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<\/p>\nLondon is famed for many things, but American football is not one of them. Yet, in the south of the capital, there is a team making a big impact in what is a minority sport in England.<\/p>\n
The London Warriors have won seven national titles, known as BritBowls, the most of any British team, and over the past two decades have become a phenomenal breeding ground for talent, with players and coaches going on to be involved in the game in the United States, and two former players even making it to the NFL, such as Efe Obada.<\/p>\n
But stardom and the spotlight are not the aim. \u201cWe try to keep to that core of what we are trying to do, which is helping kids from bad situations,\u201d general manager Simon Buckett tells The Athletic.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Run as a charity, the south London club started as a junior team in 2005. It now has a men\u2019s and women\u2019s senior team, as well as youth teams for ages 7 through 19.<\/p>\n
Speaking to Warriors former coach Aden Durde, now the Seattle Seahawks\u2019 defensive coordinator, and former players, such as TV and radio presenter Vernon Kay, The Athletic discovered a club that is at the heart of the game\u2019s grassroots in the United Kingdom, an amateur team aiming to achieve \u201cprofessional standards.\u201d<\/p>\n
The first British NFL coach: \u2018I was helping them grow up\u2019<\/p>\n
Durde, the first British-born coordinator in the NFL, began his coaching career at the London Warriors in 2011.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the things I used at the Warriors to coach players, I still use now. To me, there\u2019s not a lot of difference,\u201d Durde says. \u201cFootball-wise, there\u2019s a huge difference. It\u2019s literally like night and day. But the person and the people that you\u2019re coaching and their needs and how you connect with them, they\u2019re really the same thing.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe special things are the same when you have a really good team at any level. It was the connection, it was the brotherhood, it was the commitment from the players and the coaches to do something that a lot of people didn\u2019t believe they could do.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was current Warriors head coach Tony Allen who persuaded him to begin a coaching career, Durde says. \u201cAfter two years, I committed and said, \u2018Yeah, I\u2019ll coach the linebackers here.\u2019 That was when it started.\u201d<\/p>\n
As is the case with all of the Warriors, Durde volunteered while balancing other work commitments and coached the team on weekends.<\/p>\n
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\n Defensive coordinator Aden Durde started his coaching career at the London Warriors. (Steph Chambers \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n
\u201cAt the Warriors, you\u2019ve got kids that didn\u2019t even know what American football was. They were financially limited in a lot of areas of their lives, and you had to convince them to create a lot more structure in their life, to pay for things and to be responsible and to do these things,\u201d he remembers.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlip it forward to the NFL. You\u2019ve got a lot of business and contracts and money that overarch a lot of people\u2019s decisions. And you have to cut through that to get people to commit and connect. And at times, put some of those things aside for the greater good, and at times make those things the forefront.<\/p>\n
\u201cA lot of the special traits were just like a good group of people trying to commit and do something that they wanted to do. That\u2019s what was special about the Warriors.\u201d<\/p>\n
The 46-year-old was a linebacker in the now-defunct NFL Europe and made the practice squads of the Carolina Panthers and Kansas City Chiefs in the 2000s. Coaching, he says, helped \u201ckeep me connected to the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I loved the kids,\u201d he adds. \u201cI was kind of like helping them grow up. When you play, it\u2019s that excitement when you\u2019re getting ready to play, that part of the game \u2014 that\u2019s addictive. And when it stops, it\u2019s like, \u2018Wow.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd then when you coach, suddenly you help, you give someone some information and they do it, and they are better. That is kind of like, \u2018Wow, that\u2019s pretty cool.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
The celebrity co-sign: \u2018The Warriors changed my life\u2019<\/p>\n
Vernon Kay, a recognizable face on British television over the past two decades, became hooked on American football after watching the hits of Ronnie Lott on free-to-air Channel 4 in the 1980s.<\/p>\n
He began playing at 13 and continued throughout his teens. At 36, fate reintroduced him to the game \u2014 and all but one of his former Manchester All Stars team-mates \u2014 when he made a one-off documentary for British terrestrial channel ITV in 2010.<\/p>\n
Again, Allen, the first head coach of the NFL Academy<\/a>,\u00a0had a telling influence.<\/p>\n \u201cI still loved the contact, I love the physicality of American football, I play free safety, and I love it,\u201d Kay says. \u201cTony Allen said, \u2018Look, if you still like playing, come and keep your toe in with the Warriors.\u2019 I went down, did a couple of training sessions, and absolutely loved it.<\/p>\n \u201cI got stuck in and played for four years. The first two years, we lost in the final. The second two years, we won back-to-back BritBowls.<\/p>\n \u201cI got addicted to actually learning American football \u2014 learning about scheming and defense. We weren\u2019t playing it. We were in it. We were all invested, and that\u2019s why I absolutely loved the Warriors to bits.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Presenter Vernon Kay hugs Menelik Watson following an NFL game between the Raiders and the Dolphins at Wembley Stadium in 2014. (Ben Hoskins \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n The BBC Radio 2 host is still in regular contact with many of his former teammates. \u201cI realised that you can take a lot of kids from different backgrounds, different upbringings. We had the whole spectrum of young men and we were all playing on the same team. It didn\u2019t matter where you were from or who you were; everyone was equal. I have nothing but high praise. I always say to Tony that being in the Warriors changed my life,\u201d he adds.<\/p>\n \u201cTony Allen doesn\u2019t like using the phrase \u2018amateur team.\u2019 He doesn\u2019t like using \u2018Sunday league football team.\u2019 Tony wants to achieve professional standards and professional levels. He says, \u2018We play part-time football to a professional standard.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAt practice, his mentality is everything that you would experience in the NFL. You turn up on time, you get your s\u2014 done, you do it to the best of your ability, and I\u2019ll see you at the next training session. It\u2019s very, very rare that any one of the Warriors gets a pat on the back from Tony Allen.\u201d<\/p>\n The special talents: \u2018It made me believe I could make a career out of this\u2019<\/p>\n Temple University is in the heart of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Londoner Peter Clarke, now a junior for the Temple Owls, swapped pie and mash for cheesesteaks in 2023. The tight end caught two touchdowns for the Division I college last year.<\/p>\n He was first introduced to American football through flag football, brought to his school by the Jacksonville Jaguars. He was referred to the Warriors, where he went through the youth system before joining the NFL Academy in Loughborough, England, then progressing to Temple.<\/p>\n \u201cThe London Warriors took my flag understanding, my initial love and fun for the game and made me believe I could make a career out of this, go to university or to a different country and play, and make money from the game,\u201d he told The Athletic in May.<\/p>\n \n Peter Clarke reacts after catching a touchdown against the UTSA Roadrunners in 2023. (Mitchell Leff \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/GettyImages-456280310-scaled.jpg\")
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