FEATURE · FROM YORKSHIRE TO THE U
I’ve supported Bradford City for more than 30 years. I’ve never been to the University of Miami, never lived in Florida and have never played a snap of American football. Yet somehow I regularly find myself awake at 4am worrying about the Miami Hurricanes. So what actually makes someone a fan?
I actually started writing this article a few weeks ago, then left it sitting unfinished. The game against Florida State made sure I came back to it.
At around 4am in Yorkshire, I was stood in my front room with my hands on my head as Miami tried to finish off a ridiculous double-overtime rivalry game. Bryce Fitzgerald had come down with the ball on the final play, but I wasn’t celebrating yet. I wanted the review finished. I wanted to see the officials confirm the interception and know that Miami had actually beaten Florida State 43-35.
When the call finally stood, the relief was massive. More than anything, it made the question behind this article feel a bit easier to answer. I cared far too much for this to be a team I simply followed from a distance. That feeling after the final play probably cemented just how much I love the Canes.
I was so hyped afterwards that by the time the adrenaline wore off and I finally went to bed, it was after 5am.
The article wasn’t staying unfinished after that.
If you’d asked me who I supported growing up in Yorkshire, the answer would have come without much thought.
Bradford City.
That is partly because if someone asks that question in Yorkshire, they are almost certainly talking about football. I work in Leeds, where sport is a huge part of the city, and “who do you support?” usually means one thing.
But Bradford City is also the natural answer because it has been part of my life for as long as I can remember.
I started going when I was about five. More than 30 years later, I’m still a season-ticket holder.
I’ve seen some incredible things following City. I was there when Bradford beat Chelsea at Stamford Bridge in the FA Cup. I went to Wolves away when we won promotion to the Premier League. There have been promotions, cup runs, terrible seasons, brilliant seasons and plenty of Saturdays where you wonder why you bother.
I’ve hugged complete strangers at football matches.
That probably tells you everything.
There have been periods when life has made getting to games more difficult, and away games are much harder now because of family commitments and cost, but I’ve still kept my season ticket.
Bradford City feels like part of who I am.
Which makes the other team I spend a ridiculous amount of my life thinking about slightly harder to explain.
Because Hard Rock Stadium is a long way from Yorkshire.
THE DISTANCE
Supporting a Team You’ve Never Seen
Miami isn’t actually the first team from abroad that I’ve followed.
When I was five or six, I got a Barcelona kit while on holiday in Spain. I don’t really remember getting the shirt, but I still own it today.
It would have been around the period Gary Lineker was playing for Barcelona, and for whatever reason the blaugrana colours stuck with me.
Through the 2000s, that interest became something much bigger.
Patrick Kluivert was probably my first real favourite Barcelona player. Then Ronaldinho arrived and helped change the direction of the club. After that came Messi, Xavi, Iniesta and one of the greatest periods any football supporter could hope to watch.
People would occasionally give me the usual line.
You’re from Bradford. How can you support Barcelona?
It never really bothered me.
I wasn’t pretending Barcelona were my local club. Bradford City were always there. I was a season-ticket holder and had grown up supporting them.
I just loved football and I loved Barcelona too.
Even now, more than 20 years later, I still try to watch them whenever I can.
I’ve never seen Barcelona play in person.
Does that mean the last two decades don’t count?
I don’t think so.
And that probably explains why supporting Miami has never felt quite as strange to me as it might look from the outside.
THE JOURNEY
Finding The U From Yorkshire
My first encounters with college football came during the 2000s.
Back then we had the North American Sports Network in the UK, and they would show NCAA games. Sometimes I’d be watching late at night at the weekend. Other times I’d get home after a night out and find college football still going.
Then Miami appeared on the screen.
The uniforms.
The colours.
The attitude.
The swagger.
I remember looking at them and thinking, wow.
There was something different about Miami.
The problem was that following college football properly from the UK wasn’t easy.
I played the old NCAA video games throughout the 2000s, but eventually the NFL became my main American football fix. It was simply more accessible. Sky Sports carried the games, coverage was easier to find and following the league required much less effort.
Miami never completely disappeared, but college football drifted into the background.
Then College Football 25 came out.
And I thought: let’s get back to The U.
I even did one of those online “which college football team should you support?” quizzes.
Miami came out.
That settled it.
Clearly the internet had spoken.
There was also a change in my own life. My kids were getting older and evenings started giving me a little more time to do my own thing again.
So when Miami opened the Cam Ward era against Florida, I was watching.
And this time I stayed.
THE COMMITMENT
When Does Following Become Fandom?
There is an interesting thing about supporting Miami.
I regularly see the jokes online that Miami fans never actually attended the University of Miami.
I definitely didn’t.
I’ve never lived in Miami either.
I’m just some bloke in Yorkshire.
So could someone who attended UM reasonably say that I’m not really a Hurricane?
Maybe.
But my response would probably be:
Have you ever had to stay awake until 5am watching the Canes?
Because supporting Miami from the UK requires a slightly different form of commitment.
Game days can involve tactical naps and strategically timed cups of tea. Kick-off might be at midnight, 12:30am, 1am or later.
My Miami game-day setup is normally the television showing the game, an iPad for stats, my phone for social media and sometimes a laptop involved somewhere as well.
There is something quite unique about sitting in Yorkshire at 3am in the middle of October, everyone else asleep, watching college football with a cup of tea and a packet of digestives.
It sounds ridiculous when you say it out loud.
It probably is ridiculous.
I absolutely love it.
THE 5AM TEST
The 5am Test
Some games make you question your life choices more than others.
The comeback against Cal was completely mad. Cam Ward leading Miami back was exactly the sort of night where staying awake suddenly feels worthwhile.
Then there are the games that seem determined never to finish. Rain delays are particularly enjoyable when you’re already several hours ahead of everyone in the stadium.
But the hardest one was the National Championship Game.
It was Tuesday morning in the UK by the time Miami’s final drive was unfolding.
There were around 40 seconds left.
A potential game-winning drive.
Then the interception.
Game over.
After 5am in Yorkshire.
That one hurt.
And maybe that is where the question about fandom starts answering itself.
Why should it hurt?
It’s a university I never attended, playing in a city thousands of miles away. Logically, the result changes absolutely nothing about my life.
Except by the time a Miami game starts, I’ve already invested hours into it.
I’ve followed the injury news, watched press conferences, listened to podcasts, read team updates, thought about match-ups and checked social media. I’ve looked forward to kick-off all day.
Then you stay up half the night watching.
Losing at 4 or 5am hits differently.
It isn’t actually that different from Bradford City.
If Bradford play well, give everything and lose a tough game, you can live with it a little easier. If they are poor, or a few questionable decisions cost the game, it stays with you.
Miami is the same.
Because they’re my team.
That is probably the simplest explanation.
THE MODERN FAN
Fandom Has Changed
The way we follow sport has changed massively.
There will be Miami fans whose parents went to The U, whose grandparents went there and whose entire family has been connected to the Hurricanes for generations.
I think that is brilliant.
It is the same reason I love seeing families supporting Bradford City together. There is something special about fandom being passed down.
But technology has created another route into it.
From Yorkshire I can watch Miami games live, follow recruiting and see team news almost instantly. I can watch Mario Cristobal’s press conferences and listen to Canes podcasts every day.
And I do.
Alex Donno and Locked On Canes have become part of the routine. Donno does a fantastic job, and the live premieres also mean I can chat with other fans while watching.
I regularly watch Comics on Canes, Canes Insight and Canes Pulse, alongside national college football podcasts like Bunch Formation and Sickos Committee
This isn’t something I check once a week.
It has become a full-time sporting obsession.
THE COMMUNITY
The Canes Community
The biggest change has probably come through creating Canes Across the Pond.
What started as somewhere to talk about Miami football from a UK perspective has gradually connected me with people I would never otherwise have met.
I’ve appeared a few times on the College Football UK Podcast on the AAW Network.
I’ve appeared in a video by Canes creator Ava Kezirian.
At the Union Jack Classic in London, I was wearing Canes gear and had one person actually recognise me and come over for a chat.
For someone running a small Miami site from Yorkshire, that was pretty surreal.
Then there are the smaller interactions.
The YouTube chats during Canes shows.
Talking football with ITK from Cincinnati.
Chatting with GACanesFan, who at one point was kind enough to send me a recipe for ranch sauce.
I’m not sure there is a better example of modern international sports fandom than a Miami Hurricanes supporter in Yorkshire receiving ranch advice from another Canes fan on the internet.
During FSU weekend there was probably no better example of international Canes fandom than Richard Sasaki, better known online as Richard from Tokyo.
He follows Miami from Japan, has no South Florida roots and has become one of the most recognisable Canes fans outside Miami.
This time he was actually in Miami, meeting players and coaches, touring the facilities and standing pitchside at Hard Rock Stadium.
Watching it all unfold from Yorkshire, I couldn’t help thinking he was basically living the dream for Canes fans all over the world who normally experience The U through a screen thousands of miles away.
That community matters.
When you watch games alone at stupid o’clock, having people thousands of miles away talking about exactly the same interception, touchdown, recruit or coaching decision makes the sport feel considerably closer.
Canes Across the Pond has made me feel like a small part of that.
And I’m perfectly happy being a small part.
THE DEBATE
Does Distance Matter?
I think this is where the argument becomes interesting.
Imagine someone lives five minutes from Hard Rock Stadium but barely watches anything about Canes Football outside of games.
Another person lives thousands of miles away, watches every game they can, follows recruiting, consumes Canes content every day and rearranges their sleep schedule around kick-off times.
Which one is the fan?
For me, geography alone cannot answer that question.
The same applies to Bradford.
I’ve been a season-ticket holder for years but can’t attend many away games now because family life and cost make it difficult.
That doesn’t suddenly make me less of a Bradford City supporter.
Life happens.
Being a fan isn’t an attendance competition.
It is the emotional connection that matters. The time you give it, the memories you build, the anticipation before games and the disappointment afterwards.
The completely irrational belief that watching another podcast at lunchtime might somehow reveal the piece of information that changes Saturday’s result.
And apparently spending hundreds of pounds on Miami clothing.
That has been another challenge.
Supporting an American team from Britain gets expensive quickly. Shipping alone can easily end up around £50 or £60 once you start ordering gear from the States, before you even get onto taxes and the actual cost of whatever you bought.
Yet somehow another orange and green item keeps appearing.
Funny that.
THREE TEAMS
Three Teams, Three Different Stories
Bradford City, Barcelona and Miami Hurricanes couldn’t be more different.
One is eight miles or so of familiar roads, decades of Saturdays and a stadium where I’ve been going since childhood.
One began with a football shirt bought on holiday in Spain when I was five or six.
The other started with late-night American television, disappeared for a while and came roaring back through a video game and Cam Ward.
I support all three.
I don’t feel the need to rank which fandom is more legitimate.
They just mean different things.
Bradford is home.
Barcelona is a connection that has somehow lasted from childhood through Kluivert, Ronaldinho, Messi and beyond.
Miami is something different again.
It’s knowing a roster thousands of miles away, recognising recruits you’ve never met and talking Hurricanes football with American fans you would never have known existed 20 years ago.
It’s a television, laptop, tablet and phone all running simultaneously while you desperately try not to fall asleep.
It’s tactical naps, tea and digestives.
It’s occasionally wondering at 4:27am what exactly has gone wrong with your life.
Then Miami score.
And suddenly everything makes perfect sense again.
THE LAST WORD
The Last Word from Across the Pond
So can you really be a Miami Hurricanes fan from Yorkshire?
I think so.
College football is brilliant fun to watch. If you’re new to the sport, the College Football Basics guides are a good place to start.
Miami are a fascinating team with a great fanbase, and following the sport from Britain has never been easier. With games increasingly accessible through services such as DAZN and Disney+, the Atlantic doesn’t feel quite as wide as it once did.
I’ve never studied at The U or lived in Miami. I’ve never played a snap of American football.
But I know what it feels like when Miami win, and I certainly know what it feels like when they lose.
I’ve spent far too much money getting Hurricanes gear shipped across the Atlantic, built friendships through the team and created Canes Across the Pond because I wanted somewhere to talk about this programme from a British perspective.
And that Florida State game probably summed it up better than anything.
There I was at 4am in Yorkshire, waiting for an interception to be confirmed, absolutely desperate for a university football team in Miami to win.
When they did, the relief was ridiculous.
So when somebody asks how I can possibly support a university football team thousands of miles away, maybe I don’t need some complicated philosophical answer.
Maybe fandom isn’t about proving anything.
Sometimes you just find a team.
And somewhere along the way, they become yours.
Go Canes.
