Frankfurt, Germany got a pair of International Series NFL games that looked good on paper. A matchup between the Miami Dolphins and Kansas City Chiefs could be an AFC title game preview. A showdown with the Indianapolis Colts and New England Patriots wasn’t as exciting, but stood as another chapter in a heated rivarly between two teams that ruled the AFC in stretches over the last two decades.
Instead, those fans got failed Dolphins comeback in a fairly boring Chiefs win and enough Gardner Minshew and Mac Jones to qualify as an act of aggression toward their German hosts. But while the product on the field wasn’t great, the fans in Frankfurt remained invested. That’s why, late in a 7-6 game that was just as boring as it sounds, they kept a budding tradition alive and rained a full-throated serenade of John Denver’s Take Me Home, Country Roads down upon the field for the second straight week.
This crowd in Germany has been so good even while watching a bad football game. pic.twitter.com/SA7juwQd2I
— Chad Graff (@ChadGraff) November 12, 2023
German fans rule pic.twitter.com/fj0VcJUSDb
— Doug Kyed (@DougKyed) November 12, 2023
It’s a sporting — and drinking — tradition that’s translated from bier halls and soccer pitches to the NFL. Germany has long been the focal point of European fandom for the sport thanks in part to the American military base presence in the country. The singalongs that once soundtracked World League and NFL Europe games has now become canon in official regular season games as well.
And it absolutely rules.
