NFL in London

National Football League in London

2022 Green Bay London

Week 17 Review

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What a sad way to end a competitive Sunday-when Buffalo’s Damar Hamlin went down with cardiac issues in a solemn silence to football, as we look at all in our Week 17 Review.

It was a topsy turvy and exciting week in the NFL, with questions of injury attentiveness, fantasy finals, and playoff implications became a little deeper, even a little durper as the Washington FC and Ron Rivera didn’t even realise that their loss knocked them out of playoff contention.
So much for having math guys on the squad.

Damar Hamlin

Football fans and humans alike reacted with shock and pause on Sunday when Buffalo Bills defensive player Damar Hamlin tackled Bengals WR Tee Higgins triggering a cardiac arrest on the field.
The shock to the heart of the 24 year old and the world itself was felt with every passing palpitation on the field beckoning ‘please, get up’ ‘please be okay.’

As of  Jan 4th, Hamlin is still in critical condition, after being resuscitated twice in an effort to save his life and give pause to the game and the way we handle these situations themselves.

We love you Damar Hamlin! Fight this! You’re young, strong, and the Bills Mafia, and the NFL fans of the world got you!

More critical now is the response that the NFL ‘may’ have had on Sunday night.
Indications from the league that the game should ‘go on’ was passed on to several parties, but it was the teams themselves that led the charge to end the game.
The Bengals crossed to Buffalo to offer condolences and to do this another time, which was agreed.
The NFL is family, and we got hurt. Bad.

It was over an hour before the league gave an official response, which begs the question as to whether there should be an emergency playbook for when a real crisis hits the field.
A game sponsored by so much loving military support could tap into its own triage capabilities.

Thoughts, prayers, hugs kisses and more are appreciated.

Donate to the Damar Hamlin GoFundMe Toy Fund here.

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Command Blow

Just when the Washington football club had a chance to qualify for the playoffs, they blew it, and they didn’t even knew it.

Deshaun Watson and the Browns gave glimpses of hope for the 2023 season as he rubbed and tugged himself all over the Washington D.

Carson Wentz became a wordplay of himself as he ‘Wentzed’ himself in a ‘Wentzing’ debacle that made us want to ‘Wentz’.
For a guy who has had to deal with cancer in his life, it’s surprising he hasn’t cut that Wentz out already.

Lions Roar

It was Bears versus Lions in a divisional rematch of the ages, but in this case the dome home Detroiters’ did the deed.

The Bears lost more O linemen to injury as Justin Fields was forced to tap-dance his way to a potential concussion or worse with no protection or viable receivers.
He did have to take a tent trip which is potentially sending less and less pleasurable for youth of the day.
Chicago is looking like the worst of the blurst-so it’s all about that draft pick, or trading it.

Lions roared in the dome, with a commanding display over Chicagos inept defence.
It got a little silly at times, as Detroit ran all over da Bears and Goff started to look like a big QB in a fantasy fiesta for fans in a lopsided 41-10 victory.

Detroit has the Packers at home who are riding high in Rodgers in South America.

Green Goths

The slovenly Packer faithful have emerged from the dours of the earlier season to see Aaron Rodgers good-thumb his way to a sling of victories, after a slap down of the Vikings in Week 17.

From ‘we won’t make the playoffs’ to ‘he’s back’, the cheeseheads have finally ripened after a bit of malaise mould.
With the Lions on the horizon the Pack faithful that they can get get lucky like Daft Punk one more time, as it’s been safety and D scoring the majority of the points.

If the Packers do make the playoffs, they will limp in against a slew of top teams who will be looking to feast on the soft cheese O line, receivers, and melt Aaron Rodgers to the crisp point of brown-there are no more buses to throw people under.

Russ Cooks

The Chiefs took a chin ride from Russ and the Denver D as they irked out a win and gave a menu of how to tomahawk the Kansas defence when push comes to neigh.

When the memes, jibes and jibber jabber comes to play-Russ is cooking as of late, and making the haters eat some words.

Still a loss, but a ten point diss was shaken.

What the Jets

Mike White was white-faced as the New York Jets just seemed to stymie and stall in a must win game.
From a team that was putting dumby scores with a tandem of run and pass, they looked flat against a mediocre Seattle D.

Couldn’t score, didn’t care, didn’t want to be there.
Seattle gets a much needed win to give them a 23.5% chance to make the playoffs, and the Jets got eliminated.
Another rebuilding year then eh?
How many is that?

Thanks for following, reading, listening, and we welcome your input.
Please feel to reach out to us and look forward to a great 2023 season.

 

Week 14 Picks Podcast

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That chill in the air isn’t just England feeling frosty after getting booted out of the World Cup by France, it’s time for our Week 14 Picks Podcast!

Yes, jolly olde England isn’t feeling so flush, after getting booted from the Cup despite outplaying the French, but at least we can go back to focusing on the NFL again.

Wade & Ryan are back with their full game slate of picks on a short week in the league.

Make sure that you listen to the whole podcast right here!

 

Among some of the games that the guys discuss this week includes:

Vikings (10-2) vs -2 Lions (5-7)  +51

How insulting is it for the league leading Minnesota squad to be two point dogs to the Lions in a divisional match-up?
The Vikings can’t get ‘no respect’, whereas the Lions continue to Hard Knock recent opponents, not to mention the Week 3 matchup between these two where Detroit almost took the contest.

The Vikings will be playing angry heading into Michigan, with Justin Jefferson and Dalvin Cook looking to bust open some seams in the easy to score against Lions D.
They can score a lot of points…but also get scored on just as easily.

Detroit has finally started to find its form, with 5 wins that put them second in their division.
Sure, Jared Goff isn’t the best piece leading the squad, but on the back of their D and speeding running game, the Lions can make any game fun.

Ryan isn’t liking the disrespect that the Vikings are being given here, and pips them to be able to beat the Lions in an away dome victory.

Wade is on the Lions hype, looking back at the Week 3 matchup where the Lions were feasting on the Vikes until some key injuries changed the trajectory of the game.

Ryan- Vikings 30 Lions 26
Wade- Lions 31 Vikings 27

Jets (7-5) vs -10 Bills (9-3)  +43

It’s a New York throw down, as the Bills host their divisional rival Jets in a snowy Sunday showdown.
The Jets had the Bills number in week 9, but can the plucky Jets do it again as 10 point underdogs?

The Jets have thrived under Saleh, and have tapped into a deep squad of runners and receivers to keep spreading the love around. If not for the drama at QB, the Jets might have had a few more wins this season to make this division even tighter.

The Bills continue to throttle opponents, but those 3 losses demonstrate that the Bills don’t have all the tools to dominate..yet.
The Bills will be using the snow and cold to their advantage as they look to put a knock out blow on New York.

Ryan likes his Bills to take the W in this one, although he doesn’t trust that spread given how tightly these two teams play.

Wade also likes the Bills, but has been burned by too many big spreads this year to go for this one.

Ryan- Bills 27 Jets 21
Wade- Bills 26 Jets 18

Browns (5-7) vs -5.5 Bengals (8-4)  +46.5

The battle for Ohio is always an ugly, fraternal affair that has most bettors avoiding it due to the slugfest of emotional play.
Oh yeah, and Deshaun Watson is back.

The Browns were able to get the W last week against the Texans, even though Watson looked so washed up that he should be hanging on a laundry line to dry out.
Maybe the only way to go for Watson is up?

Cincy has finally started to revive themselves after a tenuous start to the season.
The O Line has finally started to shore itself up, giving Burrow more pocket time.
The D is also healthy enough to cause problems, as demonstrated against Mahomes last week.
Of course, Joe Burrow has lost 4 games to the Browns-so there’s that too.

Ryan thinks that the Bengals will be too much for the stinky Browns, and that Burrow will have a big time connecting with his receivers.

Wade likes the Bengals to win, but doesn’t trust the previous matches enough to go for Cincy for the spread cover.

Ryan- Bengals 27 Browns 20
Wade- Bengals 28 Browns 24

That’s it for this week’s NFL picks for Week 14!
Make sure you listen to the whole podcast to get the feels for it.
Share it with your friends as a special holiday treat!

 

December Flakes

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As we roll round into the winter months of a budget tightened winter, we offer you something special as we look at some of our December Flakes of the NFL season.

Sure, the white stuff might be falling from the skies as winter approaches, but it’s the flake outs on the NFL season thus far that make us look at ‘what’s actually nicer or sadder to see?’

Let’s take look at some of the winter blusters, blunders and blow-outs that take us to journey thus far in December Flakes.

Aaron Rodgers

A-A-Ron has certainly slumped this season since his massive payday. It’s like his massive chunk didn’t leave enough cheese for the rest of the rats?

His thumb, his ribs, his teammates, his teammates-nothing is good enough when there is not enough budget.

Whatever the mumbo jumbo vision he saw in his pre season dance, it’s not going the way it should, and you wonder what he might do to slide out the season, and glide to somewhere less Green in 2023.

Russell Wilson

No one came to your party, because you sucked the sweet out of the cake 5 years ago. Even the fructose of a celebrity marriage hasn’t translated to the turf, as Wilson balls out like a stag for a 80 year old.

It’s not totally his fault, but it’s a lot of his fault as the D has been riding the team so hard, they should be called the ‘Doncos’.

Fans are looking at Russ like mis-spent, and unused PPU-like someone made a big COVID mistake.

The Rams

When a dog goes to die, it usually finds a nice quiet place that’s soft and out of the way.
The LA Rams look to be that dog now.

From the ‘Good Boys’ days of being the Super Bowl Champs only 10 months ago, the Rams look like they have been shot, de-horned, and sliced down by a private renegade hunting group.

Stafford is stuffed, Kupp is Cooped and the D is just plain old pooped.

What a downfall! And the budget for the future doesn’t look sunny.

Cleveland Browns

Deshaun Watson is back and it’s a bad kettle of bat crazy on Cleveland.

After vigorously wanting to leave Texas, Watson was ‘suddenly’ smacked with dozens of massage allegations.
Nothing like the smacking that NFL players get caught doing continually, Deshaun never was charged with assault.

Whatever the issue, Deshaun has endured several years of this and finally gets to shine to for the Cleveland Browns.
Shine is a funny word, as the saying goes ‘you can’t polish a turd’, and the Browns certainly have shaded themselves to ‘fecal brown’.

It will take a while for the Browns to shake off their smell, but like all turds, they eventually give birth to something new.

Houston Texans

How long does this have to go on Houston?
Are you building a fanbase or is this a hostage situation?
Is this Houston, or Waco?

The Texans have had years to rebuild and have seem to have bit the pot more times than a one-legged toddler.
You don’t need a dentist to check your Tunsil’s to see that the rot is not in the tooth, but in the roots.

You let Davis Mills a low-ranked rookie run the squad, then had the temerity to publicly dump him without giving him anything, anyone, and pissing off the only Cooks he had in the kitchen.

If Bezos buys an NFL team, then Elon Musk should buy the Texans. He already has a ‘home’ in Austin, so why not just grab something else while the world starves?

There’s too many other flakes falling to mention to not sound like the old guy at the end of the bar telling how many feet of snow he got in his day. ..but…some drifts…

Kyler Murray needs to grow up or get taller. 
Do you have a plan Lamar?
If the Bears break Fields…trouble
Mariota is a dud machine
The Jets still need a new QG

Make sure you follow us on social media.

 

 

 

 

 

Week 9 Picks

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The season is halfway done, as we rock our way into our Week 9 Picks for the NFL season.

Winners are now losers, losers have become winners, and the Eagles are undefeated.
Matty Ice and Baker ride the pines, Brady and Rodgers are making whine, and Geno is looking like everybody’s MVP.
Oh, and the Raiders suck balsam.

Wade & Ryan have done well betting wise heading into week 5, then the next three weeks happened throwing the league into a topsy turvy Vegas bounce of betting badness.

How will it all turn around in Week 9?
The Bills continue to throttle opponents, while team alike the Bucs, Packers, Rams and Colts, have lost the lustre of previous years, cocooning into a shell of their former selves.
Giants, Seahawks, Vikings and Titans have also made surprising runs when they were thought to be fodder this year.
Don’t write off the Falcons, Jets, Dolphins, or Bears either.

If you want to hear all of our picks, why not listen to this weeks podcast, where you can get all the info, plus plenty of funny from the mediocre charms of Mr McElwain and Cull.
Listen to it on Soundcloud here, and look for it on all major podcast networks.

Here are some of the fun games Wade & Ryan are looking at in their Week 9 Picks.

-12.5 Bills (6-1) vs Jets (5-3)  +47

The Bills continue to steamroll through the AFC, as the hobbled Jets are next up in this New York throw down.
There’s no way that the Jets can upset the mighty Bills in this one (is there?), but they might be able to keep it close’ish if Buffalo lets off the gas.

Ryan is true blue Bills on this one, doubting that Zach can MILF his way to any offence in a one sided affair. The Jets are beaten down, and this one will be a Josh Allen and Gabe Davis bonanza.

Wade likes the Bills to win, but isn’t a big fan of the spread. Big lines have rarely paid this season, and the Thursday night Eagles gap proves you can’t rule out the home team to allow a blow out.

Ryan-Bills 30 Jets 14
Wade-Bills 30 Jets 20

-5 Dolphins (5-3) vs Bears (3-5)  +45.5

Miami and Chicago have made some trades of late, although in the opposite direction.
The Fins think that Chubbing it up will bolster their D enough so they don’t have to play catch up every game.
The Bears shed some expensive, and whiny D to build for the future, and let Fields roam in an homage to the improv scene of the city.

Ryan doesn’t think that the Dolphins will have as much luck against the Bears secondary, and sees a frustrating day for Tua, with the Bears keeping it close.

Wade also likes the Bears to keep it closer than the spread, with the weather forecast calling for horrible.

Ryan-Dolphins 27 Bears 24
Wade-Dolphins 23 Bears 20

-3.5 Packers (3-5) vs Lions (1-6)  +49.5

Winter has come to the NFC North, and if the white walkers had any idea how to play football, they would be quickly signed by either of these two struggling teams.

Aaron Rodgers is now blaming his ‘thumb’ for the woes, as he has run out of buses to throw his teammates under. The Packers need to beat the Lions for a divisional win, or else things are going to get trippy, but in a bad trip way.

Dan Campbell will probably lose his job and any potential soup sponsorship deals if he can’t get these Lions to finish a kill. They could score the points, then let the points get scored right back on them.
TJ’s gone, and he left salty. Hmmm.

Ryan thinks this is the week that Green Bay is ready to rock, and score some points. He thinks the running game of the Pack will be too much for Detroit.

Wade is calling an upset here, and not just because he is a Bears fan. Detroit is at home, Rodgers might be injured, and losing TJ might just be the motivation they need to flush out the toxins and get a win.

Ryan-Packers 30 Lions 17
Wade- Lions 27 Packers 26

Panthers (2-6) vs Bengals -7.5 (4-4)  +42.5

The Panthers have been declawed, neutered, and put up their kittens for adoption in a season that hasn’t gone the way anyone planned. Baker is on kitchen duty, and a stupid mistake last week cost them the game.

Cincy showed signs of life, then got the Ohio pulp beat out of them by the Browns in a slap to reality that made us question if the Chase is gone from the Bengals.

Ryans is calling upset on this one, picking Carolina to kick the nards of a wounded Bengals squad, and pull off the upset on the road.

Wade likes the Bengals to win, but doesn’t see how the cats could be favoured by 7.5.
Cincinnati will win at home, but not by that much.

Ryan-Panthers 24 Bengals 23
Wade-Bengals 23 Panthers 18

That’s it for this weeks picks. Make sure you join us on DraftKings to play along in our NFL in London League!

Here’s the link!
https://dkn.gs/r/jPPbmLURQUWWfYH-Md1G9g

Good luck on your NFL bets this week, and thanks for listening.

Giants-Packers London

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Wowza! What a heck of a game that was between the Saints and Vikings last Sunday, as the sun came out to bring London one beauty of a game!

And guess what? We do it all again this week, as it’s Giants-Packers London this weekend!

To help you figure out what to do, where to do, and all the latest news, we have a packed little diary of ‘to-do’s’ to make your trip extra special.

Here’s what you need to know for the weekend of October 7th to 9th.

Transit Strike

Get ready to go nowhere, as the transit union is once again using this weekend to try to shame a Tory Party Conference with stagnation, catching NFL fans in the crossfire.

A national rail strike is due to go ahead on Sat Oct 8th, meaning that trains into London, out of London and some of the national rail lines will be affected.
Tubes and buses should be fine, but you might experience a knockoff affect of noticeable gaps.

If you are planning on travelling this weekend, make sure you plan ahead, as it will be a slow start on Sunday before the trains are up and running again at full tilt.

Getting to the Game

There are quick a few ways to get to the game, with the tube, overground and parking nearby all being options.

Direct trains from Liverpool street will have you at Tottenham within 25 minutes, and the busy Victoria line will take you to Seven Sisters or Tottenham Hale where you have easy access to the stadium.

Some folks also like to park a few Overground stops away, and just zip south to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

UK vs USA

It’s America versus the United Kingdom in Women’s Football (soccer), with a high profile friendly game kicking off on Friday October 7th at Wembley stadium.

The last time these two teams played was in 2020, when America delivered a 2-0 victory over the Lionesses.

Kickoff will be at 8pm on Friday night, and coverage will be available on ITV.

The game is SOLD OUT, so if you are looking for tickets, make sure you find someone who isn’t going to steal from you.

Football (soccer)

If you’re looking to watch football (soccer) this weekend, you’re in luck!
If you’re looking to watch college football this weekend…you’re kind of SOL.

It’s another big weekend in the Premier League, with some massive London derbys to check out if you can find the time.

Saturday kicks of with some major matches, as posh club Chelsea host Wolverhampton at 15:00GMT, and if you fancy a trip to the coast-Brighton and Hove host Tottenham in the 17:30 match.

There are some great traditional pubs to watch the games in, so make sure you explore the neighbourhoods to find a lovely local boozer.

Sunday might be the NFL, but it’s also a major day in English football, with games on all day-but it’s the later games that might be a problem.

Arsenal host Liverpool in an exciting 16:00GMT match, that will be on most tvs in most pubs across the country.

Later, Everton play host to Manchester United in a 19:00 GMT corker than will also predominate TVs in pubs and bars across the capital.

Comedy

London loves to laugh, so why not check out some of the great comedy on this weekend to laugh it up?

The Backyard Comedy Club in Bethnal Green has a great line-up on this weekend, and it’s one of the places Dave Chappelle likes to warm up before destroying larger venues.
Get your tickets here.

https://backyardcomedyclub.co.uk/event/backyard-comedy-club-saturday-night-427/

American comedy fans will have no idea British comedy icon Stewart Lee is, but they can find out as Lee performs in a series of intimate London comedy dates.
There are still some tickets available, and American comedy fans will be pleasantly surprised at the different stylings of Lee.
Tickets here:

https://www.stewartlee.co.uk/live-dates/

Fair Time

The fall fair is a classic of Americana, with rides, fun games, and novelty foods sure to choke arteries.

South London is hosting its’ own, with Fairgame Funfair setting up in Canary Wharf.

Loads of games, digitally updated games from your past and plenty of booze to make this an all day fun day.

Tickets and info here:

https://www.wearefairgame.com/

Sundays

As we have mentioned in the past, London is not a late night city-and Sundays are the worst of the bunch.

Please be careful in areas like Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, as they are very dangerous at night.

Areas like Shoreditch, Highbury & Islington, and Finsbury Park all have late night options.

Stay safe, and watch this space for more info!