TheOak

I agree with lee and DISP, what other sport does this? I do not mean for tournament or championship purposes either...

If the NFL wants to have internationally hosted exhibition games then do just that... Have pre-season games remotely from CONUS.

Presently it is not the same as the Pro-Bowl... No one gives 2 ****z about the Pro-Bowl's outcome in Hawaii, and they are not playing in anything afterwards.

If you have never traveled or worked in rotation outside of the US, jet-lag is a biatch!


Everyone is onboard until it is their team that has to go and play in that game.

SloMotion

Premier League is on ESPN/ESPN2 all the time ... seriously.

One of the three pillars of success in business is "expand into new markets" ... it's why the Big Three is in China and the NFL is going to Europe.

From what I understand, the regular season contests over there are voluntary, the franchises sign up for them and they're not forced to play there, so it's Ok with me. It all probably translates into x-amount of dollars in uniform/souvenir sales for those teams anyway ... don't matter what we think, .

MaggieMayTB

We had NFL in Europe. Luck's father was the Goddell of the bloody league.
I don't feel this would be in the best interest of the players.
It is all about their safety and tossing their body out of sync will lead to injury.
Coast to coast games mess up the body rhythm...

gulfgambler

There you have it. That'll put an end to this nonsense.

SaintsBro

I kind of looked it up one time and examined the teams each year and kinda crunched it out...this was a few years ago now, and it may have changed since then, there may be one or two teams that are exceptions, but basically -- there is a weird correlation, where no team that has played a game in England, has gone on to do anything significant in the post season that year. The year the Saints played there, we were 8-8. The year the Patriots played there, was one of their o:ff years as well -- they made the playoffs but it was an early exit for them....there are others.

I mean maybe something has changed, but for the longest time you don't see Super Bowl winners playing a game in London, the year they get their ring. You don't really see too many teams playing in London going to the NFC or AFC championship game that same year.

I think the game in London does something to the team, that can create a ripple effect or hangover -- it upsets their schedule or their rhythm, not just for the one game, but possibly a bigger chunk of the season. I dunno. If you are a team like Tampa or Jacksonville or the Rams that has a weak home crowd, I could maybe see it making financial sense.

B005TED