With American Bowl were American football games of the National Football League (NFL) outside the United States referred, which were carried out in the summer before the start of the actual season as preparation games.
Between 1950 and 1983, 13 NFL or AFL professional friendlies took place outside the USA, mostly in Canada. An Intercontinental Football League was planned for the 1970s , and games were also played in Tokyo (1976), Mexico City (1978) and London (1983).
Thanks to cable television, the NFL became popular in Great Britain. For the first time in 1986 a preparatory game was held under the name American Bowl in London's Wembley Stadium . The series was continued and expanded to improve its international presence. Obviously the Vikings competed in Scandinavia.
From 1990 five American Bowls were held in the Berlin Olympic Stadium in order to advertise the game operations of the WLAF and later NFL Europe, which began in 1991 .
The last American Bowl took place in Tokyo in 2005 . Instead of the bowl, it was decided that one regular season game would be played away from home every year . The first foreign league game took place in Mexico in October 2005. The Arizona Cardinals celebrated a 31-14 win against the San Francisco 49ers in front of over 100,000 spectators .
