When you ask older UK fans how they became Dolphin fans they invariably say it was because they saw Dan Marino play in London.Are you one of those and do you think UK fans will say the same thing about Tanny some day.

 

I saw a lot of Raiders fans on tv, where they in the majority or was it more 50-50? Or completely different? :D I bet there were fans from all 32 teams in attendance, but still.

 

i never knew that. when did Marino play in London?

 

Well I never watched Marino play live unfortunately, but I certainly listened to all his matches on a very fuzzy armed forces network am radio connection before the days of Internet radio.

IMO something has still not clicked for Tannehill. He has lots of ability for sure, but is he the one? Hmmmm.... Not sure about that. I will support no matter what though. 30 years a supporter now and that will never waver.

 

Marino played Joe Montana in London right?

Yep was part of the American Bowl series 1988..pre season game

 

marino played elway in berlin in 1992, i think he played in london too in the 80s

 

NFL Touches Down in the UK


[TABLE]
[TR]
[TD]3rd August 1986 Wembley Stadium[/TD]
[TD]Chicago Bears 17 v Dallas Cowboys 6[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]9th August 1987 Wembley Stadium[/TD]
[TD]LA Rams 28 v Denver Broncos 27[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]31st July 1988 Wembley Stadium
[/TD]
[TD]Miami Dolphins 27 v San Francisco 49ers 21[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]6th August 1989 Wembley Stadium[/TD]
[TD]Philadelphia Eagles 17 v Cleveland Browns 13[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]5th August 1990 Wembley Stadium[/TD]
[TD]New Orleans Saints 17 v LA Raiders 10[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]28th July 1991 Wembley Stadium[/TD]
[TD]Buffalo Bills 17 v Philadelphia Eagles 13[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]16th August 1992 Wembley Stadium[/TD]
[TD]San Francisco 49ers 17 v Washington Redskins 15[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]8th August 1993 Wembley Stadium[/TD]
[TD]Dallas Cowboys 13 v Detroit Lions 13[/TD]
[/TR]
[TR]
[TD]27th July 1997 Croke Park, Dublin[/TD]
[TD]Pittsburgh Steelers 30 v Chicago Bears 17[/TD]
[/TR]
[/TABLE]

http://www.nfllondon.net/history.html

Dan Marino and the Dolphins beat Joe Montana and the SB champion niners.:up:


And the UK love for the Miami Dolphins was born.:yes:

I read somewhere that the Steelers,Raiders and Dolphins are the favorites among European fans.

 

There were definitely more Fins than Raiders in the crowd. I'd say 30% Dolphins fans, 20% Raiders, 50% the other 30 teams. The Wembley crowds are always like that as all us UK NFL fans treat it as a special event and come along regardless of the participating teams.

*edit - plenty of Aqua in the crowd as can be seen from these shots, on the first one, the front few rows at the far end are supposed to be the 'black hole' section for the game, but there are tons of Dolphin fans behind them

 

Back when I was in college I saw Adam & the Ants as a warm-up act for another band (IIRC it was the Police). It was before they went commercial and pretty good show.

 

The nation that will watch hours and hours without a score, doesn't get defense. :D

 

That's exactly why they don't get defense, they see enough of it as it is.

 

This was my first phins game. I can not put into words what I feel about having seen my team play and having won the game aswell. I've said it before , no way was this a raiders home game. Are they having a giraffe trying to make out it was? Outside the stadium and inside for that matter , tons and tons of dolphin shirts.

I myself was surrounded by one or two raiders fans and my god did I give them some stick.......a lot of Asian people , ie Indian / Pakistani were raiders fans which I found........odd.

I gave a sarcastic arms in the air when the bloke doing the tannoy announced a first down for the raiders in a very excited tone ............I think at that point we were 20 something to their 7.

I really am thinking of starting a uk dolphins fan site and forum because from Sunday , it does appear that we have some following in the uk , which is a surprise to me.

Now fans on this site are possibly wondering why someone from the uk would decide to follow the phins? Well in my case , I am in my forties now and back in the 80s , the dolphins were really the only team that was known along with dan marino. We had Miami vice , which was huge in the uk , ace Ventura etc etc and it was back then , that I fell in live with the phins. Sounds bizarre but that's the way it is. I have a mate at work who is a steelers fan. I asked him why and he couldn't give me an answer other than , your team is your team and I suppose he is right. Is it a spiritual thing? Something you know is right? God knows. All I know is that I have never had any kind of feeling towards any other team.

And I make this prediction. If the NFl continues to grow in the uk I can see this sport being a serious contender to soccer and rugby within 20 to 30 years. If we get a franchise by 2022 , this will be the first block.

 

i watched the Dolphins V 49ers on July 31st 1988 at Wembley. My 18th Birthday. Tannehill is not even close to Marino Crunch. If we had drafted Luck then maybe but Tannehill needs to be consistent in the decent department. That is all. Im not expecting Tannehill to put up 300yds a game let alone 400yds and 4TDS. He is not in that league.

 

Hell ya man...I spent some time over there and MAN was it awesome. Great folks!

 

Did any notice that the guy who does the spoken commercial plugs ie "This game is brought to you by..." was trying to do an English accent but it came off more like a New Zealand one.

 

and how could we have drafted andrew luck ?

 

as long as you don't have to listen when they speak...that accent is the worst thing you will ever hear

 

Thank you. One does try.

Oh and by the way , I love the USA and Americans and you're cool too.

 

We probably lost half of those fans after all we could produce for our next game in London was Cleo frickin Lemon at QB and one of the most boring games ever. :lol:

Regardless of the rest of the season I'm really happy we represented ourselves well across the pond and gave fans over there some exciting play.

I was actually in London a couple weeks prior to the game. Wearing Phins gear one day I noticed to a tee that any Brits that cared to comment to me football stated they were Pats fans. I asked many who they thought the most followed teams over there was and a couple had said a poll in some newspaper that was taken on the NFL had the favorite teams followed in England as 1. Patriots 2. Giants 3. Raiders. I was surprised by the Raiders being mentioned but it did seem from TV that the Raiders had many more fans at the game than we did.

 

Talk to a drunk scotsman

 

They follow the winners and the teams who have been recent SB champions .....how did the Raiders get in that list.Its understandable.

I suspect Seattle will become a favorite soon.:lol:


The Count: The Most Popular NFL Jerseys in London - WSJ

online.wsj.com/.../SB1000142405270230346450457910546252578025...

The Raiders are not in this list.However the Dolphins are well represented.

 

Will have to keep that pick Duper85, first one I've seen where I can (sort of) pick myself out of the crowd! We were sitting in the middle tier right on the left edge of the picture. Plus it was a great effort from Wallace, which is something worth keeping a record of :lol:

 

We ditched ours on the floor too...but weirdly when we left at the end, a Pats fans at the end of the row was sort of hanging about...and I looked back to see him rushing along to pick them up. Freak. :lol:

 

Which accent, lots of different accents in the British Isles... :glare:

 

Loves me some Scottish. Had a FANTASTIC time in Edinburgh many moons ago...best port visit in my career.

 

Wembley's arch after the game, leaving no doubt on who won the day.

 

Good job to the Fin Fans across the pond. I felt they supported the team well. On what was supposed to be a Raider home game it looked like the two teams were supported evenly.

Fortunately the UK Dolfans got to do most of the cheering. :D

 

Naaahh. That was a mud bowl. I was there. We play rugby and football in those conditions. They were not conditions for WR routes or RBs doing cutbacks. Ive played in snow and rain. Mud and that Wembley turf was seriously poor. Not good and Wembley had problems with their newly laid turf at the time. That game was excusable. Any genuine British Phin fan knew it.