LONDON (AP) — In the mid-80s, Matt Chambers typed up letters to every NFL team and mailed them from Towcester, England. The youngster expressed his love of American football.
One team wrote back.
“Two or three months later, I got a big package from the Cleveland Browns,” Chambers said. "There was an old cap, which I’ve still got, signed photos, there were yearbooks, all types of memorabilia. That was it, I was basically a Browns fans for life.
“Here I am 40 years later, almost.”
While there are sexier NFL teams to support, Browns fans in Britain say they're drawn to Cleveland's ethos of loyalty and passion — clearly the team's win-loss record is not a factor. Some just like the colors, too.
They've made their London-based fan club, the British Bulldawgs Browns Backers, not only the largest of the team's 29 international chapters, but also one of the biggest overall.
They'll be out in force for the Browns' game against the Minnesota Vikings at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, when rookie quarterback Dillon Gabriel is set to make his first start.
The Browns have played only one other regular-season international game — a 33-16 loss to the Vikings in 2017 at Twickenham Stadium.
Where did it start?
Public broadcaster Channel 4 would show NFL highlights in the early 1980s, which is how Steve Maybury learned more about Cleveland. It reminded him of his father's hometown, a mining village in south Wales, and how important Welsh rugby is there. The Cleveland fandom is similar, he said.
“You could be the top lawyer or the bloke who hasn't got a job, and everyone gets accepted because they're Welsh rugby fans — or Browns fans,” Maybury said.
Maybury and his wife, Jane, got the Bulldawgs club off the ground back in 2001. There were six people at the first meeting. In those days, it was meet up once in a while and watch a game on a VHS tape.
Local fandom accelerated with the internet and as the NFL started playing regular-season games internationally — Sunday's game will be the 40th in London.
Longtime club member Kelly Burgess Taylor, an Ohio native who holds dual US and British citizenship, became club president about eight years ago and ramped up social media efforts. There are 450 core members and 1,500 more on social media — about 60% are British and the rest expats.
Bunches of them meet to watch Browns games at an upstairs bar in the Hippodrome Casino near Leicester Square.
Several dozen fans — locals, American tourists, even a German college student — turned out two weeks ago to watch the Browns beat the Green Bay Packers 13-10 on rookie kicker Andre Szmyt's 55-yard field goal as time expired.
Perseverance was key — Cleveland scored all of its points in the last few minutes — but Browns fans know that feeling.
“Cleveland fans are loyal, to a fault, and British people love an underdog, as well. The underdog is always the Browns, it seems,” Burgess Taylor said.
British fans like to travel
Paul Brown, who started an international Browns podcast, has seen the team play in 20 stadiums. The London resident has been attending between five and 10 games per season for a decade.
A co-worker had encouraged him to check out the sport, so Brown "got on YouTube and learned how the game worked." And yes, the Browns seemed like a fit due to his last name.
Cleveland, he said, reminds him of the northern English city of Newcastle.
“The rivers, the bridges, the blue-collar mentality of when the team does well, the city really feels it,” Brown said.
Maybury, the club founder who has now retired, and his wife would travel to see two Browns home games and one away game each season.
Long before he thought about starting a club, Maybury was at a game at Cleveland Municipal Stadium shortly after then-head coach Bill Belichick had cut beloved quarterback Bernie Kosar, an Ohio native.
“It was really vitriolic,” Maybury said.
Browns clubs are everywhere
The nonprofit Browns Backers Worldwide is considered one of the largest fan clubs in all of sports with nearly 100,000 members, the team said. Nigeria is forming a club soon — the Browns have commercial rights in the west African country as part of the NFL's global markets program.
Of course the fans want victories, but it's bigger than that.
“In our case, it's passion, it's dedication and it's loyalty regardless of the performance,” Browns chief marketing officer Brent Rossi said.
Chambers, the letter-writer, saw the Browns play in Seattle in 2023 — a 50th birthday present from his wife and friends — but he has another wish.
“I’ve never been to Cleveland. That’s one of my, before I die, things to do.”
