The boom is real: The NFL drives the crowds completely wild at the first Germany game. The result is an ecstatic folk festival from which neither Thomas Müller nor Markus Söder can escape and which is to be followed by others. In terms of sport, things get even more dramatic.
When “Sweet Caroline” (Oh oh oooh) is also played at the final whistle, nobody can be stopped in this crazy NFL game with a spectacle character. The entire Allianz Arena in Munich, all 75,000 fans, cheered along. The first regular game of the US professional league on German soil mutates into a folk festival on Sunday afternoon – which releases many emotions and means much more than the 60 minutes of American football. Along the way, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers clinched a hugely important 21-16 win over the Seattle Seahawks that could save their season and the legacy of superstar Tom Brady.
But for the beginning. Munich city center is firmly in the hands of football fans. Or rather: the breweries, all weekend long. Colorful jerseys and bobble hats are already dominating the streets of the Bavarian capital days before the first Germany Game. The Seahawks’ eagle most often hovers over Marienplatz, but the Buccaneers’ pirate flag also flutters on many torsos and heads.
The NFL in Germany – that seemed impossible a few years ago. Although this is the first game of the season in this country, it is by no means the first attempt by the US league to establish itself on the German market. But previous efforts, such as NFL Europe, failed miserably and were shelved. mass boom? None!
But now tens of thousands freak out when Brady throws the ball or DeKaylin Zecharius (DK) Metcalf catches the egg for the Seahawks. As early as 10 a.m., the crowds are crowding at the tailgating party in front of the venue, jerseys from almost all 32 league teams and a wide variety of languages ??and accents can be seen and heard. Whether the connection between the football bubble and the biggest US sport has remained after the end of NFL Europe, whether the social media that process every game scene are the reason for the hype this time, or whether the regular broadcast on TV has attracted fans in the past years has multiplied?
Doesn’t matter! The boom is real. The boom is here. So much so that in Germany neither handball nor basketball nor any of the winter sports is the second most popular sport after soccer, but American football. So much so that more than three million tickets could have been sold for the game in Munich. That Bavaria’s Prime Minister Markus Söder accompanies the coin toss on the center line before the game, high-fives Eric Maxim Choupo-Moting on the sidelines and takes a selfie with the Bayern striker. His Munich colleagues Leroy Sané, Thomas Müller, Serge Gabry and Kingsley Coman are of course also there. A few minutes later, Cro appears as a supporting act.
Everyone wants a part of the NFL, because the league is the biggest sports entertainment in the world – and likes to show it with a lot of pomp and glitter. Everything is bigger, louder, more colourful. Even harder booming bass outside and inside the arena, even bigger loudspeakers, even bigger cameras on mobile cranes at the edge of the field, hundreds of officials and more or less important people behind the scenes, huge Gatorade barrels with oversized ice bags, an army of stewards, media people and cheerleaders. All the trappings of this one game makes Bundesliga or Champions League games of FC Bayern look like state league games on a field five kilometers outside of Ingolstadt. So it is fitting that the price for half a liter of beer at a Bayern game was raised from EUR 5.50 to EUR 6.70.
And of course the NFL wants a part of Germany, after all the market is large and relatively liquid. The league is seeing double-digit growth in this country in terms of fan base and social reach. NFL boss Roger Goodell, who spoke to Bayern boss Oliver Kahn in the arena before the game, confirmed on Saturday that he could imagine more than the four planned Germany Games in the next four years. And so the league chose a real treat as the first German game.
On the one hand the most successful quarterback of all time, Tom Brady, who at 45 may be playing his last NFL season. On the other hand, the Seahawks, who enjoy a huge following in the Federal Republic, were nearly declared dead preseason after losing their cornerstone Russell Wilson, but then reclaimed first place in the NFC West thanks to quarterback Geno Smith’s career surge . Brady therefore announced in advance in his podcast that the Germany Game would be “one of the most epic games we have ever experienced”. The league itself spoke of a “historic event”.
Well, the game doesn’t end up being quite that historical. But a folk festival spectacle that leaves the many fans singing and cheering. Brady and his Buccaneers start out as disastrously as they have throughout the season: poor running, dropped balls, a missed field goal. Brady turns away in exasperation, no points in the first quarter. The superstar had been tipped off with his team as a Super Bowl contender prior to the season and under no circumstances wants to tarnish his terrific career with a season of embarrassments.
And so the quarterback shows shortly afterwards how it works, how he defends his legacy in Munich. Because then it’s there, the first NFL touchdown in Germany. And who should have thrown it if not Brady, dubbed by many as the GOAT, the best quarterback of all time. The NFL has always had a thing for kitsch as well as opulence. Even a La Ola wave swept through the audience, with the entire lower tier standing, singing and dancing the entire game (that doesn’t happen at FC Bayern games).
Brady’s 32-yard touchdown pass to Julio Jones puts the Bucs 7-0 up with the extra point. There is a whiff of the old, or young, Tom Brady around. Again and again he, who had to take a lot of criticism this season, leads his squad with all his calm, experience and class over the entire field. Even the running game works great now. In 12 plays, the playmaker got his Bucs to the 1-yard line, then on the next try he passed the ball to Leonard Fournette, who ran for the second touchdown of the game.
14-0 for Tampa Bay. Brady emotionally throws his clenched fist into the Munich sky, his supporters celebrate him ecstatically. “It was one of the greatest football experiences I’ve ever had. Considering that I’ve been in the league for 23 years, that says a lot. The fans were incredible,” said the quarterback after the game, admitting he was “electrified” by the atmosphere from the start.
The superstar also has his defense to thank for a masterful performance, allowing only 57 yards and rushing five punts in the first half. Brady’s opposite number Smith hasn’t really got going yet, but that’s expected to change after half-time. Because the dressing room speech by Seattle’s coaching legend Pete Carroll seems to have had it all: In just a few moves, Smith leads his team to the opposing 25-yard line. Only a field goal jumps out, but everyone knows: Now things are going well. “Seahawks” shouts ring straight through the stadium.
After two blunders shortly before the opposing end zone – Tampa affords an interception and Seattle a fumble – the Buccaneers can score again. And even with a so-called Big Play, a 29-yard run by running back Rachaad White. Brady sends another rocket straight after it, as if he wanted to prove to everyone in Germany that time has not yet caught up with him. Then the 45-year-old throws his second touchdown pass of the game, at the beginning of the fourth quarter the Bucs lead dominantly 21:3.
In the last section, however, Smith finally redeemed the many Seahawks fans in the stadium with the first touchdown and made the game exciting again. Because Brady throws an interception, Seattle immediately regains the egg at the center line. The Seahawks risked it and played a fourth try, which was rewarded with a first down – and seconds later with the next touchdown. Smith’s deep pass over 19 yards is caught by Marquise Goodwin with a great pike roll to 16:21 with an extra point. The stadium trembles, the volume level after a Bayern goal can’t keep up.
But White with two strong runs and Brady with a 17-yard pass put an abrupt end to the newly germinated Seahawks ecstasy and took so much time off the clock that the Bucs bagged the important win and now have 5:5 successes/failures extend their lead in the NFC South, which will ensure playoff participation. For a short interlude, only the Bayern stars hold out. When Bundesliga highlights from the record champions are recorded, parts of the audience boo loudly. Seconds later, Sané and Müller can be seen on the screen, sitting in the stands and laughing loudly at the boos.
Finally, “Country Roads” – the whole stadium sings along to the song that has since been transformed into an Oktoberfest hit – ensures a kitschy end to the party, complete with cell phone lights in the evening sky. “At the end of the game, when they sang ‘Sweet Caroline’ and ‘Country Roads,’ it was pretty epic,” Brady says. “Oh, how beautiful it is,” the viewers agree of their own accord.
Then not only is the game – probably Brady’s first and last on German soil – but also the football ecstasy, the NFL folk festival, over. The history of the NFL in Germany certainly isn’t for a long time.
