Massachusetts (US): It's Sunday afternoon and the Palakurthi family is getting ready for a much-anticipated game. Hint: it's not cricket.
It's in fact the biggest American obsession: American football, a game so obtuse to most non-Americans that they think of it simply as burly boys bulldozing into each other.
“Nothing can be further from the truth. Football is actually the perfect balance of brain and brawn. It's a game of incredible strategy,” said Prashanth Palakurthi, 64, a retired entrepreneur who has been following the game for the last 30 years.
The sport has found an unlikely fan following among Indians in America, from first to third generation, some of whom go to extreme lengths to support and follow their teams, even spending a small fortune.
The pursuit of their passion rivals the craze in India for say, Chennai Super Kings or Mumbai Indians in the IPL.
“Chalo chalo, let's go!” Palakurthi exhorted his family, as they got into three cars to travel 45 kilometers (27 miles) from Weston town, a suburb of Boston, to the Gillette Stadium in Foxboro where their team, New England Patriots, clashed with Green Bay Packers of Wisconsin state.
Palakurthi, a first-generation immigrant who came to the United States in 1996, first infected his wife Anuradha with his enthusiasm for the sport. Two of his children were raised on football from the cradle. His son-in-law, daughter-in-law, two sisters and their families are all Patriot fans.
The latest entrants to Palakurthi's Patriot fan club are his two granddaughters, one of whom celebrated her first birthday on Sunday at the game, wearing a navy blue Patriots jersey.
Football is to America what cricket is to India, and games are as much visual carnivals as they are a sport, akin to IPL matches complete with fireworks, cheerleaders and even Air Force fly pasts.
Football players are highly paid superstars, with the top ones earning as much as USD 60 million a year.
So why and how do Indians develop love for a sport that's so unfamiliar?
Firstly, sport fulfills a human need and people the world over either play a game or at least follow a team. When Indians moved to the US, they naturally searched for a sport to follow.
Arun Santhanam came to the US in 1993 and found three sporting choices: baseball, basketball and football.
“If you are a cricket fan you will never take to baseball. It is too inferior. Basketball becomes interesting only in the last few minutes, so that's also out. That leaves me with just football,” said Santhanam.
It took a little while to understand the intricacies of the sport, “but when I did, I was hooked,” he said.
He says virtually every Indian he knows is a football fan. They follow their teams — usually attached to a state — ardently.
Football is also the best way to connect with co-workers and it acts as a social bridge. Colleagues spend considerable amount of time on Monday mornings at work to discuss the Sunday game, a ritual known as Monday morning quarterbacking.
Neighbors get together for barbecues and football watch parties.
“It takes a lot of energy to hate the sport in America. It is easier to love it,” said Anuradha, Palakurthi's wife.
Palakurthi calls football the “best sport in the world,” and points out that it's the only sport where all 11 players are competing with the rival 11 players at all times during play.
Interestingly, the game is controlled from the sidelines by the coach who is passing on precise instructions to the quarterback, a sort of enforcer, on the strategy via earpieces.
The rules of the game are highly complicated, so is its management. Each team has around 65 players, but during the game 48 are played: 11 as offense players who come in when the team has the possession of the oblong ball, 11 defense players who are trying to snatch the ball from the rivals, and 11 special team players to perform roles such as punting, kicking, field goals etc. In addition to these 33 players, 15 are substitutes, who are deployed frequently.
Think of it as a cricket team having 11 batters, 11 bowlers, 11 fielders, and 15 substitutes.
Watching the game on TV is the cheapest option and like in cricket, one gets to see close-up of every play. But the real fun and comprehensive view is only in the stadium. However, be prepared to shell out as much as USD 20,000 per person for a 20-game season pass.
The very elite buy suites at stadiums at enormous cost.
Palakurthi's wife Anuradha, a well-known New England singer with footprint in Bollywood, has an 18-seat air conditioned heated suite at the Gillette stadium to which she and her husband bring their family and friends.
It sits bang above the centreline, has a sliding window, a bathroom, coffee bar and a fridge.
“After music, football is my second biggest passion,” said Anuradha.
Football is a well-honed industry. There are 32 teams nationally under the National Football League. They replenish players from colleges, some of which are known more for their sporting output than academics.
Each year, the NFL teams draft roughly 220 to 250 college players through a structured, reverse standing selection process.
The NFL team with the worst record from the previous season receives the top player from college football and the top team gets the bottom college player, and so on.
Apart from the Indian fan base, football does not have too many Indian connections. However, in the recent mid-term elections on November 3, Amish Shah, an Indian origin candidate, defeated former NFL player Jay Feely in a Congressional race in Arizona. Notably, Shah previously worked with the NFL's New York Jets.
The New England Patriots, widely regarded as the dominant NFL dynasty of the early 2000s and 2010s, reached nine Super Bowls, the pinnacle of the annual football cycle. The team was then anchored by quarterback Tom Brady, often regarded as the Don Bradman of American football.
Brady, who retired from the sport in 2023 and became a television commentator, appeared for the first time at his former home ground, the Gillette stadium, to comment for Fox Television.
Alas, he had to watch his team get hammered by the Packers 27-45.