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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.<\/b><\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
Since the NFL’s first regular season game overseas in 2007, global interest in American football has continued to grow. <\/p>\n
London hosts three games in October, but in 1983 the sport was seen by some in Britain as more of a novelty.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the game, the BBC\u2019s Nicholas Witchell was sent along to Wembley to watch the Vikings train on the hallowed turf. He was in for a shock.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust look what’s happened to it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n