Munich, Germany is home to one of the best soccer clubs in the world. It’s also home to the biggest concentration of American football fans in Europe.
That made it a natural extension for the NFL’s International Series. On Sunday, the league brought Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers to the home of Oktoberfest for its regular season debut. A packed crowd at Allianz Arena brought a distinctly European feel to Brady’s 21-16 win over the Seattle Seahawks by going arm-over-arm for a singalong in the final two minutes.
The song of choice for a game between a team from Florida and another from Washington? Why, John Denver’s ode to West Virginia, of course.
They're singing Country Roads in Germany. This atmosphere is pretty cool. pic.twitter.com/kHpnUYT3pS
— Ari Meirov (@MySportsUpdate) November 13, 2022
It wasn’t as out of left field as you’d expect — Country Roads is a staple for most Oktoberfest tents and a prized drinking singalong in a country that helped invent them. The chorus was a stark display of the difference between American fans and their German counterparts. The patrons in Bavaria held true to their standard of watching football, providing their own entertainment in the breaks afforded between plays, quarters, and the two minute warning. It was a beautiful mix of two cultures coming together to make something better.
Fans took notice.