The US loves American football. I mean, really loves it. It’s the country’s number one sport in terms of popularity and attendance. More people go to NFL football games in the US than any other sporting event in the world, and the championship game, the Super Bowl, ranks among the most-watched sporting events globally. This makes the sport—known in some countries as gridiron football to distinguish it from soccer—a financial powerhouse, with the NFL bringing in around ten billion USD a year.

Despite all of this, in the bigger picture, American football has stayed pretty resolutely grounded to North America. But that isn’t to say other countries haven’t been getting in the game. A handful of other countries are showing interest, with teams and leagues popping up all over the world—including China.

Leading the charge is Shawn Liu from Hebei province, captain and safety of the Beijing Cyclones football team and a devoted Troy Polamalu fan. Liu found the sport in Singapore and has been in love with it ever since. “I first saw a US football game was when I was in college; I went to college in Singapore, so it was a Super Bowl game, I think. Everybody was crowded around watching the TV. It was Chinese New Year. I couldn’t understand the game then, but I knew it was interesting. I could see the hits—it was very powerful, very amazing.”

Afterwards, Liu left the game with an itch he couldn’t scratch, and he started to do some research into the sport. “I started looking on the internet, and I searched for the rules, and I started to watch the game. Once I understood the rules, I felt like this game was so amazing! I started to study football, and when I came back to China, I learned how to coach football players, because I used to run track when I was in college…I’d study the plays and the strategies, and then I started a team.”

Chris McLaurin, commissioner of the American Football League of China (AFLC) and an avid Detroit Lions fan, originally came to China to study Chinese culture, but once his football past came out, he found himself sharing a bit of his own. “When I came to China, I met a group of guys, about ten or 15 guys in Chongqing, who were really interested in learning from me about how to play football. So I worked with them over the course of a year to help found the first football team in Chongqing. We moved from 15 guys to 25 guys to 35 guys, now we have about 65 players on the roster. So there’s a genuine interest in the game in China.”