New Orleans Saints: Interview With Ash Pimble From The UK (Part 1)
By Dean Mullen
Who Dat Dish takes a few minutes to talk to a member of Who Dat Nation overseas. His name is Ash Pimble, and it was honor to get some feedback overseas from someone that lives there.
Here is the questions and answers that occurred about a week ago. Who Dat Nation expands across the globe, more than people think.
Dean Mullen: So tell me how you became a Saints fan and football in general?
Ash Trimble: I became a Saints fan back in 2001. Me and my friend just left college (UK) so we decided to celebrate and wanted to visit America, but not the British hotspots like NY, LA, Florida. We wanted somewhere different.
We looked at three top locations advised by the travel agent. One was Texas, the second was Louisiana and the third was Georgia. Georgia didn’t fancy us, because it was so far inland from the water. So, it was down to Texas and Louisiana. After much discussion, we chose Louisiana. Then we decided to stay in New Orleans, or N’awlins as I now know how to pronounce the city correctly.
It was in October we visited, and the one Sunday we left our hotel room and saw many people heading towards the Superdome. We as tourists didn’t have a clue what was going on, so I stopped a gentleman who must have been in his 40s all dressed up in the black and gold asked where was he going? He looked at me and said “It’s Saints football” and I turned to my friend and I’m like “Cool they have professional football (soccer) here too.” So we headed to a nearby bar and the game was on and it was against the Atlanta Falcons.
Imagine my surprise and stupidity as I found out what American football was. So me and my friend were talking to this guy who gave us the crash course in football 101. Unfortunately, the Saints lost that day 20-13.
Both us were told that the Falcons were the rival of the Saints. So, after an hour of talking to both of us. Quickly we were hooked and luckily for me, I was starting to get a grip on the NFL. It was becoming more and more popular in the UK which meant more live games. Additionally, the international series started and now the UK base even has access to the NFL Game Pass. At current, we can watch every single game like any other fan.
DM: So what’s your view of the 2017 season and going forward?
AT: I think we can get a winning season and break that 7-9 curse that’s plagued us for the past three years. In the latter half of the season, our defense started to fire on all cylinders and started to get together. Now you thrown in a good cornerback and a MLB in the draft, and I think we can challenge for the NFC South title once again. The division will be highly contested with all the teams getting better. Seven of our losses came within seven points. If we win those close games, then we are in the playoffs or even a #1 seed. Just need to close out those tight games.
DM: Also what are the most popular teams in the UK? Are the Saints making some noise out there.
AT: There was a survey completed at the start of last year that showed that the following teams were ranked in this order:
- Patriots
- Packers
- Giants
- Dolphins
- Seahawks
The Big Easy Mafia founder Erick Engelhardt had contacted me. Engelhardt got in touch with a friend of mine Richard Jeremiah. He only lives a couple of miles away from me who is also a Who Dat. Surprisingly, he said they were looking to create a UK based fan club, so he created a Facebook page and made us editors of the page. I am more of a Twitter user, so we took it upon ourselves to create a Twitter account, and we are finding more and more Saints fans every week. We currently have 77 followers which doesn’t seem much, but we have been active only since January 15th. Furthermore, we are looking for more and more people everyday to make the UK a force to rival the BIG 5 fan bases mentioned above.
DM: Are there any misconceptions that Americans have about the UK or stereotypes that maybe we can straighten out?
AT: No one in British history has ever attended Hogwarts witchcraft and wizardry if that’s what you’re getting at! LOL
There isn’t much just one British accent, there are varieties of accents up and down the UK. There are FOUR nations that make up the UK not just England/London. Wales, Scotland, England, and Northern Ireland are the four nations. Each one has their own national flag. Wales is my home nation that has a flag with white and green with a red dragon on it. England has a white background with a red cross on it. Scotland has a blue background with a white diagonal cross on it, and Northern Ireland has the same as England but has a crown and a hand in the middle to signify the territory of Ulster.
To be Continued…
Follow Ash Pimble on Twitter @NewportDragon83 or @UKchapterBEM