Today's Tidbit... American Football at London's Crystal Palace in 1910

American football's popularity continues to grow internationally. Leagues comprised of natives and American ex-pats exist in many countries. We also have NFL and college games played in the U.K. and Ireland that are like football's destination weddings; most prefer they just stay home, but some tag along to make a vacation of attending.

American football exists due to our playing Canadians in rugby, and we've continued playing cross-border games despite different rules developing in each country. Early exposure to American football in other parts of the world was less common. As we've covered previously, the first of those games included:

• The Universities of Texas and Missouri playing in Mexico in 1896

• Teams from the Navy's U.S.S. Kansas and U.S.S. Minnesota, then part of the Great White Fleet, played in Nice, France, in January 1909.

While the U.S.S. Kansas and U.S.S. Minnesota game was the first American football game played in Europe, the following year saw three games played by U.S. Navy battleship crews while visiting the U.K. The ships, with crews exceeding 800, had more men available for their football teams than most colleges of the time.