Inception
In March of 2026, I began working in a volunteer position with the Pryor Center for Arkansas Oral and Visual History. Having fact-checked, edited, and formatted over 100 hours of interviews on subjects as niche as a South Arkansas Tomato Festival and as juicy as the acquisition of the Dallas Cowboys, I figured I had enough practice to start working on projects of my own. One of these continued the regional connection and sought to interview people connected with the Arkansas Razorbacks. The other, while still football related, became a little more pressing after a last-minute move.
After moving to New York and finally staying in the same house as the love of my life, I got offered a job in San Jose, California with a week’s notice. Learning that they were fully willing to sponsor my visa, I made the move, relocating three timezones away from my friends and family to a place I’d only ever visited for 6 hours during the Superbowl. I didn’t realise how much those three timezones would affect me until I realised that my best friend and confidant would have been asleep for three hours before I ever left work.
I needed friends. People I had something in common with, even if that thing was groaning my way through every NFL season. Having signed up as a Browns Backer on their website, I reached out to the Bay Area Browns Backers, where Bud Genovese and his amazing wife Ling took me under their wing. The sense of community was as immediate as it was amazing: a theme I’ve heard in multiple interviews with other Backers who also moved overseas.
Development
As I planned to cold-email over 350 separate Backers Chapters, I had to make my message short, snappy, yet personal enough. I created a pitch document which clearly reflected the team’s colours and spoke to the international nature of the Backers organisation. I also made sure to include the interview script within it;
Honesty is the best policy: it’s the first oral history project I’d ever conducted, and I felt it was important to let everyone know that I was open to taking suggestions on board. While I had already developed the ten basic questions I asked all the interviewees, Bud offered up some excellent suggestions in the aftermath of his own interview:
1) Remove the references to age from the second question. Good point.
2) Ask the international fans how they adjusted to timezones to watch the games.
I also debated asking any chapters with a logo that differed from the regular format what had inspired the symbolism of their logo. I still might.
Execution
I first sent out interview requests on the 26th May 2026, targeting the international chapters first as I knew I would have to adjust to the timezones.
I didn’t expect to complete 12 interviews within the week.
The European Browns Backers presidents were wonderful, responding immediately and offering up fascinating insights into their own experiences as American football fans abroad. The Australian Backers fans were as eager but on holiday: if you EVER encounter an Australian abroad, please ask them where they’re going next, as you’ll get the most fascinating answers. Bud’s referral of other Browns members offered up some fascinating insights, and I overcame several technological challenges to assist older members in attending and transcribing their interviews. The warmth, humour, and cameraderie was just as moving as it was at the Muni Lot, and I really enjoyed reaching out and learning about the experiences of people from differing backgrounds with a single thing in common.
Get Involved
If you belong, or have ever belonged, to a Browns Backer chapter and would like to share your memories of your time as a Backer, please send your affiliation and name to abel.ac.fenwick@gmail.com. We’ll set up a Zoom interview and deliver you a transcript afterwards, which you are welcome to edit in any way you would like. We’re looking into some very interesting places that they will be hosted – watch this space!