It has been common for fans to feel like football has lost some of its magic with star players having less freedom and space to express themselves in open play.

Current professionals however talk about how the quality of players, tactics and coaching staff are better than ever.

Both of these things can be true and looking at how football has become a more structured and choreographed game, resembling American football, can help explain this.

In this article, we analyse tactical ideas Premier League teams are using that resemble the trends seen in the NFL.

‘American football is if every football play was a set-piece’

In a recent interview Los Angeles Rams coach Sean McVay was asked to compare football and the NFL, saying: ”The closest thing to what American football is is if every [football] play was a set-piece. Every play represents a set-piece for us.”

Set-pieces are becoming increasingly important and, if we accept McVay’s expert opinion, the Premier League is resembling the NFL more closely. Corners, free-kicks, throw-ins and even kick-off situations are being prioritised more than in past seasons.

This season, 28.4% of Premier League goals scored have come from set-pieces, the highest of any of the past 10 seasons.

And 3.2% of goals have come from throw-ins, the highest percentage of the past decade too.

It is interesting that McVay was the one to make these observations given his friendship with Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta. Both men are young coaches at the forefront of shaping what their sport looks like tactically and have shared ideas.

In recent seasons, Arsenal have become masters of scoring from set-pieces.

Since the start of the 2023-24 season, they have scored 36 goals from corners in the Premier League, 15 more than any other side in this period.

It is plausible that Arteta’s men, and others, have taken inspiration from teams like the LA Rams to inform their set-piece success.

Image source: Getty Images

Image caption: Mikel Arteta, left, and Sean McVay have formed a working relationship, sharing cross-sport insights

What NFL tactics are we seeing in football?

Teams are prioritising set-pieces and to good success but what are they doing within their routines that resemble the NFL?

Generally, teams are asking their players to run pre-determined routes on set-pieces aiming to make space for a free target. This is a change from the less choreographed routines which were often centred around crossing it to certain zones in the box, relying on your best players to win headers through their physicality and duelling.

Looking at set-plays more closely illustrates the similarities in player movement across both sports.

In the NFL, rub routes are plays in which an attacking player makes a movement that indirectly blocks the path of another player. Attacking players run ‘routes’ close to each other hoping one of their players gets in the way of a defensive back, opening up space for their teammate, particularly against man-to-man pressure.

Gabriel scored the winner against Newcastle impressively but it was William Saliba’s off-the-ball interaction with goalkeeper Nick Pope that helped Arsenal score.

The France centre-back made a forward movement that indirectly blocked Pope’s path to the ball meaning the English keeper was unable to claim the cross. It was not direct blocking but rather indirect crowding of where the opponent may want to go by running a pre-determined path like the NFL’s rub routes.

Image source: BBC Sport

Image caption: Wiliam Saliba runs towards the ball but indirectly prevents Nick Pope from being able to clear the cross by crowding his path

More deliberate blocking is being used frequently in the Premier League too. Teams are placing players in front of goalkeepers tasked with stopping their movement and ability to defend set-plays.

Chelsea scored three corners against West Ham earlier this season and Liam Delap’s role in blocking Hammers keeper Mads Hermansen was key to their success, in a way that resembles some of the off-ball blocking seen in the NFL.

Crystal Palace’s goal against West Ham also showcased the use of deliberate blocking in a way that resembled another more choreographed American sport – basketball.

At the far post, Adam Wharton stood still, putting his body between between Marc Guehi and his marker, blocking the West Ham defender’s path deliberately (unlike the indirect way rub routes impede movement). This meant Palace’s captain was able to break free unmarked.

As a tactic, this looks identical to ‘screening’ in basketball, a move in which a player stands still to block a nearby defender, allowing space for their team-mates to move freely around them.

Image source: BBC Sport

Image caption: Adam Wharton sets a ‘screen’ allowing Marc Guehi to run around his marker while Jean-Phillipe Mateta is acting as a blocker on the West Ham keeper.

The increasing influence of football coaches

What separates football from other sports is just how many factors are at play, making it hard to prepare for everything. In sports like tennis or NFL, games are a series of ‘mini-games’.

Football in open play involves 22 players who can move freely across a big pitch. The picture of the game changes very often and preparing for all of these scenarios is difficult. In football, there is an element of having to let the players make decisions and react to what happens on the spot.

McVay recognises the difference in control between the sports, saying: “What I think is so impressive about what [Arteta] does is he’s translating a vision of how we [coaches] want to be able to see the game and you’re giving players ownership and autonomy just based on the flow of [the game].”

This variance makes football enjoyable for fans but poses uncertainties that some managers may want to reduce. Coaches like Enzo Maresca and Mikel Arteta generally fall into this bracket.

Image source: Getty Images

Image caption: Mikel Arteta and Enzo Maresca embracing

Both Maresca and Arteta prefer to dominate the ball allowing their team to control the game far from their own goal. In previous seasons, Arteta’s approach has been described as pragmatic given the lack of risk taken in their attacking play despite dominating the ball.

By playing more safely in open play, teams are able to reduce the uncertainties before capitalising on the safer, more structured parts of the game like set-pieces.

Given the structured nature of these scenarios, teams are able to prepare for them more reliably in the days leading up to a game too, knowing how opponents are likely to be set up and their weaknesses.

This season Arsenal have begun to introduce more risky and incisive passing particularly through the middle of the pitch which deserves credit but the challenge of balancing risk with control is one managers across the league have to contend with.

Across the league however, it does appear that by making the most of these structured game situations, managers are having a greater influence on the game like their NFL counterparts.

The player landed at the Kotoka International Airport this weekend to a traditional cultural troupe welcome and a royal VIP escort. It is his first visit to the continent.

Williams, 26, is among a long list of American sports stars who have identified Ghana as an alternative holiday destination for the off-season, and is keen to explore the sights and sounds of the West African nation.

“This is just great,” the second-round pick in the 2022 NFL Draft said in an interaction with Ghanaian media.

“I truly hope to recharge after a tough season, reconnect with my roots by enjoying all the great tourist options and rebound for next season.”

The trip, organised by AfriConnect Travel Group LLC, a Dallas-based travel company, in partnership with Cation Ghana Ltd, its Ghanaian affiliate, will see a packed schedule for the football star.

The week-long itinerary will take Williams on a deep cultural exploration, starting with a pilgrimage to Assin Manso Slave River, followed by visits to the Cape Coast and Elmina Castles, and moments of reflection at Coconut Grove Resort.

A scenic escape to Akosombo for a royal durbar and traditional naming ceremony, along with water sports, boat cruises, and luxury lodgings at BridgeView Resort, is also planned.

Williams is expected to tour some Accra-based TV and radio stations to speak about his experiences in Ghana and climax his stay with an unforgettable AfriConnect Beach Extravaganza, rounds of golf, exclusive meet-and-greet sessions, and a flavorful Accra city and food tour.

“This trip is about roots, reconnection, and celebration,” says Dr. Eb Eshun, CEO of AfriConnect Travel Group. “We are honoured to guide Sam on this powerful journey through Ghana’s culture
and history.”

In 2024, Williams, who was expected to have a starring role for the Cowboys, sustained a horrible ACL injury that has taken a while to sort out. However, it is widely expected that he will take the league by storm on its resumption in September.

The Chiefs were playing in their fifth Super Bowl in six years and much of the pre-game hype focused on a potential three-peat.

But the Eagles utterly dominated in New Orleans, in particular their defence, which showed why it has been the NFL’s best this season.

Kansas City’s star quarterback Patrick Mahomes was sacked six times and threw two interceptions as the Chiefs’ bid for NFL immortality was ruthlessly quashed in the Superdome.

It is the Eagles’ second Super Bowl win having claimed their first in 2018, despite the Chiefs managing to keep their star running back Saquon Barkley relatively quiet.

Instead, quarterback Jalen Hurts stepped up to silence those who continue to question his passing game, throwing a superb 46-yard touchdown pass to seal a humbling defeat for the Chiefs.

Victory was revenge for the Eagles’ 38-35 Super Bowl defeat by the Chiefs two years ago, when Hurts put in a superb performance but ended up on the losing side.

This time he helped Philly put the game beyond the Chiefs and was later named the game’s Most Valuable Player.

“I’ve been able to use every experience and learn from it, the good and the bad, using it as fuel,” he said.

“There’s always going to be doubts and questioning, but this is the purpose and my calling in life.

“Things come right on time and you know, the last Super Bowl wasn’t our time yet. Sometimes we have to accept that you have to wait your turn.

“I couldn’t do any of this without the guys around me,” Hurts added. “Defence wins championships. We saw the difference they made in the game today.

“Winning a national championship is just an unprecedented feeling. That kid in me always kept working at this, and I stayed true to his vision.”​​​​​​​

Lacklustre start costs Chiefs historic feat

Image source: Getty Images

Image caption: Eagles players celebrate at full-time

Donald Trump became the first sitting US president to attend America’s biggest game, while Taylor Swift was among the many celebrities at the Superdome, cheering on her boyfriend Travis Kelce, the Kansas City tight end.

Yet he and the Chiefs were never in the game. They earned just one first down in the first half and that was on their very first play.

Philadelphia opened the scoring on their second possession with Hurts scoring on the ‘tush push’ play which they have mastered and no team has found an answer to.

Jake Elliott kicked a field goal on the Eagles’ next possession before their defence took charge, sacking Mahomes on successive plays and on the next, Cooper DeJean returned an interception for a 38-yard touchdown.

Mahomes had gone 298 pass attempts without throwing an interception, and he threw another just five plays later. It was right in front of his own end zone and resulted in a touchdown for AJ Brown.

The Eagles added another field goal after half-time, before Hurts launched the ball down the middle for DeVonta Smith to claim a score fitting for the Super Bowl stage.

Philly fans began mocking the Chiefs by copying their Tomahawk Chop chant, as they faced becoming the first team to be shutout in a Super Bowl.

Kansas City avoided that ignominy with Mahomes throwing a touchdown pass to Xavier Worthy before Elliott added two more field goals in the fourth quarter.

Mahomes found both DeAndre Hopkins and Worthy to score in the final three minutes, but this proved one game too far for the Chiefs, who have at least gone further than any previous back-to-back champion in pursuit of a Super Bowl three-peat.

“Credit to the Eagles, they played better than us from start to finish,” said Mahomes.

“Obviously the turnovers hurt – I’ve just got to take all the blame for that. Those early turnovers swing the momentum of the game and they capitalised on them.

“It was kind of 14 points that I gave them and it’s hard to come back from that at the Super Bowl.

“I just didn’t play to my standard and I have to be better next time.”​​​​​​​

Image source: Reuters

Image caption: The Eagles scored a defensive touchdown through Cooper DeJean, who celebrated his 22nd birthday in style

This year, viewers across the continent will be able to tune in live on both ESPN and ESPN2 (DStv Channel 219) on Sunday, 10 February from 11:00pm.

The much-anticipated showdown will see the defending champions Kansas City Chiefs face the Philadelphia Eagles in the 59th Super Bowl, #ESPNAfricaSuperBowlLVIII.

Fans can expect a game filled with grid-iron action, strategy, and unforgettable moments as the two conference champions battle for the coveted Vince Lombardi Trophy.

This year’s Super Bowl will take place in New Orleans at the Caesars Superdome, home to the New Orleans Saints, with a capacity of 83,000 spectators.

This marks the 11th time New Orleans has hosted the event.

Can the Kansas City Chiefs make history?

This epic match showcases two titanic teams who’ve both made very recent trips to the championship. In Super Bowl 59, the defending champion Kansas City Chiefs will take on the Philadelphia Eagles, their Super Bowl opponent from two years ago, in a rematch for the books.

This showdown also features some of the most celebrated stars in the league – like Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce in the Chiefs, and Jalen Hurts and Saquon Barkley for the Eagles – facing off on the biggest stage in the NFL.

No team has ever won three consecutive Super Bowls. Many teams have won back-to-back Super Bowls, but the Chiefs now have a chance to become the first to achieve historic three-peat success.

Who is performing at the 2025 Super Bowl halftime show?

The Super Bowl halftime show, a 12- to 15-minute musical extravaganza and one of the most coveted slots on the American music calendar, will feature multiple Grammy-winning hip hop artist Kendrick Lamar.

The 37-year-old Lamar, from Compton, the heart of the Los Angeles rap scene, has 22 Grammy wins and previously performed during the Super Bowl halftime show in 2022 alongside Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, Eminem, and Mary J. Blige.

Past Super Bowl halftime performers include The Rolling Stones, Michael Jackson, Prince, Bruce Springsteen, Paul McCartney, Rihanna and Beyoncé. Last season’s performance featured Grammy-winning artist Usher.

More opportunities to watch

For those who can’t catch the action live or those who would simply like to enjoy it more than once, full game repeats will air on ESPN (DStv Channel 218 / GOtv Channel 167) on Monday, 10 February and Tuesday, 11 February at midday, and on ESPN2 (DStv Channel 219) on Monday, 10 February at 6am and 3pm and catch all the action wherever you are on DStv Stream or GOtv Stream.

In addition to the full match replays, a special 55-minute highlight version will also be available, giving fans another opportunity to relive the best moments of the game.

The NFL Super Bowl is more than just a championship game. It’s a cultural phenomenon that brings together sports, music, and entertainment on an unmatched scale.

For updates on the NFL Super Bowl and from the world of American sports, fans can connect to @ESPNAfrica on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram or visit Africa.espn.com. Fans are encouraged to use #ESPNAfricaSuperBowlLVIII for this special event.

The spot featured a spunky, adorable young Ghanaian boy, Kwesi, who loves (American) football and, after running around Accra playing an imaginary football game with NFL stars (Saquon Barkley, Justin Jefferson, Cameron Jordan and Jeremiah Owusu-Koramoah) finds himself at a very real NFL recruitment camp.

There, the ad suggests, Kwesi’s hopes and dreams are realized.

International recruitment in places like Africa, it would seem, is one of the NFL’s solutions to a declining game. Youth participation in the U.S. has steadily diminished since 2009, amid concerns about the game’s major health risks, chiefly brain damage.

The 2021-22 National Federation of State High School Associations’ High School Athletics Participation Survey revealed a 12.2% decline in youth participation from a 2008-09 peak, and it “was the first [year] on record with fewer than a million players participating in 11-player high school football in America since the turn of the century,” according to the U.S. News & World Report.

And this has shifted the demographics in participation, too, as kids from more affluent backgrounds withdraw from tackle football, and participants are increasingly from poorer communities. 

A league that had $11.98 billion in revenue in 2022 recruiting in more economically vulnerable places like Ghana, which for so long were plundered by colonizers, seems like a natural extension for an organization known for being racially exploitative, but it is particularly dismaying given America’s legacy of slavery.

The optics of the league’s white billionaire owners mining Africa for Black bodies in a dangerous sport are, well, not good.

It is, of course, important not to strip the Kwesis and their families of agency here. Playing in the NFL is a dream for many young players, wherever they live, and the financial benefits can transform lives, sometimes outweighing the risks of playing for some.

Conversely, it is also important to note the NFL has also been mired in criticism for being a racially predatory organization.

In 2012, thousands of NFL players and their family members filed a class action lawsuit against the NFL, seeking compensation for the neurological damage those players sustained from playing the game.

And while the plaintiffs won, the NFL participated in a horrifying practice called “race-norming.” The NFL alleged that Black people have lower cognitive abilities than white people, so any damage done to their brains would inherently warrant less or no money.

That racist formula limited Black plaintiffs’ access to the $1 billion in damages the NFL agreed to pay in a settlement. The NFL finally ended “race-norming” in 2021, after a civil rights lawsuit accused the organization of racial bias and outrage ensued. 

Furthermore, Brian Flores, the current defensive coordinator for the Minnesota Vikings, and a former head coach for the Miami Dolphins, accused the organization of being racist in a 2022 lawsuit. In an excerpt from the filing, he accuses the NFL of operating like a plantation:

[T]he NFL is racially segregated and is managed much like a plantation. Its 32 owners — none of whom are Black — profit substantially from the labor of NFL players, 70% of whom are Black. The owners watch the games from atop NFL stadiums in their luxury boxes, while their majority-Black workforce put their bodies on the line every Sunday, taking vicious hits and suffering debilitating injuries to their bodies and their brains while the NFL and its owners reap billions of dollars.

Yet, as Sunday night’s Super Bowl ad suggests, the NFL wants to expand its racial exploitation. Thus far, approximately 7% of NFL players are already of African descent.

“Growing the NFL globally is a major strategic priority for the League and developing our footprint and fandom in Africa is an important part of this vision,” Brett Gosper, head of NFL Europe & Africa, said in an NFL press release in April 2023 ahead of a planned recruitment camp in Kenya.

“We are excited to expand NFL Africa into Kenya and look forward to creating opportunities for the next generation of African players and fans there to engage with our sport.”

Again, while recruits have agency and the reasons for joining the NFL are varied, we must also acknowledge the desperate social and economic conditions that compel some people to pursue such a dangerous career in exchange for financial compensation — and the fact that the NFL is turning to communities where people are likely to be more vulnerable to such tradeoffs.

I don’t think it’s a coincidence that as the NFL pipeline dwindles, domestically, the organization has turned to places like Kenya and Ghana to fill the gap. Sadly, it’s a move that reeks of colonial exploitation.

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The initiative is being championed by the office of the Vice President, Dr Mahamudu Bawumia, who partnered the NFL to organise a special talent development among 10 selected schools in Ghana in 2022.

Out of this tournament, 10 young Ghanaians were selected to represent Africa at the 2023 Pro Bowl, a special tournament which precedes the famous Super Bowl.

Encouraged by this, the Sports Minister, in a press briefing on Wednesday, said the sport will soon be introduced to school children nationwide.

“We are excited to introduce this new sport to our children in the schools. Remarkably, these young Ghanaians placed 4th behind experienced participants like the USA, Mexico and Australia,” he said.

“The partnership with the NFL continues and later this year, the number of participating schools is expected to increase in the 2nd edition of the developmental NFL Flag Football Competition, which will also select the best players for next year’s Pro Bowl.”

American football is a team sport played by two teams of 11 players on a rectangular field with goalposts at each end.

The Tema-based musician’s song ‘Winning’ has been chosen as one of the soundtracks for the newest version of the American football video game EA Sports Madden NFL 23.

The song was released in May 2021 and featured American rapper Vic Mensa.

The song is also featured on Kwesi Arthur’s first album, Son Of Jacob.

The Madden NFL 23 soundtrack also has on it songs from Kendrick Lamar, Snoop Dogg, Earth Gang, Ty Dollar $ign, Nas, Erica Banks, Pusher T and Joey Bada$$.

Taking to Instagram, Kwesi Arthur shared the flyer to his stories.

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