In 2014, the writer Christopher Beam published a humorous, heartwarming story in The New Republic about an unlikely team of American football enthusiasts in Chongqing who went on to defeat their archrivals in Shanghai to win a championship.
I really enjoyed this episode, but you're missing the "American football and China" prequel! In 2009 there was a TV series put on by CCTV and the NFL in which they sent Taiwanese band Mayday (五月天) to the US for a multi-part series explaining the history, rules, and culture of American football to Chinese audiences. The band visited college teams and museums, met with cheerleaders, tried out tailgating, ran drills with kid's leagues... you name it. In one scene, the members of Mayday (which broke through in Taipei with albums that were only half in Mandarin, and half in Taiwanese) stands on the sideline of a Patriots-Giants game chatting with Robert Kraft telling them he wants the Patriots to be the team of China. There's just a lot to unpack there in that one scene alone.
I really enjoyed this episode, but you're missing the "American football and China" prequel! In 2009 there was a TV series put on by CCTV and the NFL in which they sent Taiwanese band Mayday (五月天) to the US for a multi-part series explaining the history, rules, and culture of American football to Chinese audiences. The band visited college teams and museums, met with cheerleaders, tried out tailgating, ran drills with kid's leagues... you name it. In one scene, the members of Mayday (which broke through in Taipei with albums that were only half in Mandarin, and half in Taiwanese) stands on the sideline of a Patriots-Giants game chatting with Robert Kraft telling them he wants the Patriots to be the team of China. There's just a lot to unpack there in that one scene alone.