{"id":31734,"date":"2019-11-05T14:58:20","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T14:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/thevoiceoflondon.co.uk\/?p=31734"},"modified":"2019-11-05T14:58:20","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T14:58:20","slug":"meet-claire-da-bear-uks-official-nfl-superfan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/meet-claire-da-bear-uks-official-nfl-superfan\/","title":{"rendered":"Meet Claire Da Bear: UK\u2019s official NFL superfan\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"

Claire Da Bear, the official NFL superfan of the United Kingdom, wants to share her love for American football with fans around the world.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Source: Claire Da Bear<\/p><\/div>\n

Hailing from Surrey, England, Claire\u2019s love for the sport started at the age of three with a chance viewing of Super Bowl XX in January 1986. The Chicago Bears were battling the New England Patriots for the championship title and it was in the waiting room of St. Peter’s Hospital during the birth of her baby brother where her love for the game instantly developed.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was during that moment that I decided the Chicago Bears would be my team,\u201d expressed Claire, who wears a personalised Bears jersey during each of her public appearances. \u201cThey ended up winning that Super Bowl and my nickname was Claire Bear which meant I shared the same initials as the team. So, that\u2019s how I decided I was going to be a loyal fan.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Source: Claire Da Bear<\/p><\/div>\n

It has been over three decades since Claire began her love affair with the popular American sport and her love continues to grow. She has been recognised as a prominent voice within the NFL community in the UK and was featured in a video for Yahoo! Sports in early January 2019.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Yy0IlcHoLfY&w=560&h=315]<\/p>\n

Since London began hosting NFL games in 2007, she has religiously attended every professional game played in the UK but one\u2014which she missed due to being in Las Vegas for a wedding but still made sure to catch the game at the sportsbook in Caesar Palace Hotel and Casino.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI absolutely love attending the NFL games in London because it has such a fun, party atmosphere,\u201d said Claire during an interview outside Wembley Stadium for the match between the Cincinnati Bengals and Los Angeles Rams. \u201cAll jerseys are welcome. All fans are welcome. It\u2019s an event that truly highlights the genuine love for the sport.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Source: Claire Da Bear<\/p><\/div>\n

Claire isn\u2019t the only hardcore NFL fan that resides in the UK. She joins the growing number of NFL ambassadors who use their social media platforms to reach football fans across the globe. Claire leads the passionate online community alongside Crusader Raider<\/a>, NFL Girl UK<\/a> and the Kilted Texan<\/a>\u00a0to name a few.<\/span><\/p>\n

What makes Claire unique is her incredibly diverse NFL giveaways that she hosts on her impressive Twitter<\/a> account with over 10,000 followers. To date, Claire has held 190 fan giveaways of merchandise that she has obtained from attending signing events with popular teams and notable athletes. Everything up for grabs during her online competitions has been won by Claire herself or has been donated from a retired independent sport shop-owner who loved her selfless nature. <\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"

Source: Claire Da Bear<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cIt feels great to give away merchandise that fans might never have the chance to get their hands on otherwise,\u201d states Claire, who even offers giveaways during the offseason. \u201cI\u2019m able to meet a lot of players at signings since the NFL comes to the UK so gifting international fans with signed sports memorabilia that aren\u2019t able to attend these events is very rewarding.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Follow @clairedabear85 on Twitter<\/a><\/span>\u00a0for her next giveaway this week that runs from Monday 4 November until Friday 8 November\u00a0<\/span>and check out Voice of London\u2019s exclusive interview with Claire Da Bear outside Wembley Stadium in the video below.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

[youtube https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=VKN4qen4RxM&w=560&h=315]<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Words by: Tatiana Solomon<\/p>\n

Photos: Claire Da Bear<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Claire Da Bear, the official NFL superfan of the United Kingdom, wants to share her love for American football with fans around the world.\u00a0 Hailing from Surrey, England, Claire\u2019s love for the sport started at…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":476,"featured_media":31750,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,116],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-31734","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-american-sports","category-sport"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31734","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/476"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=31734"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31734\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31734"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31734"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.westminster.ac.uk\/thevoiceoflondon\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31734"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}