LONDON — It wasn’t easy being an NFL fan living in England in the early 1980s. The highlights shown locally were from the previous week. The only live NFL television broadcast in the 1982 season was of Super Bowl XVII.

No matter. It was still enough to pique the interest of lifelong England resident Peter Philip.

He followed along in 1982 when the highlights started being shown, then, in 1983, he attended the exhibition game between the Vikings and the St. Louis Cardinals at Wembley Stadium in London.

“I got tickets for that and I thought, ‘If I’m going to go, I need to pick a team to support,’” Philip said. “I picked the Vikings, and we went from there.”

After the Vikings earned a 28-10 win over the Cardinals, Philip, now 63, was hooked. He kept up as much as he could from afar, watch

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