When the Detroit Lions and New England Patriots meet at Allianz Arena in Munich on Sunday, the stands are expected to erupt in a ritual that has become a fixture of the NFL’s games in Germany: thousands of fans singing John Denver’s “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” followed by a post-game rendition of Neil Diamond’s “Sweet Caroline.”
The tradition traces back to Munich in 2021, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers beat the Seattle Seahawks there. Fans belted out “Country Roads” late in the fourth quarter and then stayed behind the final whistle to sing “Sweet Caroline.” Tom Brady, the Buccaneers quarterback at the time and now retired, called the moment “pretty epic.”
Since then, the singing has repeated at every NFL game held in Germany: two games in Frankfurt in 2023, a second Munich game in 2024, and a game in Berlin last year.
“Once they’ve had a couple of beers, they like to hug each other and start singing songs — it’s like an integral part of German culture,” said Jan Weinreich, a former quarterback who now covers the NFL for German broadcaster RTL.
Both songs are already staples of German festival culture, especially at Oktoberfest. Zeljko Vrhar, a fan who visited the NFL’s merchandise store in Munich’s Old Town on Saturday, said “Country Roads” needs no alcohol to get going.
“Not only after beers. Every birthday party, private parties, everywhere the song is in the playlist. Everybody knows it — children, older people, my grandpa, my grandma, my parents.”
Vrhar said Germans pick up “Sweet Caroline,” released by Neil Diamond in 1969, from a similarly young age. He attended the 2022 Munich game and described watching players react to the crowd singalong.
“A special moment… I saw the players on the field. They were looking around like, ‘what’s happening here?'”
During that “Sweet Caroline” singalong, Tampa Bay players Sean Murphy-Bunting and Carlton Davis III — Davis now plays for New England but is injured — bounced along with the crowd and high-fived fans.
Alexander Steinforth, general manager of NFL Germany, said the tradition grew directly out of Oktoberfest culture.
“‘Country Roads’ but also ‘Sweet Caroline’ are two of the songs that almost everyone knows here in Germany. They’re often played in stadia, but I think it never reached such a level as it did for the first NFL game here in ’22. It has evolved from there. Now, it seems to be played across all our international games.”
“Country Roads,” written and released by John Denver in 1971, reached number two on Billboard’s US Hot 100 singles chart for the week ending August 28 that year. The Library of Congress says the song has been recorded in 19 languages, and it also became an anthem for the U.S. men’s soccer team during last summer’s World Cup. Denver, born Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr., died in a plane crash in 1997. Though the lyrics reference West Virginia, Denver’s estate told the Associated Press this summer that the song’s appeal transcends geography.
“Sweet Caroline” has its own long sporting history elsewhere: the Boston Red Sox have played it during the middle of the eighth inning at Fenway Park home games for more than 20 years.
