays until the season finishes) and they also show all the Monday Night games live. Once we get to the play-offs, we now get every single game live. There is also a channel called NASN (North American Sports Network) that shows pre season games and some ESPN shows such as NFL Live, NFL Primetime and some of the more off-beat stuff such as PTI and Around The Horn. It's not DirecTV or NFL Network, or whatever it is you folks get, but it's not bad, especially when your eardrums received a regular beating of Welsh hymms and Spainish football for years previous. Lets also not forget the great invention of Al Gore for making the lives of a British football fan a lot easier..........the internet. Radio commentary and live updates as well as access to regular news, views and reviews on a fans respective team and the NFL in general are all readily available thanks to the world wide web. Compaired to the godsend that was AFRTS the internet is 1,000 steps high on the scale.................I think I might put Big Al forward for a Knighthood for services to the British NFL fan! Arise Sir Al! So, as it is, a combination of a desperate TV executive back in 1982, some friends in the school playground and Al Gore have lead to me being here and talking about the world of football and the NFL to all of you. I can feel the love for Al Gore growing as you read this.............ok, probably not! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrisbob74 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Bump.All we need is a fan in south America and in a fan in Africa come on I know your out there. :applause: There is a guy who posts over at CPND, Egyskin, from Egypt (obviously). Think I've seen a South African post somewhere around as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aberdeenredskin Posted January 13, 2006 Author Share Posted January 13, 2006 Really enjoyed that story chris, by the way ITV4 do a highlights package now as well Monday 6pm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chrisbob74 Posted January 13, 2006 Share Posted January 13, 2006 Really enjoyed that story chris, by the way ITV4 do a highlights package now as well Monday 6pm. Good to have Gary Imlach back on TV. It makes me laugh when some of the guys complain about the people covering games for them. They should have tried the Nasty Boys and Mick 'that's a big win' Luckhurst! :doh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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