Pre season games are here to practice what is to come in prep for 12 hours of football on Sunday, For our game, big screen and 2nd TV from bedroom with lap top for fantasy.
Much food and beer is a must. For Saturday’s game, fish tacos. Baked solid white fish bakes 12-15 minutes, cole slaw from a deli NOT sweet, Mexican white cheese, and pico de gallo or use mango for tomato on flour tortillas, kitchen sink pasta salad and zucchini. Tons of beer.
We meet over an hour before to sort out wagers and get primed. Half of Sunday.
Sunday games start at 7pm here in Germany. Sometimes I watch with friends, but in most weeks, I will watch alone.
My standard ritual is to set up my beamer and the big fold-out screen and run Red Zone on that one. On the PC, I split the screen - single game on one side (usually the Packers, if they play on Sunday), live fantasy stats on the other.
Food’s usually a rib-eye steak, or some self-made burgers. No beer, usually - it’s hard enough to stay awake as it is.
SNF is usually a no-go, as that runs until around 5am. So that’s one to watch as re-live the next day, unless it’s a really great matchup. Same for TNF and MNF.
I’ve met many from Germany and England in South Beach and know of the love of football. However, first I’m hearing on fantasy. Are there many leagues there? How did you strt?
Football has grown huge here, ever since a major TV station starting broadcasting games a couple of years ago.
I used to fly over to the US for watching a game live in stadium for a couple of years, and whenever I did, half the plane was wearing NFL fan gear. It also never takes long to find people talking in German in and around NFL stadiums. It’s no coincidence that the NFL hosts a game here for the first time this season.
For me, it started on a big west coast road trip I took with friends back in 1995. We took a tour of the old 49ers stadium during the preseason. That was the year when they had won the Super Bowl in February, so the city was pretty hyped up. Followed the NFL ever since.
Fantasy football for me started in leagues hosted by friends from the US, probably some 15 years ago. Meanwhile, more and more people here play, too. My main dynasty league is entering its 5th season, and it’s all local friends from around where I live.
Miami is the city I probably visited most often in the US, but I’ve never visited Hard Rock Stadium.
It never occured to me that “SoBe” stands for South Beach. Is that 717 an aviation reference, by any chance?
So, I strictly watch the NFL Redzone all day long and then the SNF game that night. (Once I started with the redzone, it changed everything. I never want to see a team in the huddle again!) I’ll have one of my fantasy buddies come over and watch every once in a while, but for the most part I watch alone. I usually put some chicken on the smoker, open up the doors if the weather is right, sit down with a cup of coffee and finalize my rosters for the day. Once football starts though, I usually just drink beer and holler at the TV while my wife and kids laugh at me…