NFL London Games: When Minnesota Vikings came to Wembley in 1983

The Minnesota Vikings are due to face the New York Jets on Sunday in front of a packed Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, but their first London visit more than 40 years ago was a lot less popular.

When the Vikings faced St Louis Cardinals for a pre-season warm-up at Wembley in August 1983, it was the first professional American football game in Europe. The stadium was barely a third full.

It was a case of too much too soon for a promoter hoping to capitalise on the new-found popularity of a sport that had only been shown regularly on British television for less than a year.

Since the NFL’s first regular season game overseas in 2007, global interest in American football has continued to grow.

London hosts three games in October, but in 1983 the sport was seen by some in Britain as more of a novelty.

Ahead of the game, the BBC’s Nicholas Witchell was sent along to Wembley to watch the Vikings train on the hallowed turf. He was in for a shock.

“Just look what’s happened to it,” he said.

“The goalposts are peculiar, there are funny white lines all across the pitch and an enormous red, white and blue crest in the middle of it; then there are the players.”