Irish NFL fan in America - Trip 1 preview.

Apparently I’m a Cleveland Brown.

That’s according to the same American couple that claimed that I “in no way whatsoever match the personality of a Dallas Cowboys fan”.

To be honest I’m not sure whether to be offended or impressed that my personality best represents a team that has won one game in the last two years. It’s certainly a drop from thinking my allegiance was best aligned with the most famous NFL team there ever was. Perhaps I have the underdog spirit.



This morning I bet on the Cleveland Browns to win the Super Bowl. Not because my personality best represents them, but because at 100/1 I think they’re overpriced. Their new quarterback is a decent prospect and they have been drafting all around him for the last few years. I can probably tear up the slip after 3 games but if I don’t I think they’ll have a chance.



But this preview is not about which NFL franchise my personality best represents or which 100/1 shot I’m betting on to win the big dance but instead to preview my upcoming trip. The first of my Stateside NFL tour.

On Wednesday next I fly out to Philadelphia to see the most recent Super Bowl winners host the Atlanta Falcons in this year’s NFL season opener. This will be one of 16 trips I’m going to take over the next four years in which I’ll see each and every one of the 32 NFL franchises play once at home.



Philadelphia looks like a fun place and not just for its cheesesteaks. The city of brotherly love should be neigh-on bouncing for the season opener in which their team takes to the field as world champions for the first time in the franchise’s history. The rocky steps will be run up, the Liberty Bell will be rung and that’s all before I hop on the train to Baltimore for game two. For the home of The Wire will be my second stop in what is going to be a hectic last few months of 2018 in which I’ll get to see 8 different NFL teams play.



What am I looking forward to most about my trip to America? In a word, breakfast. Or as I like to call it gorge-fest. Pancakes? Yes. Omelette? Yes. French toast? Hell yes. Coffee? Absolutely. Cinnamon buns, banana loaf, chicken and waffles, syrup on everything it’s all kinds of wrong yet all kind of right. Every time I go to the States I always find myself waking up early (thank you jet lag) hungry and ready to eat a lot so I go find the best local diner around and indulge in all a United States’ breakfast has to offer. It is just about the best part of being in America and it will be a constant joy throughout this trip.



Another part I enjoy is the nightlife and for once in my life being considered exotic. Yes I’m really from Ireland. Yes I’ve seen leprechauns. Yes we should get married. Sure isn’t it destiny? Be gorra be gorra sure it definitely is.

The thing I am most apprehensive about is starting a new vlog. It certainly doesn’t seem natural to me or something which I’ll be good at but I feel absolutely obligated to at least give it a go. Hopefully it turns out alright. It’s something which I envisage will definitely get better as I go along.

I recently purchased tickets to all of this year’s games and I’ve managed to garner quite a collection. Each and every one has an angle or story to them which I will share as I go along.



I went for club seats to kick off the trip in Philly and then literally the cheapest seat in M&T Bank Stadium for game two in Baltimore. Should be interesting to contrast the premium seating with the worst seat in the house all in one trip.

I have no idea which trip is going to be the best or most interesting. I haven’t even thought about which city will be the best. I’m just going to do it and see how it goes. It’s all rather exciting.

Looking forward to getting going now and getting this show on the road. Philadelphia, get the cheesesteaks on and the bud lights ready. I'm on my way.

32 NFL teams, 4 years, USA via Dublin.

Sunday nights, anytime from September through to start of February, you can guarantee the last thing my eyeball sees is either a game-winning touchdown or a game-ending interception.

And it's been that way for years.

I have been totally and utterly absorbed by the NFL, its short five month season, the botched game winning field goals, the bad play calls, the under the hood reviews and most of all the utter drama it delivers week in week out, season in season out. It's like your favorite TV series and your favorite sport all rolled into one. It keeps you up all night.

The Cleveland Browns. The Dallas Cowboys. The New York Giants.

Famous places, famous cities, teams that have become so familiar to me and yet all so far away.

I live in Dublin. My nearest team is an ocean away from me. I'm so far removed yet so deeply engrossed, so familiarized, so fanatical.

It's quite the paradox.

I think Razorlight said it best when they said 'all my life, watching America'. Anybody living in Ireland will know exactly what I'm talking about. And not just NFL fans either. We consume so much US media and yet as I look at this map of the world in front me, we're absolutely miles away!

Which makes my next mission all the more daring. 

I'm going to go and see each and every one of the 32 NFL teams play in their home stadium at least once before I die. But instead of taking my entire lifetime to do it, I'm going to do it over the next four years.

Let me say that again, That's 32 teams, all dotted across America, each and every stadium, each and every city in four years. And I live in Ireland.

So how am I going to do this? I'm going to take four trips a year, two games per trip, over four years which means 4 x 2 x 4 = 32 teams seen by 2022.

Now how I'm going to get from Kansas City, Missouri to Phoenix, Arizona or wherever it may be as the adventure goes on, well that's just going to be part of the fun.

How am I gonna fund this? In short I have absolutely no idea. It's going to be expensive but it's going to be well spaced out. 

Although not as spaced out as the person attempting it.

It's a leap of faith but I think I'm going to be able to do it. Would be great to get to see all the cities let alone get to see NFL too everywhere I go. The whole idea just seems so right to me how could it possibly go wrong?

In 2014 I went to the World Cup in Brazil for three weeks. The year after that I went to Vegas to see the Mayweather Pacquiao fight. I'm not saying these were the best moments of my life because they weren't, but they were probably the most memorable. It's the sort of trips you'll remember forever, these things, and I haven't done anything like that since then.

Now's the time for a new project.

It would be a shame not to do a blog about the whole adventure which is why I'm starting this today to document the trip. In fact I'm going to go one step further and start a travel vlog too, one vlog from each trip, 16 videos in total.

I've never vlogged before but you have to start somewhere. I think the story is so interesting it would be a shame not to film it.

It's been a dream of mine to do this for quite a while so I might as well start and take it year by year. If it takes me longer than the four years then so be it. I've been thinking about it for four years and I'm no closer now than I was then so any trip would be an improvement. 

My plan is to pick off the easier cities first, or in other words the ones that Aer Lingus fly directly to from Dublin. Which means this year I'll be going to Philadelphia, Chicago, San Francisco and New York. All things being equal I'll probably go to Seattle, Los Angeles, Washington DC. and Miami next year.

I can't wait to sample the atmosphere of each city, meet the fans and see their teams play. I'm sort of a free agent myself at the moment after falling out of love with the Dallas Cowboys over the years a team I liked but who ultimately broke my heart as one by one they pushed, shoved and unceremoniously dumped each and every one of my favorite stars out the door. Plus I've been told by a real life American that I "absolutely in no way whatsoever match the personality of a Dallas Cowboys fan."  

Maybe I'll end up right back where I started when its all done. Or maybe I'll find myself a new team. This trip is definitely one way of making an informed decision on that front. 

With none of the teams having any direct link back to Ireland I think the best way to chose one would be to visit each and everyone of them and decide for myself. Don't you?

So really, that's it. My first trip is going to be the opening game of the season in Philadelphia when the freshly crowned Super Bowl champion Eagles host the Atlanta Falcons on September 6th after that it'll be the train down to Baltimore to catch the Ravens host the Bills.

32 teams, four years, USA via Dublin.