The Jacksonville Jaguars Are Quietly Building the NFL’s Future in the UK
How an unlikely franchise turned London into a second home — and may have created the blueprint for American Football's global future.
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Now, let’s go across the pond.
When I think of the Jacksonville Jaguars, I’ll admit my first thought isn’t exactly NFL glamour.
They’re not the Cowboys. They’re not the Steelers. They’re not the Packers, Giants or Eagles.
Jacksonville is a relatively small NFL market, and the Jaguars have never been one of those franchises that automatically commands the national spotlight every Sunday.
And yet, when it comes to the NFL’s future in the United Kingdom, I think the Jaguars may be one of the smartest organizations in the entire league.
I’ve been fascinated by the NFL’s international push for a while now. Part of that is probably because I am obsessed with English soccer and British sports culture in general. But I’ve also wondered whether American football could ever become something more than an occasional novelty overseas.
Today, while filling in on Mad Dog Unleashed, I got a chance to dig into that with Thomas Hensey, Co-Founder and COO of the Union Jack Classic.
And I came away from the conversation looking at Jacksonville completely differently.
Because the Jaguars aren’t just playing games in London. They’re helping build football in Britain. There is a massive difference.
Jacksonville Didn’t Just Visit. It Stayed.
This is the part I didn’t fully appreciate until talking with the founders of the Union Jack Classic. The Jaguars have a full-time operation in the United Kingdom.
Think about the significance of that.
This isn’t some marketing department in Jacksonville spending six months figuring out how to sell tickets for an October game at Wembley. They have people there. They have infrastructure there.
They have relationships there. And they’ve spent years learning the British sports market.
That commitment starts with Jaguars owner Shahid Khan, who also owns Fulham Football Club. So Khan isn’t dipping his toe into British sports. He’s immersed in it.
Meanwhile, the Jaguars have made London an enormous part of their identity, developing a presence around their games there and building relationships that extend well beyond game day.
Over time, they’ve essentially created a blueprint for how an American professional sports franchise can establish itself overseas.
And here’s the key:
This isn’t just about selling Jaguars jerseys.
It’s about growing the game.
Want to Grow Football? Give a Kid a Football.
One thing Hensey told me really jumped out.
According to him, more than 250,000 kids under the age of 10 are playing flag football in the UK.
That’s an incredible number.
We’re talking about a country with one of the richest sporting cultures on Earth, where soccer clubs aren’t simply teams — they’re practically civic institutions.
You’re not going to walk into Manchester and convince some 35-year-old who has lived and died with his football club since birth that he suddenly needs to become obsessed with the Jacksonville Jaguars.
That’s not how this works.
But give a football to a seven-year-old?
Now we’re talking. Let the kid throw it. Catch it. Run with it. Score a touchdown. Have fun.
That’s how you grow a sport.
The Jaguars’ JagTag program has been part of that effort, introducing kids to American football through a version of the game that’s inexpensive, accessible and easy to play.
And that’s where I think the NFL’s international strategy gets really interesting.
Because that seven-year-old doesn’t need to become a Jaguars fan tomorrow.
Maybe he becomes a player. Maybe she becomes a coach. Maybe they become NFL fans. Maybe they start watching college football.
Maybe 25 years from now they’re taking their own kids to Wembley for an NFL game.
That’s how sports cultures develop. Not through marketing campaigns. Through generations.
Roger Goodell Deserves a Ton of Credit, Too
I know. I know.
Giving Roger Goodell credit isn’t exactly America’s favorite pastime.
But he deserves a lot here. The international growth of the game will ultimately be his legacy.
The NFL recognized years ago that its growth opportunities couldn’t be limited to the United States. Obviously there’s a business motivation. Nobody should be naive about that.
More countries mean more viewers.More viewers mean more media rights. More sponsors. More merchandise.
More money.
Welcome to professional sports.
But something else happened along the way.
The NFL discovered there are people around the world who genuinely love this game once they’re exposed to it. London has become the ultimate proof of concept. Remember when an NFL game in England felt like a gimmick?
It doesn’t anymore.
Wembley has become synonymous with the NFL’s British presence. Tottenham Hotspur Stadium might be the best NFL facility outside the United States.
And multiple NFL games in London every fall now feel completely normal.
That’s not an experiment.
That’s a market.
And the Numbers Are Starting to Get Serious
Hensey told me the NFL has developed a fan base of roughly 14 million people in Great Britain, including around 4 million avid fans.
Whether you’re talking about Jacksonville or Dallas, those are numbers worth paying attention to.
And Hensey wasn’t the first person from the UK football community who has told me this.
My friend George Sommerville of College Chaps, based in Glasgow, has talked with me about just how passionate the hardcore American football community has become over there.
These aren’t people casually watching the Super Bowl because it’s something to do.
There are legitimate football sickos in Britain.
My kind of people.
The people who will watch a random college football game at an ungodly hour because apparently we all made terrible life decisions.
And demand for NFL tickets reflects it.
Tickets for London games can disappear almost immediately.
People want this.
The NFL deserves credit for creating awareness.
But Jacksonville deserves credit for something more difficult.
They stayed.
Then There’s the Union Jack Classic
This is where today’s conversation really got my attention.
The Union Jack Classic is trying to bring something uniquely American to the UK: College football. Not an NFL game. Not an exhibition.
College football.
The bands. The cheerleaders. The traditions. The pageantry.
The entire wonderfully ridiculous spectacle that makes college football unlike anything else in sports.
And if you’ve read Show Pony Media for more than five minutes, you know that’s the stuff I care about. College football isn’t merely the 60 minutes between kickoff and the final whistle.
It’s the experience.
It’s why people start tailgating six hours before kickoff. It’s why grown adults argue about fight songs.
College football is weird.
And beautiful.
And uniquely American.
The Union Jack Classic wants to introduce Britain to that.
But there’s a problem. Putting an American football game inside a British soccer stadium isn’t as simple as painting some lines on the field. Locker rooms. Coaches’ boxes. Goal posts. Sideline configurations. Equipment. Game-day operations.
There are a thousand little things most fans never think about.
You know who has spent years figuring all of that out?
The Jacksonville Jaguars.
“The Tip of the Spear”
Hensey told me something that probably best summarizes Jacksonville’s role in all of this:
The Union Jack Classic couldn’t do what it’s trying to do without the Jaguars.
The Jaguars actually offered to help.
Rob Yowell of the Union Jack Classic was on Full Ride with Rick and I last week and sang a similar tune. He described the Jaguars as fantastic partners, assisting with the infrastructure and logistical challenges that come with staging American football in a stadium designed primarily for soccer.
And Yowell used a phrase I absolutely loved.
He called the Jaguars:
“The tip of the spear.”
That’s exactly what they are. They’re the organization out front.
Learning. Experimenting. Making mistakes. Figuring things out. Building relationships.
And then helping other people grow the game.
Yowell put it even more simply:
“The Jaguars are huge in growth of the game.”
That’s a pretty remarkable position for an NFL franchise to occupy.
This Is Bigger Than Creating Jaguars Fans
And I think this is where Jacksonville deserves the most credit. The Jaguars aren’t simply trying to create Jaguars fans. They’re helping create football fans. That’s a much bigger opportunity.
There is already a domestic American football ecosystem developing in Britain.
The British American Football Association has an established game with multiple levels and thousands of participants. The Union Jack Classic is involved with that domestic football community and serves as title sponsor and key partner.
Then there’s youth flag football.
And now comes something that could pour gasoline on the entire thing:
The Olympics.
Flag football will make its Olympic debut at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.
I don’t think we should underestimate what that could mean internationally. The Olympics give young athletes something every sport desperately needs.
A dream.
A British kid doesn’t necessarily have to dream about becoming Patrick Mahomes. Maybe she dreams about winning a gold medal for Great Britain.
Maybe he dreams about playing college football in America. Maybe another kid simply falls in love with playing flag football and eventually becomes an NFL fan.
It doesn’t matter.
The gateway is the game. Get the football into their hands. The rest can happen organically.
Jacksonville Figured This Out Before Most
That’s what I kept thinking about after my conversation with Hensey.
The Jaguars may never have the history of Green Bay. They may never have the national following of Dallas. Jacksonville may never be one of America’s great sports markets.
But maybe none of that matters for this particular conversation.
Because the Jaguars recognized something incredibly important:
International sports markets are built through commitment, not appearances.
You can’t parachute into London once a year, throw some Union Jacks around the stadium, sell a bunch of merchandise and declare victory.
You have to be there. You need people on the ground. You need relationships. You need youth programs. You need to understand the stadiums. You need to understand the culture.
And perhaps most importantly, you need to help people who are already trying to grow the sport.
The Jaguars have done that.
Full-time operation in the UK.
Years of games in London.
Shahid Khan’s ownership of Fulham.
JagTag. Youth football. Relationships throughout British sports.
Now assistance with projects like the Union Jack Classic. That’s not a promotional stunt.
That’s a strategy.
The Jaguars’ Biggest Win Might Come Thousands of Miles From Jacksonville
There’s something wonderfully ironic about all of this.
I’ve spent years viewing Jacksonville as one of those NFL franchises somewhere below the league’s glamour teams.
Maybe I’ve been looking at them through the wrong lens.
Because their greatest strategic advantage might not be what they’ve built in northern Florida.
It might be what they’re helping build thousands of miles away.
London.
Manchester.
Birmingham.
Glasgow.
And everywhere else a kid picks up an American football for the first time.
The Jaguars are essentially making a bet on the football fan of 2035, 2040 and 2050.
Maybe that fan’s first experience with the sport isn’t watching the Jaguars at Wembley.
Maybe it’s playing flag football at eight years old. Then they watch an NFL game. Then they discover college football. Then they pick a team.
Then football becomes part of their sporting life.
And eventually they have kids. That’s how you plant roots. The NFL isn’t simply visiting Britain anymore.
It’s becoming part of the British sports landscape.
And the Jacksonville Jaguars may deserve more credit for that than any other franchise in the league.
For a team I’ve always thought of as a relatively small-market NFL operation, that’s one hell of a position to have carved out.
Maybe the Jaguars aren’t simply playing in the UK. Maybe they’re helping build the NFL’s next great market.
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