Scottish Gridiron Association

The Scottish Claymores of the NFLE League are no more. In November 2004 the death knell was sounded for the only professional American Football team in Scotland. Many in the press thought the closure of the NFLE Franchise was a reflection on the sport in Scotland and wrote us off.

But they were wrong. While we fully expect some in the media to dive in with the Robert the Bruce, “Try, Try and Try again” story when they realise we’ve not been hiding in a cave plotting a return the truth of the matter is. Football in Scotland has never been away. Indeed it’s thriving right now.

Of course there isn’t much funding in the game, and we wouldn’t be adverse to lots more flooding in (hint to all Claymores fans with the season ticket and merchandise money burning a hole in your pocket). But right now there are 5 teams playing in the British American Football league, 5 more are playing the College league, there are a good number of youth teams with more starting up. We have Teams in Inverness to Edinburgh, Fort William to Dundee, and Aberdeen to Glasgow.

There is also the Flag Football growth of the sport with thousands of kids now having experience of playing this non contact version of American Football.

We can honestly say that right now there are more people who have played American Football either kitted or Flag in Scotland than at ANY time in the past.

That’s a success story. Sure the Claymores couldn’t match the demands made of them to make huge amounts of money – but outside of two major Soccer teams how many other sports teams in Scotland make “Huge” amounts of money?

So while at the grass roots the sport of American Football is booming we are hitting a ceiling now and that’s where you are needed and where the SGA with Claymores.com can put people together to make things happen. We need more coaches, we need more referees, we need more management and media people and we also need more players. Of course we could do with more cash to help fund our programs but we need you to help the programs first.

The sport isn’t dead in Scotland it’s growing. The Claymores might be gone, but their legacy of getting kids to see professional football live in their own country and introducing the sport to schools hasn’t just disappeared.

There are over 10,000 Regular Claymores Fans who aren’t now part of the sport other than watching it on TV. If only 1% of them start to get involved again with grassroots football then we’ll have a massive improvement in our already growing sport. 100 extra people can make this sport not just grow – but explode! 200 extra people would be even better!

Imagine if we had all 10,000 people supporting the grassroots!

Claymores.com will be the centre of that focus on the grassroots of the sport. We will help you the Claymores fans keep in touch with the rest of the sport in Scotland.

Visit us regularly and honour the tradition of the Scottish Claymores!