A zebra head outfitted with a Jaguars necklace was among the scenes at London’s Greenwood sports pub and kitchen — fittingly renamed ”Tealwood” for a Jacksonville takeover. Michael DiRoccoMichael DiRoccoOct 16, 2026, 04:51 PM ETCloseMichael DiRocco is an NFL Nation reporter at ESPN and covers the Jacksonville Jaguars. He previously covered the University of Florida for over a decade for ESPN and the Florida Times-Union. DiRocco graduated from Jacksonville University and is a multiple APSE award winner.Multiple AuthorsOpen Extended ReactionsLONDON — For three hours Thursday night, the Greenwood sports pub and kitchen on Victoria Street in Central London ceased to exist. In its place: Tealwood.An apt renaming, as Greenwood was hosting one of three pub takeover events sponsored by the Jacksonville Jaguars’ U.K. branch for Jaguars fans who live in the United Kingdom or made the trip to London for the team’s annual home game at Wembley Stadium this Sunday.There will be another Friday night and Saturday afternoon, and there was one the previous Friday night in advance of the Jaguars’ home game at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium last week, which they won 19-17 on Cam Little’s 57-yard field goal as time expired.Those events are part of the NFL franchise’s movement to continue to build its international fanbase, a push that began back in 2013 when the team played the first of what is now 15 games in London.
The Jaguars also have their own U.K. fan club (Union Jax), have been heavily involved in helping to build interest in flag football with clinics, have appearances with current and former players throughout the year, run a year-round junior cheerleading program and send hundreds of students annually to the London games as part of a Reward Rows program.”Even if you knew nothing about the NFL, you were like, ‘Oh, but the Jags are our team,'” said Phoebe Schecter, a former Buffalo Bills coaching intern, one of the first members of the Great Britain national American football team and now an NFL analyst for Sky Sports. “And so I think there’s always going to be that really great association.”The Jags really do have a presence [in the U.K.], and the fans are truly bought in, and you get superfans. I mean, something as silly as somebody’s on social, it’s like a Mr. and Mrs. Jaxson de Ville, but they’re superfans here in the U.K. and they’re bought into the costumes and this whole persona.
It’s who they are. And you see that in the States, and now that’s kind of creeping in over here in a great way.”Jamie Phillips and Francis Sweeney are two of those fans. Sweeney — decked out in an oversized Jaguars hat, jersey and jacket and carrying a Jags-themed wrestling belt over his shoulder — has attended the team’s games in London for the past five years. He’s not the only Jags fan in his family, though.”My wife doesn’t like any sports, and she’s obsessed with the Jaguars,” he said.Phillips, who was at Thursday night’s pub takeover, wore a Jaguars mascot fuzzy hat on the 59-degree day at the Jaguars’ practice at The Grove resort, the team’s headquarters since it arrived Oct. 9.
He was the team’s 2024 nominee for the NFL’s International Fan of the Year and has been a Jaguars fan for 15 years.That began two years before the Jaguars started making annual trips overseas, but Phillips latched on to the franchise even though it had just three winning seasons since the 2000s began.”I want to take after the underdog as most Brits do,” he said. “A bit of an obsession, really, is what it’s become.”Phillips and Sweeney were among the 200 fans who had tickets to attend Friday’s practice. There were also dozens of students from multiple primary and secondary schools across the London area, all of whom participate in JagTag. That’s the Jaguars U.K. — an arm of the franchise based in the U.K. — flag football program for people ages 8-18.
As practice wound down, the students were getting ready to get onto the field, receive tips and run drills with the 16 members of the Jaguars’ practice squad.The program involves 360 schools in six major cities and 12 towns around London. It began in 2016 with roughly 1,200 participants and in 2024 had reached 100,000, said Andy Scott, the U.K. grassroots manager of JagTag.”We started in about six schools in West London in Fulham because of our connection with [Jaguars] ownership,” Scott said. “Obviously, our owner [Shad Khan] owns the Fulham Football Club, so we ran it out of the foundation to try and gain that footprint across there. So yeah, it was small steps to a big finish.”Ben Conway and Joel Neumann also were at Friday’s practice.
The two run the social media account “Endzone Near You” on Instagram, TikTok and Facebook and produce daily NFL content. They’re also huge Jaguars fans — both were at the Jaguars’ 19-17 victory over Philadelphia at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday, and they’ll be at Sunday’s game against the Houston Texans at Wembley Stadium.Their most notable post from the last game summarized the final 12 seconds: The reaction of Eagles fans around them after Jake Elliott’s 48-yard field goal gave Philadelphia a 17-16 lead, followed by their reaction after Little’s winning field goal as time expired.The final play of that game was among the season highlights playing on 17 television screens at Greenwood/Tealwood during Thursday night’s pub takeover. The three-hour event included appearances by Jaguars cheerleaders and Jaxson de Ville. Schecter, along with former NFL cornerback and current Sky Sports NFL analyst Jason Bell and Jay Lawrence of Absolute Radio, a British national radio station, emceed the event.Fans in the two-story pub were decked out in assorted Jaguars gear, including the jerseys of cornerback Travis Hunter, quarterback Trevor Lawrence, tight end Brenton Strange and defensive end Josh Hines-Allen, as well as those of former players Fred Taylor and Keenan McCardell.The highlight of the night was a Jaguars trivia contest.
Among the questions:What color jerseys did the Jaguars wear in their first appearance in London in 2013?Answer: Black.How many teams have the Jaguars played in London?Answer: 13 (San Francisco, Dallas, Indianapolis, Baltimore, Houston, Denver, Atlanta, New England, the Los Angeles Rams, Miami and Chicago once, and Buffalo and Philadelphia twice).How long was the longest TD scored in international game history, and who scored it?Answer: Parker Washington on a 97-yard punt return.Schecter called the takeover, which has become a regular occurrence in London when the team is in town, a success. She hopes it will result in more people becoming Jaguars fans.”People want to be a part of something,” she said. “They want to feel like they’re part of a team. And I think the ‘Duuuval’ chant, the Jags, that’s something that they feel like they can own.”
Leave a Reply