Johnson: Open arms in Germany
PHOENIX — The 2023 NFL season may be seven months away, but fullback Jakob Johnson has one prediction he’s confident will come true: The Patriots are going to receive quite the warm welcome when they arrive to play in Germany.
“I’m a little jealous,” Johnson said. “I can admit that.”
Johnson, who now plays for the Raiders after three seasons with the Patriots, grew up in Stuttgart, a metropolitan city in southwest Germany. As a teenager, he played for the Stuttgart Scorpions of the German Football League, before moving to the United States to further pursue his dreams. He played one season of high school football in Florida and then four seasons of college football at Tennessee.
After graduation, Johnson moved back to Stuttgart to play for the Scorpions. But his career took a life-changing turn in 2019, when the Patriots signed him to a contract via the NFL’s International Pathway Program. As the league seeks to provide opportunities for players overseas, Johnson’s trajectory is already considered a success story.
“When I grew up playing football, I used to play just in front of my immediate family and friends,” Johnson said. “I would get weird looks with my football helmet on public transportation. It’s changed completely. I can’t walk around my own city unnoticed anymore, which I would have never thought that would have happened. Because I played football. Nobody cared about that in Stuttgart, Germany. That has changed.”
American football has become increasingly popular in Germany, thanks to the NFL’s efforts to grow the game globally. In 2016, the league began broadcasting select games on German television. Then, this past season, the Buccaneers and Seahawks at Munich’s Allianz Arena in the first NFL game in Germany.
According to the NFL, there were three million ticket requests for the game, with only 67,000 able to attend. As a result of the demand, Germany next season will host two games, one with the Chiefs and the other with the Patriots. Their opponents will be announced in May.
The Chiefs and Patriots are two of four teams with Germany as their official international home marketing area through at least 2026.
“There was always interest in the NFL among the group of people that played football over there,” Johnson said. “What you have now is a much broader audience. People who had nothing to do with football prior to the NFL broadcasts in Germany are now tapped in. And I think the games in Germany are just something that solidifies the fan base there, and tells them that this is not something that is just a trend. It’s something that’s there to say.”
Johnson, who still returns to Germany during the offseason, can tell the league’s efforts are paying off. He’s excited for the next generation to have more opportunities in American football.
As for what the Patriots and their fans can expect next fall?
Johnson gave some of his former teammates a little preview when he took them to Hofbrauhaus, a German restaurant in Las Vegas, in August. As he remembers it, the sauerbraten didn’t go over as well as the schnitzel.
He shared a few other things to know: It’s legal to drink alcohol in public. German beer is very tasty. German people are very friendly, even if they have a “mean face” on. Plenty of them speak English. And they will love you once they know you play football.
“German fans are very dedicated,” Johnson said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s football, soccer, or handball. German fans, once they like something, they go all out for it. They buy the jerseys; they go to the games; they sing all game long. And the Patriots have a huge fan base in Germany, probably one of the biggest.”