For a league in the midst of a decades-long wooing process outside of the United States, there is a reality of foreign fandom that is a little awkward for the NFL.

The overseas market buys Tom Brady. A lot. And it buys the New England Patriots, too. More than any current NFL player and team, in fact. In the latest jersey sales from Europe, three Patriots land in the top seven sellers. The top slot belongs to Brady, with the fifth and seventh spots locked up by tight end Rob Gronkowski and wideout Julian Edelman.

View photos Most popular NFL jerseys in Europe (Yahoo Sports graphic) More

So, yeah. There's that. After spending millions promoting the game and brand, and cementing an annual international series, the NFL went to war with the chosen team and player of its most prized foreign market. There are a lot of Patriots fans in London. Find one and ask that person about the NFL's federal court battle with Brady and you'll feel like you wandered into a Boston bar on game day.

"It has been a massive point of discussion," said James Cuff, a Patriots fan who lives in Cardiff, Wales. "I've refused buying things from the NFL because of it. I didn't renew my subscription to [NFL] Game Pass because I didn't want the money going into the NFL's pockets. I bought season tickets for all the Wembley games and I'm not going to any of them. I'll just watch how I can watch them, without giving any money to the NFL."

Cuff said he asked for a refund on his tickets but the NFL refused. So he's selling them and won't purchase any again until Brady's court case is resolved in the quarterback's favor. Cuff is biased, something he readily admits. He's been a moderator on UKpatriots.com, one of the largest foreign-based NFL fan forums. He has been a Patriots fan since 2006, thanks in part to a short trip to the U.S. that included a stop in Connecticut. Among other things, he helps organize an annual trip to a Patriots game in Foxborough, Mass., and hosts a Super Bowl party each year. But beyond that fandom, Cuff fits snugly in commissioner Roger Goodell's target demographic. He's a 35-year-old marketing specialist who really hadn't been exposed to the NFL product until the last decade. He came in young, with his best spending years in front of him. He is exactly the type of new blood the NFL has been seeking over the last 10 years.

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To understand why that's important, you have to trace the history of the NFL's presence in continental Europe and the United Kingdom. And we're not talking World League of American Football turned NFL Europe, a failed fixture that never consistently showcased the NFL's best. That experiment is what most American fans identify with when it comes to the finer points of the NFL's overseas foray.

In truth, the NFL had a small but dedicated following in Europe far earlier, going back to the 1980s. That's when NFL games were carried to London and other locales on a one-week television delay, which wasn't so bad considering there was no Internet and few knew how games turned out a week earlier. There also wasn't a great deal to be seen in the region in broadcast sports at the time. The Premier League, England's juggernaut professional soccer league, wouldn't be founded until 1992. And that left a sizable void that was filled in part by NFL fans.

What resulted was an ardent Miami Dolphins fan base, because that was an elite team of the 1980s and Dan Marino was a star who caught the eye. Or the Chicago Bears, who still have a fan base that can recount William "Refrigerator" Perry's iconic touchdown in Super Bowl XX. These were the players who ushered in NFL popularity in 1980s London. They eventually faded as televised soccer and rugby crushed all interlopers.

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