Photo: NFL Academy
It could be any high school field in the gridiron hotbeds of the United States as two teams stacked with teenagers with dreams – and more importantly, options – to play college football stand eagerly eyeing each other up.
But the deep green carpet they are about to battle on isn’t known as ‘field turf’ but a 4G pitch and the trains passing above the pristinely painted blue endzone aren’t making the seemingly endless journey across the Union Pacific Railroad but chuntering along the Great Western mainline.
This is the outer suburbs of north Bristol and the impressive sports campus home to what had been the UK’s premier American Football programme – and possibly British sport’s best-kept secret. Those in the know have included young hopefuls from across, not just Britain, but Europe who since 2008 have left home at just 16 to study for A levels and diplomas alongside intense football training at the SGS College and compete for its Pride football team.
What had been the only show in town has been upstaged, as the NFL - intent on finding a route for the best players from outside North America to college football and ultimately the League – established its own high school football programme in Britain.
This Sunday lunchtime fixture is the first time the SGS Pride and NFL Academy have met on the field.
“I was here for two years, three years ago, and even then, there was a rivalry with comments on social media, not necessarily from players, but you’d see people talking on social media about the Pride and Academy playing each other,” says Miles Butt a former SGS student. A defensive back and linebacker Butt played last year for the German champions Potsdam Royals but has come to support a team he still feels a part of, having moved from London to join.
“I think it will be closer than people think,” predicts Butt with the visitors having racked up 181 points, and given up just 40, in three spring games, all against German opposition, heading into their final fixture: “I think it will come down to whoever makes the most mistakes.”
In the first quarter, with the Academy a touchdown up, a costly Pride fumble allows their visitors to add another while confusion on a fourth down trick play halts the home side’s most promising possession. At half time the Academy have scored 30, passing 200 points for the spring.
Enjoying the game from the opposite endzone to the railway line, while admiring the size of the Academy’s coaching staff, is Ti Ojuyah, defensive coach with Britain’s university champions, the Pride’s crosstown rivals, UWE Bullets. “It just shows there is talent in the UK,” says Ojuyah of the high-quality play but he is unsure what two academies competing for the best British prospects to send abroad means for Britball: “It elevates the game, yes but improve it? No.”
For Neil Reynolds, a familiar face to most UK NFL fans as the presenter of Sky Sports’ coverage, there is now a pathway from local teams to “Division One and wherever it takes you after that. It’s inspiring for the next generation of young players, it now proves there is a way to get to the NFL”. Reynolds points out that his son George started playing flag with the Kent Exiles, played university ball in Canada after becoming the Academy’s quarterback in its first seasons, and is now a member of the coaching staff.
“I know when my son played at the Academy he hoped he could play against the Pride, but it never happened,” says Reynolds confirming, without having been asked, the rivalry.
SGS head coach Benjamin Herod had always viewed the game as “real David and Goliath stuff” but while acknowledging defeat to a “very, very good team who put you under immense pressure” there is a trace of regret at a 45 to 6 defeat.
Photo: NFL Academy
“They’re very physical, they’re very big, they’re what we were five years ago before Brexit hit,” says Herod who laments Britain is no longer as accessible, or affordable, for European Union citizens. That has limited the pool of “big bodies” previously attracted from Denmark, Germany and down to Spain. Professional opportunities in Europe have also been impacted, as of course, has The NFL Academy, which is open to all “regardless of economic situation” but does carry a cost for those without scholarships.
It opened in London, in 2019, before moving to Loughborough in 2022 as part of a partnership with the local college and globally renowned sporting university. Its current squad of 62 are drawn from 14 countries, including Nigeria and Japan, and in five years more than 40 players have secured US scholarships, including at Division One and the most successful Power Five conferences.
The Pride has sent more than 30 players since it was established to North America with six of this year’s squad in receipt of non-scholarship offers at NCAA Division Three, and a similar number set to play at Laney College, in Oakland, that featured in the Netflix series Last Chance U.
Herod has to ensure his charges maintain 95 per cent attendance so they can take part in up to 16 hours a week of training and play. There are no tuition fees for those in the 16s to under 19s group but they have to meet living costs and, for those who can’t commute, accommodation plus subs towards team costs and gym use.
The Pride built its reputation by taking on the best teams in Europe and in 2021 entered the BUCS University league, providing an option for students on degree courses, and exposing the side to British competition for the first time which resulted in a Division One title but play-off defeats in the Premiership.
The combination of football and academics is, Herod hopes, a buy-in for parents but acknowledges the dream-to-reality ratio, and for many, the Pride is an investment in their teenager’s passion: “It’s a massive long shot, it’s a one per cent chance of making any money out of it and that’s one per cent of the world, not one per cent of our team.”
Between the Academy, and SGS only two players – both from the Pride – have progressed to the NFL; Alex Jenkins who played for the New Orleans Saints and then the New York Giants and Santigie Sankoh who joined the Cleveland Browns.
It’s what Lamonte Winston, head of the NFL Academy, calls “dreaming with their eyes open” - the approach to advancing a dream while taking on board all the lessons necessary along the way.
It’s a lesson the 30-year NFL veteran learnt from the “phenomenal” sociologist and civil rights activist Harry Edwards credited as the intellectual guide behind the Olympic Project for Human Rights that culminated in the raised fist Black Power salute at the 1968 Games.
“I tell our kids all the time because I was told by, Harry Edwards, ‘you must teach our kids to dream with their eyes open’. They got to know what to do and do it right with their eyes open. If they stay real and stay true, they’ll see what needs to get done and do it, and they’ll have a chance,” says Winston.
He transitioned to coaching “when there was no more opportunities” after college and spent most of his career in NFL front office roles, from scouting and player development, with the Kansas City Chiefs and hometown Oakland Raiders.
Schooled in the NFL, Winston says his guys “won’t apologise for hunting, that’s what we do” but praises the effort of the Pride: “What you saw today, what you saw from that team and all the teams that we’ve played, that’s how you grow American football.”
That growth can also be seen in the links, beyond any rivalry, between both teams. One Academy parent admitted having already bought a Pride uniform before their son was offered a place in Loughborough while the Academy’s linebacker Meshach Arthur found himself challenging older brother Shaq on the Pride O line.
Image: Gavin Lewis / Twitter(X) / Twm Owen
It was a proud moment and testament to the hard work his younger sibling has put in “after I introduced him to the sport with the Manchester Titans” says the SGS university player. He is aware his future now likely lies in Germany, where he’s played professionally, while his kid brother is a Stateside college prospect: “The way he puts the work in. He was late for his prom. He said he still had two sets to do at the gym, our parents were like you can do them tomorrow, but he said he needed to get them done.
“It makes me proud to see how much work the guy puts in and it’s paying off for him.”
Whether the starting point is Britball in Kent or Manchester or a high-performance academy in Loughborough or Bristol hard work and opportunity can lead to amazing adventures.
Some footage from our time at the game:
SGS Pride QB Tony Wilson runs in for a TD late in the 4th quarter
Standout RB Justus Seelig adds another TD for the NFL Academy
NFL Academy QB Giacomo Troni connects with WR Seb Harris for the score