So the NFL desires that in the near future we have a football team all the way out in London. No, not London in Ohio, not London in California, and not the London in Arkansas. As in, the actual legit London over in the United Kingdom in the European side.
I’m sorry, what?
The National Football League, a place that satisfies itself by calling itself America’s Game, wants American teams to travel all the way across the Atlantic to play football? Are you kidding me? The rumor is they want the Jacksonville Jaguars to become the London Jags. So wait, we aren’t looking north for football teams in Canada, and we aren’t looking just a little south for Mexico? London is really the solution for expansion? This idea is nine layers of silliness and stupidity, and would further my disdain for the current commissioner for turning this league into quite ridiculous pudding.
Honestly, outside the Northeast (sort of), every team in football would have a miserable time heading over there, across an ocean and several time zones to play one measly game. And before you scream “WHY are you defending players getting played millions to play a sport!?!?!?” consider this: will a team traveling 7 hours at least and run into a considerable amount of jetlag play their true-blue football? And what if a player suffers a concussion and can’t fly? That player could miss potentially two games over one hit.
And what about people wanting to watch the game? Some viewers may have to be awake by 11:00 in the morning to watch a late afternoon game as their team sloppily plays London. And now you have to throw in the potential Thursday or Monday Night game into the monkey wrench of a schedule. Imagine the Patriots having a Monday night game, and then flying over to London for the next game, with a Thursday night game down the road. Pure nightmare.
Roger, if you want to improve the brand of football and exposure of the NFL and their players, there are many other ways to pull this off. Start an American Football tournament of some sort every 4-5 years similar to what is happening with basketball and baseball with the FIBA Basketball World Cup and the World Baseball Classic. Both of the tournaments I mentioned have increased dramatically in popularity and appeal over the years thanks to improving technology allowing us to embellish ourselves heavily in all the games.
You can hold the tournament in Europe so countries like Ireland, Germany, England, Greece, and others can see professional football in their home turf. That way it minimizes the travel and provides a consistent time zone for viewing, as opposed to an NFL season the covers 9 time zones (it gets more and more ridiculous the more I think about it).
What about the Pro Bowl? Why not hold the Pro Bowl over in Europe every year? I am sure England and Germany would not mind seeing all the biggest stars of the league showing up to play a game. Its not like the Pro Bowl is actually even witnessed in the United States. I am pretty sure London would rather see Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers face off as opposed to watching 8 games of a pitiful franchise that mercifully was removed from Jacksonville.
The NFL is the biggest sport in the nation, but expanding to London is pointless, stupid, and downright atrociously cruel to all the players and teams that will have to adjust practically everything to accommodate traveling to another continent to play one game. Sorry, but with the potential of expanding to our neighbors (whom are much closer), there are dozens of other ways to expand the exposure of the league. And even if you truly madly deeply want Europe to be invested, then play the Pro Bowl over there. The explosion of the NBA’s popularity around the world happened because of the Dream Team in the 1992 Olympics. Sending your best players to display their talent is far better than sending a half-ass team to attempt to capture an audience that will eternally be invested to the original Football.
I have no problem with the NFL going over to Europe.
Just don’t make it a 16-week affair.
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