One of the Premier League's most fabled clubs, Tottenham Hotspur, returns to America to play the MLS All-Stars in Denver on July 29, with a portfolio of exciting news. Already one of the best supported English teams here with over 40 supporters groups nationwide, Spurs recently signed a new commercial partnership with Fanatics, a major North American sport merchandise retailer. The Club also announced a "compelling and exciting partnership," a 10-year deal with the NFL to hold a minimum of two American football matches annually at Tottenham's new high-tech, stadium in North London. The stadium, which opens in summer 2018, promises to deliver "an unrivalled fan experience... in our birthplace of Tottenham."
It makes me reflect back on an assignment, when I stood outside Tottenham's stadium, the almost mystical White Hart Lane on a quiet non-match day in 1987. The Lane has stood since 1899, and its celebrated pitch is overlooked by a bronze fighting cock, the club's mascot.
I closed my eyes and thought about the legends who'd already graced the Lane playing football the "Tottenham way" -- marvelous Mackay, acrobatic Jennings, the deadly G-men Greaves and Gilzean, exquisite Hoddle and the Argentinian wizard Ardiles. Soon would come daft, brilliant Gazza and kinetic Klinsmann, and now Harry "HurriKane" Kane.
Then I remembered the stories of on-field achievements, including: led by inspirational captain Danny Blanchflower, Spurs were the first English team to win the FA Cup and League double in the 20th century and then the first British team to win a European trophy; English football's greatest goalscorer, Jimmy Greaves, effortlessly gliding (like Messi today) through the whole Man-U defense to help Spurs win 5-1 in 1965; Ricky Villa leaving defenders on their backsides as he scored that memorable winning goal in the 1981 FA Cup final replay. Golazo!
Spurs have won more FA Cups than the Steelers, Cowboys and 49ers have won NFL Super Bowl trophies. And as Captain Blanchflower once poetically noted, "The game is about glory, it is about doing things in style and with a flourish..."
On that day of reminiscing, I could hear those echoes of glory rain down on me: "Oh when the Spurs, go marching in. I wanna be in that number. Oh when the Spurs go marching in."
Now, with the new Premier League season kicking off on August 8, and interest in English football here in America at an all-time high, thanks in great part to NBC's multi-platform Premiership coverage, I asked several people why they'd become Tottenham fans, a club based over 5,000 miles away. After all, it's us fans who are the ticking heart and vital lifeblood of any sports team.
Steffan Chirazi, an expat Londoner who's a founding member of SF Spurs, passionately recalls his "first" time:
I went with a Spurs-supporting Uncle, and as we walked up the stairs in the Park Lane, the wooden stands were thundering to the sounds of "Oh When The Spurs..." -- it was deliciously asphyxiating! Then I saw the brilliant white shirts, and it became my friend, my passion, my therapy, my muse, and an extension of who I was. It still is. Spurs have always been what Blanchflower said, and Spurs have always stood for flair, and a sense of deep history.