BALTIMORE — Brian Oliver sat at the foot of his hotel bed on a Sunday morning. He pulled out his phone and searched, “Ravens game Mexico City.” There had to be some sports bar nearby that could show the game, he thought.

A Facebook group popped up. That led him to a watch party at Gallo Cervecero.

“I just assumed I’d be showing up to a bar full of expats,” Oliver said.

What he found was the weekly gathering for Ravens Flock México, one of many international fan groups drawn to the Baltimore football team for myriad reasons. Some are random, like Ray Lewis’ “Madden 13” intro, while others are infatuated by the unmistakable greatness of Lamar Jackson.

Oliver, 39, was born and raised in Baltimore. He runs a travel blog called Beyond BMore, nearly a decade-old passion project encouraging others to stretch beyond their roots and see the world.

On any such trip, Oliver will take a side quest to watch his team. Having been to London for both international Ravens games, in 2017 and 2023, he was pretty aware of the vast fanbase. Gallo Cervecero turned out to be the perfect place to watch his Ravens beat up on the Denver Broncos.

Oliver threw on a bright orange Orioles shirt with Baltimore scribbled across the chest and ventured in. This felt like a foreign Mother’s. The walls and tables are painted cherry red. There’s a TV above eye level in every corner. One wall has a 4-foot tall Ravens shield. Another is draped over by a Ravens flag. There were very few English-speaking patrons, but all were wearing Ravens jerseys, drinking beer, eating wings and bellowing the familiar Seven Nation Army bass.

“I just felt at home the entire time,” Oliver said.

That’s thanks to Ravens Flock México founder Sergio Romo. Around 2007, Romo saw his first AFC North clash between the Ravens and Pittsburgh Steelers. He was hooked. “Watching Ray Lewis, Ed Reed and [Terrell] Suggs play,” Romo said, “made me follow the team more closely and that passion grew. I wanted to create a place where fans could connect and celebrate together.”

The group has slowly climbed in numbers over the years but particularly the past two. Romo is an IT infrastructure and project manager by day and a Ravens master of ceremonies by night. Gallo Cervecero is their home base on Sundays, but Romo has a 3-year plan to see M&T Bank Stadium in person. That’s one of his life’s goals, he said.

International Ravens fan groups come in all shapes and sizes. The team site has an interactive map to “Find a Flock” with information about host bars, photos and contact information spread all over North America, stretching into South America and Europe. Group leaders say the organization has been generous about sending personalized goodies.

The group farthest from Baltimore — just a hop, skip and a jump over the Atlantic Ocean — is Ravens Austria. They’re a small faction. It’s just Benni Deppisch-Pinter and Kate Pinter, a couple living in Vienna who run a German blog site writing off each Ravens game.

Kate’s fandom began with the 2012 Super Bowl, long before their Austrian neighbors showed interest in American football. She loves watching clips of coach John Harbaugh in the locker room. A “special agreement” with her bosses means she can watch the Ravens in the wee hours of Monday morning, Central European Standard Time, and freely show up late to work. Her first date with Benni was watching a football game together.

“I wasn’t rooting for a specific team,” Benni said. “Kate made it clear at the very beginning, if there’s no passion for the Ravens, this relationship wouldn’t go any further!”

Most bars near them only show teams like the Kansas City Chiefs or Seattle Seahawks. So Kate makes loaded nachos and cookies for her and Benni to watch the Ravens at home hoping “our neighbors don’t get bothered by us cheering and cursing” at 2 a.m.

Recent Nielsen data shows the NFL is the most watched U.S. sport — by a long shot. And the global audience rose 10% from March of 2023 to 2024.

Since 2005, when the NFL first hosted a regular-season game outside the United States, the league has made a priority of expanding its reach. Commissioner Roger Goodell said earlier this season the goal of such games is to make American football a global sport.

“It becomes a big event,” he said, before Eagles vs. Packers in São Paulo, Brazil. “It’s what captures [fans] and I think it’s gonna put us on a rocket ship.”

There have been two main draws for international Ravens fans over the last two decades. Outside of some simply picking the color purple, anecdotally, group leaders say many in their communities determined their allegiance because of the Lewis and Reed era teams or because of Jackson.

“I’ve been lucky enough to see him play a couple times in person,” said Shane Richmond, from UK Ravens. “He is someone who you look at and think, it’s like he’s on a different level to all these other guys who are at the top of their sport.”

Richmond wasn’t talking about Jackson. He was talking about Lionel Messi. When asked for a cross-sport comparison of an athlete who a novice could watch and know, without question, they’re among the best, Richmond didn’t hesitate.

“He’s someone who could do things that made it look like he was doing magic,” Richmond said. “And [Jackson] is someone who, I think, has that same kind of effect.”

Added Romo: “Players like Lamar have global appeal. They’re dynamic, humble, and bring a lot of personality, something fans can really relate to.”

Jackson doesn’t have a Super Bowl ring (yet). Messi is the most decorated soccer player ever. But Richmond pointed out that it took Messi five tries in 16 years to win Argentina a World Cup. So maybe give the two-time NFL Most Valuable Player grace. Still, watching Jackson evokes a similar kind of feeling. Like watching magic.

Richmond is considered an outlier of international NFL fandom. He discovered football as a kid in the 1980s when NFL games were first broadcast Sunday nights on Channel 4. “[It was] this amazing new sport with brightly colored uniforms and all these new rules to figure out,” he said. Richmond’s now wife is from Maryland and her family are all Commanders fans. In 2000, while visiting for Thanksgiving, they went to his first NFL game. Washington hosted a divisional matchup for an outlandish entry fee. “How about Baltimore?” he suggested.

He remembers it vividly. Nov. 26, 2000. Ravens vs. Browns at M&T Bank Stadium. Years later, he’d meet former coach Brian Billick and ask about that game.

Cleveland drove the length of the field on their opening possession and scored. The defense came off the field and Lewis said to Billick, “Don’t worry, Coach, we got this.” Baltimore didn’t allow another touchdown, won 44-7, and a few months later would win their first Super Bowl.

“I ended up by complete chance seeing maybe the greatest defense of all time,” Richmond said. “And I walked out of that stadium thinking, ‘I’ve never seen anything like that. That was incredible.’”

Since 2003, UK Ravens has been connecting fans in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and Ireland.

Watch parties are organized every game week across those countries. Their social media platforms, Richmond estimated, reach about 1,000 UK area fans. On ukravens.org, there’s a podcast and pages of fan stories with folks penning personal narratives about the team.

The beauty of international fandom lies within stories like Oliver’s. Visiting a foreign country and finding a community. UK Ravens has grown tremendously. They’ve organized watch parties of all sizes, and when Baltimore played in London last year, fan groups from all over the world shared laughs at a tailgate and walked into the stadium like a purple procession.

Then there are moments like Oct. 6 of this year.

A dozen fans met at a dive bar in Glasgow, Scotland, aptly named The Raven. Everyone is wearing a jersey. One fan anxiously pulls the purple No. 8 over his head. Another watches through his phone capturing the moment. Someone in the back has his hands on his head, he can’t bear to watch. And a gentleman in front is pounding the pool table, the only thing keeping him from rushing the TV.

It’s been a grueling match, the Ravens and Bengals exchanging punches 3,700 miles across the pond in Cincinnati. Justin Tucker’s 24-yard kick splits the uprights to win the game in overtime and the pub erupts.

“It’s a weird thing because there’s no reason that we should know each other or get along but you have this shared love of the team,” Richmond said. “We’re all getting together to celebrate our team.”

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