IN THE BEGINNING.

In the beginning God created heaven and earth...

No not that far back.

British TV started covering the NFL in the early 1980's, around '83 if memory serves well.If you were immediately impressed with this new sport, the speed, the ferocity, and just the spectacle of it then all you had left to do was pick a team.The selection process, due to a lack of knowledge of the game and available information, was based pretty much on who looked good, so when a bloke in a BLACK jersey and a SILVER helmet flashed across the screen the choice was made, plus he was probably hitting another bloke wearing orange whose helmet had a horse on it.



Fast forward through my college years, which are a bit on the hazy side anyway, watching football intermittently and being the only one at Superbowl parties who knew which teams were which "No they don't all have a fat lad named after a household appliance", I met a couple of ugly men who A. liked beer as much as I did and B. Liked football and more importantly the RAIDERS.



Then it happened, the SILVER AND BLACK were coming to London, the 1990 pre-season versus the Saints.So off we went with home-made Lyle Alzado t-shirts and a box of Mr Kipling Bramley Apple Pies

No it was'nt a Metallica/German porn star convention as the picture may suggest, but a collection of people who enjoyed crowding around radios listening to shitty quality Armed Forces Radio broadcasts and convincing people (mainly rugby fans) that wearing padding was'nt gay, who were about to finally see through beer misted eyes.... their team lose.We did'nt care we had seen the RAIDERS play, we had been allowed into the practice session a day before the game and shouted "McDaniel" at Terry McDaniel which he seemed impressed with.

We have now seen the RAIDERS lose in London, Oakland and San Francisco.In 2007 we plan to see a win, and then go to Rickys and get drunk.Hang on we do that when we lose.Ah well to 2007, from across the pond, good luck Kiff and toodle pip.God save The Al.