Sports have the power to break down barriers and bring people, communities, and countries together. One sport in particular that bridges the gap between continents and also creates headlines in the UK and Europe is American football.
The National Football League, America’s professional football league, recently announced that they will be expanding their International Series games by playing in other countries beyond London, Germany, and Mexico, potentially adding Spain and France in the future.
Five teams are scheduled to play in the International Series this season. The teams making the trip to the UK and Europe are the Buffalo Bills, Tennessee Titans, Jacksonville Jaguars, New England Patriots, and this year’s Super Bowl finalists, The Kansas City Chiefs!
Growing Into A Global Sport
In the past few years, American football has been gaining momentum outside of the US, with more teams from the NFL (National Football League) playing in the International Series. The first International Series games were held at Wembley Stadium in London in 2007. Additional games were also held that year in Mexico and Germany.
Since then, the popularity of and interest in American football has exponentially grown in Europe. More people from England, Germany, France and Spain now tune in to watch the weekly games on TV, follow the NFL teams’ journeys to the Super Bowl, and even attend games in-stadium for the spectacular fan experience.
According to AmericanFootballInternational.com, “Up until some years ago, London was the biggest ‘hub’ of NFL fans in Europe. Lately, Germany has long surpassed Britain and has eventually become the largest market in the region. A recent study showed that both countries have nearly 3.3 million avid fans and as much as 17 million casual fans. Amongst those fans, a very large percentage is actively showing interest by consuming branded products, purchasing subscriptions to TV broadcasts, placing wagers on their favourite teams and so on.”
Breaking Records in Europe
If the popularity of last year’s International Series is anything to go by, we expect it to grow even more this year.
In October 2022, The Series broke the record for a game outside the US when the Denver Broncos and Jacksonville Jaguars drew 86,215 fans to Wembley Stadium.
To add excitement to the 2023 International Series games, the five NFL teams will play in some of Europe’s most prestigious stadiums. The Buffalo Bills and Tennessee Titans will both host games at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, home to the English Premier League team of the same name. This will be their first UK appearance since 2018. The Jacksonville Jaguars will return to Wembley Stadium for a game in London, with their opponent soon to be announced.
The Kansas City Chiefs and The New England Patriots will make their debuts in Germany as designated teams, following the inaugural international games in Munich in 2022, but the venues for the Germany games haven’t been confirmed yet. The Allianz Arena, home of Bayern Munich, hosted the Buccaneers and Seahawks game last November, so it would be no surprise if the stadium is in the running once more!
The Visual Storytellers Shaping The NFL’s Narrative in the US and beyond
At PhotoShelter, we love empowering visual storytellers. There’s something special about the storytellers who capture the power of a moment in sports. They iconically frame the moment when the trifecta of talent, serendipity, and perseverance come together to create greatness. In a split second the emotions, joy, hard work, and triumph of what could be a major moment in sports history, get encapsulated in an image or video for fans to enjoy forever.
This year’s NFL International Series games will surely create iconic images that will be shared around the world for years to come—and we can’t wait to enable these teams to share content in real-time across timezones to feed global football fans’ insatiable appetite.
We love to see how these teams use this moment to tell a unique story.
As we look towards the start of the 2023 NFL season, we’ll be following the five competing NFL teams’ photographers so we can learn how these creative professionals solve creative problems and collaborate when it comes to trans-Atlantic visual storytelling.
Four NFL Football Photographers to Follow
Ben Green,Buffalo Bills
As the Team photographer for Pegula Sports and Entertainment (PSE) —parent company of The Buffalo Bills, Sabres, and Bandits, Ben is passionate about creative storytelling and how sports photography allows him to intentionally capture sporting events in an artistic way. We recently spoke to Ben about how he uses digital asset management to optimize creative workflows across internal teams. He built PSE’s first media library using PhotoShelter. He optimised the way the entire organisation stores, shares, and uses visual media, and ultimately saved the media team 20-25 hours per week by centralizing their brand’s content—effectively eliminating the need to fulfil direct image requests! In our December 2022 webinar, Ben shared how The Creative Marketing Workflow Drives The Buffalo Bills Brand Forward. Watch the webinar now on-demand.
Follow Ben’s work on Instagram or visit his website to see his portfolio.
Donald Page, Tennessee Titans
Donald has been a sports and commercial photographer since 2005 and is the Team Photographer for The Tennessee Titans. Prior to this, he was a freelance photographer for clients like Sports Illustrated, ESPN Magazine, The United States Navy, and Getty Images. Donald has also been involved in university sports photography, before working as a freelance photographer, he worked on staff as the Team Photographer for the University of Tennessee Athletics Department from 2012-2018, where he served as the chief photographer for all of UT’s 15 varsity sports.
What a varied career he’s had so far! Check out Donald’s work on Instagram or follow him on Twitter.
Jamie Holt, Jacksonville Jaguars
Jamie is the Seasonal Photography and Archive Assistant at the Jacksonville Jaguars. She’s been documenting the Jaguars’ journey for the season and has also been leading the photography for the Jacksonville Jaguars 2022 community events, including My Cause My Cleats project, a campaign which allows NFL players to express their commitment to the causes that are most important to them, and saw the participation of 53 players and 26 coaches.
Jamie notes, “I have a passion for storytelling through images and a desire to bring important stories to the forefront of modern media.”
See more of Jamie’s work on Instagram and her website.
Steve Sanders, Kansas City Chiefs
A seasoned visual storyteller that is busy preparing for the final of the Super Bowl is Chiefs’ official photographer, Steve Sanders.
Steve has been documenting the team’s incredible sports history since 2012. For him, it’s all about capturing the emotions of sport. In a recent interview on FLATLAND, he said “I’m passionate about photography because it’s unique. Not everybody can see how the end product is going to look in their mind. It’s difficult to capture the play, the action and the lighting. I’ve learned how to do that, and I think I do it well. I love photography and have loved working in this industry.”
Follow Steve on Instagram or Twitter to see his latest work as The Chiefs prepare for the 2023 Super Bowl.
We can’t wait to see how these incredible teams compete as they battle for the win in the International Series this autumn. In the meantime, like many of you, we’ll be eagerly following the action of the Super Bowl and of course enjoying the halftime show with international icon, Rihanna!
At PhotoShelter, we love sports photography and are very proud to work with some of the best brands and organisations around the world, supporting their creative workflows so they can share their stunning images in real time.
Fun Fact: The Heisman trophy is actually in the lobby of the PhotoShelter HQ in New York City!
Follow us on @psforbrands or join our PSB Creative Slack community to learn how professional sports media professionals use our DAM platform to make game time decisions and share iconic content in real time.
