A seizure at the Linc turned this Brit into an Eagles fan and his U.K. bar into a Birds nest

Allan Scorer’s first days in Philadelphia were perfect: he stayed on Broad Street in April of 2024, rode the subway, tailgated in South Philly, met locals who showed him around, and hung at bars. A motorist even stopped their car to holler a compliment for the pinstripe suit Scorer was wearing. For the Englishman, it was his welcome to Philly.

And then he started feeling discomfort during the second night of WrestleMania XL. Everything — the lights, the noise, the crowd — suddenly became too much. A migraine headache, Scorer said, led to him having a seizure in the stands at Lincoln Financial Field. He just remembers being wheelchaired through the concourse.

Scorer asked the stadium workers for ear plugs and if they could take him to a quiet room. Scorer missed the rest of the show but started to feel better. He returned home a week later to Newcastle, England, and sent an email to the Eagles.

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“I said, ‘Yeah, you’ve got a Birds fan for life,’” Scorer said. “Everybody was brilliant. They could’ve just thrown me out and said I was drunk or something. But no. They looked after me. It could’ve been a lot worse than it was. That’s what I respect them for. I could’ve been in a much worse position if I didn’t have help. It was great.”

Scorer started watching the Eagles in the U.K. and looked for spots to watch the game. He went to a Hooters — “We have one of those, believe it or not,” Scorer said — and loved that they had so many TVs but hated that the music was blaring over the commentary and how rival fans watched together. He wanted something real.

So he turned a bar atop his music venue called Little Buildings into a Birds nest. He hung up Eagles flags, tunes in to TV every Sunday, and started recruiting people to watch the Birds in a British city 3,400 miles from Philadelphia. They serve cheesesteaks from a local spot, tourists from Philly have wandered in, and a South Jersey student studying abroad stopped by for a slice of home.

The bar is in the city’s Ouseburn Valley, a neighborhood Scorer compared to Fishtown. And the crew — which Scorer tries to grow every week — is called the Ousebirds. It all started with a migraine.

“We get a lot of people who come in and ask, ‘Why the Birds? Why the Eagles?,’” Scorer said. “I tell them the same story. Being a Birds fan, especially here in Newcastle, I do feel a little bit unique. I’m always rocking the green and you get the snide remarks from some folk and they don’t expect the clap backs.”

The Eagles will play Jacksonville on Sunday in London, one of three NFL games in England this season. The league has built up enough of a U.K. following that NFL insiders float the idea of London having its own team. Once a foreign sport, “American football” is no longer a mystery in England.

Scorer was always aware of the NFL but never followed a team. He collected NFL key chains in the 1980s that came in packs of bubble gum, learned the nuances of football by playing video games, and waited up late in 1999 to watch the Super Bowl halftime show because he thought it was going to be a WWF title match.

“So I stayed up all night expecting to see Mankind vs. the Rock and it was like Kenny Rogers or something instead,” Scorer said as the WWF match was intended for U.S. fans to switch the channel at halftime.

» READ MORE: The Eagles are arriving in London less than 36 hours before playing the Jags. Nick Sirianni explained why.

Some of his friends followed teams but Scorer just watched the games and spent his fandom on Newcastle United, the soccer team that captivates his hometown like the Eagles do in Philadelphia. But then he came to Philly, a trip intended to celebrate his 40th birthday and catch WrestleMania. He didn’t expect to fall in love with the place.

“We’re a soccer city and everyone is wearing the black and white. But in Philly, they follow every sport the same way,” Scorer said. “I just saw everyone so into their sports and said, ‘I have to be tied to this. I need this in my life.’ Newcastle and Philly are pretty similar. Both big, gritty, hardworking cities. The people just want to work hard, play hard, and see the teams win. We’re also crazy.”

Scorer loves the American game and tries to teach fellow Brits the game by comparing it to soccer. Think of defensive backs like goalkeepers, he said.

“A lot of people will say, ‘It’s American football. They wear pads. It’s nothing,’” Scorer said. “No, no you’re missing it, mate. It’s like a war of attrition. You don’t know what’s going on. Have you seen the guys on the sideline? That’s a team. That’s an army.”

He returned to Philly nine months after WrestleMania to be in town when the Eagles played Washington for the NFC championship on Jan. 26, 2025. He tailgated outside the Linc, watched the game at a bar in Center City, and then headed to Broad Street as the city celebrated another trip to the Super Bowl. People shot fireworks, climbed greased light poles, and the Englishman was in the midst of it all.

“I didn’t feel out of place, that’s for certain,” Scorer said. “Everything around you was nothing but joy. The city was filled with a feel-good factor.”

Scorer credits his fandom to that episode at the Linc. But he credits Tom Brady for allowing him to have a spot to watch the Birds.

“That’s what I tell people,” Scorer said.

The Turnpike Troubadours — a country band from Oklahoma — were playing Newcastle in February of 2017 when one of Scorer’s friends asked if he could use his industry connections to meet the band. Scorer made it happen and then asked the band what they were doing after the show. They said they were headed back to the hotel before Scorer asked if they wanted to watch the Super Bowl.

The band, unaware there was a way to watch the game, was in. They followed Scorer to a local bar and they stayed out late watching Brady’s epic fourth-quarter comeback against Atlanta. Scorer was supposed to take a bus the next morning to work in Birmingham, England, but woke up late. He missed the train, too. He stayed in Newcastle, went out that night, and heard that Little Buildings was being sold. He soon bought the venue with his dad and wonders if he would’ve known about it had he not stayed out for the Super Bowl.

» READ MORE: Eagles are headed to London, where Philly has a culinary foothold: Cheesesteaks, citywides, and Beddia’s pizza

“It’s serendipity, you know?” Scorer said. “So thank the Turnpikes and Tom Brady for that.”

Scorer said his small venue is the “first step on the ladder” for bands as they navigate England’s music industry. He’s watched with pride as bands use his stage as a launching pad. It’s a busy job as the venue is booked throughout the week. And if you need him on a Sunday, try the bar upstairs with the Eagles flags and the football on TV. He’s a Birds fan for life.

“I was at Download Festival wearing my DeVonta Smith shirt and waiting for my son,” Scorer said of the annual music festival in England. “I hear, ‘Oh there’s a Birds fan, he must be waiting for his mommy to pick him up.’ I turned around and said, ‘(Expletive) you. Go Birds.’ They’re like, ‘Ah, ah, ah.’ I said, ‘What did you expect? Your lame little London accent and your lame little put-down. Come on. It’s Philadelphia. Do you not know?’ I love my Philly attitude.”

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