Jamie Pembroke was working at an amusement park for just a handful of months when she embarked on a ride that would last a lifetime.
Pembroke visited Ocean City, Maryland, on a student work and travel visa for the summer of 2010. She and her sisters got jobs at Trimper Rides on the boardwalk, where they made friends and got a taste of American culture.
Before Pembroke returned home, she attended a backyard barbecue one Sunday afternoon in September. It was the typical barbecue with burgers and hot dogs, but Pembroke was more interested in the Ravens game that was on the TV inside. She was instantly hooked.
"I kind of decided there and then that I could get into this," Pembroke said.
Hailing from Portsmouth, England, Pembroke is the Ravens' 2025 International Fan of the Year, the NFL announced Monday.
The 38-year-old Pembroke has been a Ravens fan for over 15 years, proudly wearing her purple and black and sharing her passion for the Ravens with her United Kingdom community.
The year after returning from her summer in Ocean City, Pembroke attended her first NFL game in London, a Bears-Buccaneers matchup. In 2012, she watched the Patriots and Rams square off. She finally got to watch the Ravens in person when they played the Jacksonville Jaguars in London in 2017. Six years later, she watched Zay Flowers catch his first career touchdown right in front of her at London's Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in a 24-16 win over the Tennessee Titans.
Over the years, Pembroke has hosted watch parties in her home country for late-night Ravens games, helping explain the rules of football to her friends and colleagues. She goes out of her way to watch the primetime games that kick off in the dead of night in England. If she can't stay up late, Pembroke turns off social media the following day and waits until after her shift as a cancer care coordinator is over to watch the recorded game.
The Ravens aren't just a team Pembroke follows. They're part of her culture.
"For me, being an international NFL fan isn't just about watching games," she said. "It's about building bridges across borders, helping others discover the sport I love, and growing a community that feels like family."
Pembroke is one of 32 nominees for the NFL’s International Fan of the Year Contest, but she may have been the most caught off guard of the group when she found out she had won.
As Pembroke stood with her sister, Abbie, in a local brewery for what she thought was her aunt's retirement party earlier this month, she watched her family peel off upstairs one by one. Then, a Ravens United Kingdom marketing representative walked in and handed Pembroke a Ravens coaster and told her to follow her family upstairs.
After walking up with her sister, Pembroke stood confused in front of a set of curtains for just over a minute. Around her was a cameraman and a sign that read "Play Like a Raven." Then, the curtains opened, confetti rained down, and Pembroke's family and friends, and Edgar, the mascot, were there holding Ravens signs.
"I had no expectations at all that this is what the whole thing was for, and it hit me like a ton of bricks," she said.
Pembroke will visit Baltimore in April before representing the Ravens at the NFL Draft in Pittsburgh, a perk of being a club's International Fan of the Year nominee. Before the draft, she'll get a tour of M&T Bank Stadium, where she hopes to attend her first home Ravens game sooner than later.
"It's at the top of my list," Pembroke said. "Until then, I'll keep flying the Ravens flag in the UK and would be honored to represent international fans everywhere."
