About

First Down Scotland

Learn the NFL. Meet fans of your team. Follow that club in one place. Built in Scotland, for the UK.

This site is for people in Scotland and the rest of the UK who keep meaning to “get” American football, then bounce off the jargon, and then realise there is nowhere obvious to talk about it. Three jobs: learn the game, meet fans of the team you support, and keep that club in one place (news, fantasy, podcasts, depth, watch notes) so you are not hopping six American tabs.

Discord is the chat home: general room, an NFL room, and a channel per club so you are not shouting into the void. Join from Community. The pub list is for the real-world bit: places that put the NFL on, where you can sit with people who picked the same side, or arrange a meetup in your team channel.

You can find bits of this elsewhere online. The sell is that this app does it together, in UK English, aimed at Scottish and UK fans. It is not a TV listings clone, a US magazine, a betting tip sheet, or a live play-by-play machine. Kick-off times, live scores and standings come from ESPN’s public APIs and are shown in Europe/London. Rookie Watch uses that draft list plus Sleeper’s public season stats. If a feed fails, we say so. The tone is meant to be welcoming rather than matey-American. We use UK spelling (defence, favourite, organised) and we explain US words when the broadcast will say them differently.

How the site uses your browser, analytics and the contact form is on the Privacy Policy. How you may use the site is on the Terms of use. The contact path is the contact page.

Who it is for

People in Scotland, and in the rest of the UK, who are learning American football or who already follow a club and want other fans in the same time zone. The kick-offs, the spelling and the jokes are aimed at that reader. A US fan can use the pages. The site is not written as if they are the audience.

If you want the short path, start with Learn. If you want the longer explanation of watching, late nights, picking a side, fantasy, pubs or the fan map, start with Guides.

What we publish

Lessons, original guides, fixtures and scores in UK time, a fan map, a community pointer, and plain notes on where to watch. The guides are written by First Down Scotland editorial. Each one carries an updated date. When a fact is seasonal (a TV window, a ticket seller, a kick-off that moves when the clocks change) the page says so.

Updated for the 2026 NFL season. We will keep dating the guides when we revise them, rather than leaving an undated block of advice that quietly goes stale.

Editorial standards

UK English. Defence, favourite, organised. American football words stay when the broadcast will use them, and we explain them.
We do not invent scores, attendance figures, pub listings, fan counts or news.
Live numbers on Scheme Battles come from people who put a town on the map. If the map is empty, the page says it is empty. No demo fans.
Scores and standings come from ESPN’s public APIs. If a feed fails, the page says so.
TV notes are a high-level map for the season. The broadcaster’s own schedule wins if we disagree.
News cards are a headline and a short snippet, then a link to the publisher. We do not reprint their articles.
If something is wrong, use Contact. We would rather correct a dated sentence than leave it up.

What we do not do

Betting tips, odds, or a push towards a bookmaker. The Discord house rules say the same thing.
A scrape farm. Other people’s reporting stays on their sites.
Fake venues. Watch near you lists a Scottish bar only after we have checked it is showing NFL this season.
A pretence that we are the NFL, a club, or a broadcaster. We are an independent project built in Scotland.