ANDREW Luck, Peyton Manning, Aaron Rodgers, none of them household names. But to an American Football fan they trip off the tongue. The new NFL season kicked off on Thursday culminates with Super Bowl 50 in San Francisco on February 7th.

The sport’s popularity here took hold back in the early 1980s when Channel 4 started broadcasting games. Out of season you could keep up to date with a weekly newspaper called First Down. Failing that there was Touchdown, a geeky monthly, or you could pick up the official NFL videos in your local WH Smith.

Produced in American in the early 80s they’re notable nowadays for their antiquated Hollywood style voiceovers and sleazy funk soundtracks, putting the current HMRC holding music to shame I still own a couple of the tapes which feature figures such as tiny Minnesota Vikings’ quarterback Fran Tarkenton. Tarkenton’s gift was to evade hapless defenders with the football, making them look ridiculous.

Also a delight to watch is New York Jets’ Super Bowl winning quarterback Joe Namath – America’s answer to George Best. In one film Namath is seen sipping from a fountain of Champagne with a beautiful woman on each knee. What impressionable young lad wouldn’t want to emulate him?

Thankfully you could, right here in Oxford. Local enthusiast Steve Abbott founded The Oxford Bulldogs American Football team in 1983, one of the first home grown teams to spring up. They bought all the necessary helmets and shoulder pads and lined up in smart yellow and blue jerseys. In 1992 the team were renamed Oxford Saints and are still going strong.

They now have about 80 players in the squad aged between 18 and their mid-40s. Among their occupations they have accountants, shop workers, computer programmers and even a few lawyers.

“Anyone can take up the sport” their current Defensive Back Coach Andrew Peart told me over the phone, “there’s a position for all sizes of player. The game looks complicated but it’s actually very simple. It’s an interesting sport because it’s athletic but it’s also strategic, and tactical.”

Last year Oxford Saints made the playoffs in Division Two of the British American Football Association National League. They train weekly, on Sundays. And if you like what you see on your TV screens over the coming months you can go along to Saints’ Rookie training day at Abingdon Rugby Club on November 23.

Andrew has coached with Saints for two years and is an Oakland Raiders supporter. His conversation came watching his team defeat Washington Redskins in Super Bowl 18, when he was six.

“I think if any NFL players came down here they’d be pleasantly surprised by what they found,” he reports.