Despite a global recession, Englishman Adam Goldstein felt 2008 was the perfect time to invest in his lifelong passion. So he sold his flat and left his job and girlfriend in London for American football.

Goldstein’s goal was to achieve what no other fan of American football has accomplished: to attend one live National Football League (NFL) game at every NFL stadium during the regular season, plus those played in London and Canada. He traveled over 65,000 miles to watch forty football games in eighteen weeks and to experience and understand the phenomenal appeal of that classic American pastime, the tailgate party.

He drove from stadium to stadium, tailgate to tailgate, sometimes eight hundred miles a day, digesting everything that American football could serve up. He met players and extreme fans alike and was party to surreal pregame rituals while absorbing the rich cultural differences of each part of the country. During his football odyssey—a grueling yet rewarding quest—he compared sports traditions and fandom in the United Kingdom and the United States. In the process of football self-discovery, Goldstein often found himself embraced by NFL fans across the continent, as if he had the key that unlocked the very meaning of life.

Tailgate to Heaven is a humorous, moving, and inspiring story about how nothing closes a culture gap like love of a sport—and the camaraderie that comes with it.