To celebrate the sold out tickets to this year's US National Football League (NFL) London games, we will be taking a look at the history of the sport in the UK.
The NFL is one of The United States most popular sports leagues and its popularity has spilled across the globe, eventually leading to games being played overseas.
Time and time again there have been record sales of the tickets being sold out within just a couple of hours.
The first ever game in London was on October 28th, 2007, with the first 40,000 tickets being sold within 90 minutes. Pretty impressive considering the NFL wasn’t quite as popular in the UK compared to now.
Wembley, London hosted the Miami Dolphins against the New York Giants with a defeat 10-13 from the Giants. The international game was a success with 81,176 fans attending the game, from then on there at least one game was held every year in the UK.
The NFL made its way over to the UK after a successful away game in Mexico City, Mexico, where the Arizona Cardinals beat the San Francisco 49ers 31-14. This was the first ever NFL match to be held outside of the US.
After the first NFL game at Wembley Stadium, a single game was held in London up until 2011. After 4 years of success, a decision was made to give a single franchise a multiyear deal at Wembley Stadium.
The St. Louis Rams (now known as the Los Angeles Rams) decided to take the deal and agreed to play at the stadium each year for three years starting in 2012. However, in August 2012 they decided to opt out of two of the games, only playing one game in 2013.
Despite this, Los Angeles Rams agreed to play the games after the success they had previously when playing in London.
It wasn’t until 2013 that it was decided more than one game would be held a year, both the Minnesota Vikings and Jacksonville Jaguars would both go on to host games that year, making it the first season more than one game was held over in the UK.
In 2015, Tottenham Hotspur F.C. announced that they had signed a 10 year contract with the NFL to host at least two games at their new stadium from 2019. At the same time, the NFL has announced that at least two games would be played at Wembley stadium until 2020.
Later that year, it was announced that the NFL and England's Rugby Union would also host some games at Twickenham Stadium from 2016, the agreement was to play a total of three to five games for three years.
In 2019, NFL Teams, Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons were announced as the host of home games in 2020, this would either be held in London or Mexico, slightly closer to home in North America.
Unfortunately, due to the covid-19 outbreak it was not possible for these games to take place, and they would be hosted at their home ground instead.
In 2021 the London games returned and the New York Jets went up against the Atlanta Falcons and the Miami Dolphins lost to the Jacksonville Jaguars at the tottenham stadium.
This year the London Games are back, the UK will host the Minnesota Vikings vs New Orleans Saints and the New York Giants vs Green Bay packers at the Tottenham Hotspur Football Stadium and the Denver Broncos vs Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium.
Table of NFL London Game Results
| Date | Home | Score | Visitor | Score | Stadium |
| 28th October 2007 | Miami Dolphins | 10 | New York Giants | 13 | Wembley |
| 26th October 2008 | New Orleans Saints | 37 | San Diego Chargers | 32 | Wembley |
| 25th October 2009 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 7 | New England Patriots | 35 | Wembley |
| 31st October 2010 | San Francisco 49ers | 24 | Denver Broncos | 16 | Wembley |
| 23rd October 2011 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 18 | Chicago Bears | 24 | Wembley |
| 28th October 2012 | St Louis Rams | 7 | New England Patriots | 46 | Wembley |
| 29th September 2013 | Minnesota Vikings | 34 | Pittsburgh Steelers | 27 | Wembley |
| 27th October 2013 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 10 | San Francisco 49ers | 42 | Wembley |
| 28th September 2014 | Oakland Raiders | 14 | Miami Dolphins | 38 | Wembley |
| 26th October 2014 | Atlanta Falcons | 21 | Detroit Lions | 22 | Wembley |
| 9th November 2014 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 17 | Dallas Cowboys | 31 | Wembley |
| 4th October 2015 | Miami Dolphins | 14 | New York Jets | 27 | Wembley |
| 25th October 2015 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 34 | Buffalo Bills | 31 | Wembley |
| 1st November 2015 | Kansas City Chiefs | 45 | Detroit Lions | 10 | Wembley |
| 2nd October 2016 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 30 | Indianapolis Colts | 27 | Wembley |
| 23rd October 2016 | Los Angeles Rams | 10 | New York Giants | 17 | Twickenham |
| 30th October 2016 | Cincinnati Bengals | 27 | Washington Redskins | 27 | Wembley |
| 24th September 2017 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 44 | Baltimore Ravens | 7 | Wembley |
| 1st October 2017 | Miami Dolphins | 0 | New Orleans Saints | 20 | Wembley |
| 22nd October 2017 | Los Angeles Rams | 33 | Arizona Cardinals | 0 | Twickenham |
| 29th October 2017 | Cleveland Browns | 16 | Minnesota Vikings | 33 | Twickenham |
| 14th October 2018 | Oakland Raiders | 3 | Seattle Seahawks | 27 | Wembley Stadium |
| 21st October 2018 | Los Angeles Chargers | 20 | Tennesee Titans | 19 | Wembley Stadium |
| 28th October 2018 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 18 | Philadelphia Eagles | 24 | Wembley Stadium |
| 6th October 2019 | Oakland Raiders | 24 | Chicago Bears | 21 | Tottenham Hotspur |
| 13th October 2019 | Tampa Bay Buccaneers | 26 | Carolina Panthers | 37 | Tottenham Hotspur |
| 27th October 2019 | Los Angeles Rams | 24 | Cincinnati Bengals | 10 | Wembley Stadium |
| 3rd November 2019 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 3 | Houston Texans | 26 | Wembley Stadium |
| 10th October 2021 | New York Jets | 20 | Atlanta Falcons | 27 | Tottenham Hotspur |
| 17th October 2021 | Miami Dolphins | 20 | Jacksonville Jaguars | 23 | Tottenham Hotspur |
