From Scooby-Doo to public ownership, Europeans have unique reasons for becoming Green Bay Packers fans
Richard RymanLONDON – The Packers are seriously close to being able to drop "Green Bay" from their name and substitute "International."
The International Packers hosted their final pep rally Saturday before Sunday's 8:30 a.m. (Central time) game against the New York Giants at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Packers fans packed Belushi's London Bridge sports bar and continued to queue up in a line that stretched around the corner for a long time afterward.
"It's shocking this team is that widely known or well liked. I marvel that my little hometown has this team and there are people excited to see them," said John Anderson, a Green Bay native and ESPN SportsCenter host who emceed the pep rally. "It's also a testament to how valuable the Packers are to the NFL."
International fans like the Packers for the same reasons Americans do: They have good players and win a lot of games but, overwhelming, they also are charmed by the team's history, with its hardscrabble early days, and its public ownership, the only such in the NFL.
Watching cartoons led English boy to Packers fandom
Alex Hardman of Manchester, England, became a Packers fan 14 years ago as a youngster watching Scooby-Doo cartoons. One of the characters, when asked by another what they should do next, said they should watch the Green Bay Packers. That intrigued 7-year-old Hardman, whose later research of the team led him to that history and ownership structure, which reminds so many Europeans of how soccer teams are owned.
Hardman was thrilled to get one of the rare tickets for Sunday's game. While 65,000 tickets seems to contradict that description, it's pretty clear the NFL could have sold twice that number and Packers fans would have acquired most of them.
"I was delighted," he said. "I remember the day, I was on holiday and I was jumping up and down."
Hardman, who came to pep rallies on Thursday and Friday as well, was accompanied by his sister, Caitlin, who has been pulled into fandom whether she liked it or not. "It's all him," she said, looking not at all displeased.
"She lives down here, so she's my hotel," said Alex, who could not be more pleased.
Well, maybe a little more pleased. Despite his loyalty to the Packers, Hardman has a bone to pick with team president and CEO Mark Murphy. Hardman is a Manchester United soccer fan, and the Packers hosted Manchester City in a soccer friendly in July at Lambeau Field.
"It was a dagger through the heart," Hardman said.
Europeans also take their soccer seriously.
Bonding over a David Bakhtiari jersey
Benjamin McGee of Leeds, England, and Clas Boshe-Plois of Aachen, Germany, standing at a table in Belushi's basement bar, looked and talked for all the world like they'd been friends for most of their lives. In fact, they'd just met.
RELATED:Green Bay Packers fans from Wisconsin, to nobody's surprise, make London their own
RELATED:Green Bay Packers, in London for Sunday's NFL game, give Abbey Road photo their own spin
Boshe-Plois said he was attracted by McGee's David Bakhtiari jersey. And anyway, Packers fans are only ever a "how you doin'?" away from an immediate lifelong friendship.
"I've been waiting 12 years to see the Packers," said Boshe-Plois, who became a fan after watching the Super Bowl in 2011. "I had to take the chance (on getting tickets). I got in the queue, got a ticket and didn't care about the money."
McGee became acquainted with the Packers about a dozen years ago when his older brother was playing the Madden NFL video game. He chose to play as the Packers, then later his parents bought him an Aaron Rodgers jersey, and that sealed the deal.
McGee also has a ticket to the game, but suggested next time they should play at Wembley Stadium, which is bigger.
"Or Munich. I'd like to see Munich," his new friend chimed in.
Packers' legacy of public ownership attracts many
Sergio De Lara of Madrid, Spain, got hand-me-down football jerseys from his older brother, who was a San Francisco 49ers fan. One was a Packers jersey. He looked up the team's history, discovered they were owned by the fans and committed to a long-term relationship.
"They have a very lovely story," he said.
A group of friends from Newcastle, England, repeated the recurring theme of why they liked the Packers: "The fans being the owners. I'm an owner as well," Liam Parr said.
Mark Turnbull talked about the team's "beautiful rich history. You couldn't write it better than that."
Gordon Bloomfield, changing it up a little, became a fan some 30 years ago because of a young, strong-armed quarterback named Brett Favre. But then he recovered himself and added that you had to admire a big team in a small town that's still a member of the NFL.
Darrick McClaskey, who's in the U.S. Army and stationed in Italy, is looking forward to seeing a Packers game when the sun is out. He normally has to stay up overnight to see a game in Italy.
Cory Konter of Los Angeles said he'd seen a Giants bar a few blocks from Belushi's, but "it did not have a line like this."
Jamie Monte and Rob Myers of Madison also were among those fortunate enough to get tickets.
"They were expensive. That's OK," Myers said.
At one point, they were at the end of the line, around the corner from the entrance to Belushi's, but not for long because the line just kept growing.
And while the international community is embracing the Packers full on, there can be a bit of a learning curve. A vendor hawking scarves outside Belushi's was hollering about "souvenir match-day scarves," which was just off enough to be noticeable, but the scarves also touted the "Wisconsin Packers."
That's one substitution that's not in the books.
Contact Richard Ryman at (920) 431-8342 or rryman@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @RichRymanPG, on Instagram at @rrymanPG or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/RichardRymanPG/.