NFL in London

National Football League in London

London 2021 NFL

Week 2 London

by

Week 1 is done and dusted, and what a crazy week that was.

From an insane Bucs demolition of the Cowboys, to the Packers cheesing it up, and the Falcons getting battered…again…it’s nice to have the NFL back.

With another set of games on the way, we wanted to let you know some places in the city to watch Week 2 London.

Old Street

The Sports Bar and Grill Old Street is one of the most amazing sports bars in the city.

With over 40+ TVs, booths with their own TVs, pool tables, and NFL in every corner, you can’t go wrong with the Sports Bar Old Street.

Located directly across from the tube station, this newly renovated pub smells and looks great. (something you don’t get from most sports bars!)

Better still, the SB&G Old Street is open until 12:30am Sunday night, allowing you to watch the second set of games, finish your drinks, and not feel to be rushed out the door.

Our team will be there for Week 2, running a few DraftKings contests if you feel like playing along.
Make sure you’re there for week 3, as we are giving away 2 tickets to Dolphins vs Jaguars to our contest winner.

Best of all, Old Street is one of the biggest rail hubs in the city.
It’s well served by the tube, national rail and stops north and south of the city until midnight.

The pub offers Sky Sports, Redzone and Gamepass.

Want to book a table?
Just click here and you’re ready to roll.

https://www.sportsbarandgrill.co.uk/oldstreet/party-booking

Clapham

If you’re in south London, why not pop into the Sports Bar & Grill Clapham?

Located right off the high street, this lovely sports bar is full of 30+ TVs, great food, and close to one of the most hopping high streets in London.

The Sports Bar & Grill Clapham is proud to promote the NFL every Sunday, and their hospitable staff will do what they can to make sure that you can watch the game you want, paired with great food and drink.

The SB&G Clapham is open until 11pm, which means that you can watch the first set of games and part of the next set, but sadly they will not show the 9pm games in their entirety.

South London is your next NFL destination, make sure that you get in touch so that you can book  table for Sunday.

https://www.sportsbarandgrill.co.uk/clapham/party-booking

The pub offers Sky Sports, Redzone and Gamepass.

Crouch End

Although there is no tube station in Crouch End, it’s very close to many transport links to central London and beyond.

The Princess Alexandra Pub is a lovely little boozer that has plenty of TVs and great burgers, wings and beer.

Close to Finsbury Park station, as well as Hornsey rail station and the W7 bus, visitors to the Alex can be at Kings Cross station in less than 20 minutes.

The pub is also VERY close to Tottenham Hotspur stadium, which means it’s a great place to party before the games and after.
It’s a 15 minute bus ride on the W3 direct to the stadium, so you can be in the pub in no time after the game.

Let us know if you want us to book you a table at the Princess Alex for a Sunday!

It’s a very celeb neighbourhood, so you never know who might be watching the games with you!

That’s it this week for NFL pubs we can recommend.

Sadly, too many places don’t actually care about NFL fans, and won’t even start the games until AFTER the 4:30pm Premier League game is over.

Other venues might show it one week, then forget the next…or a new manager might just decide to cancel showing it.
One thing you won’t find in the UK, is NFL consistency!

The pubs we listed above, are the best places in London to catch the games.

See you Sunday!

 

Week 1 Tips

by

Sunday Funday is finally here, which means it’s time to get NFL serious, as we give you our Week 1 Tips.

Wade McElwain and Ryan Cull exhaust themselves every week breaking down every game, using enhanced super computers, tapping into dark crystals, and channeling dark energy from NFL players of old.

Week 1 is always a bag of cats as you have no idea what happens when everything gets loose, and it’s time to take the field.  It’s hard to predict how the offseason went, how new players have fit into the system, and who is hiding their injuries.

That being said, here are our top picks for the week.

Ryan

Texans (+4) -Houston, we have a problem…Ryan is betting on you for week 1. He thinks that Urban Myer and his group of kids is going to struggle against a nameless Texans squad.

Bengals (+3)-Ryan is Burrowing his bets on Joe in this tough match against the Vikings. With Zimmer being a mess at play calling, he is sure that Cincinnati kids will be able to rally together to overthrow the Minnesota menaces.

NY Giants (+3)-Who the heck would back Daniel Jones in his first game of the season? Ryan would! He loves Saquon and the boys to stuff if down the throat of Fangio and his fanboys in a low scoring affair.

Saints (+4) The Saints might not come marching in, but they will put up a homestead against the ready to rumble Packers. Despite a hurricane rocking the Saints away from home, they will be full Jameis’d for this affair, and Kamara will add to the woes of Green Bay. He doesn’t see the Saints winning, but covering-yes.

Raiders (+4) Late night NFL fans will be watching this Monday night contest with bleary eyes, as it doesn’t start here until the wee hours of the morn. Ryan is big on the bad boy Raiders to grab a win from the flightless Ravens at home.

If you’re smart enough to follow Ryan’s lead, you could rip home a lovely profit of, on a £10 bet.
Betting a tenner will win you £317.27 using Ryan’s tips above.
You ready to get lucky?

Wade

Despite besting Ryan in betting against the spread for the past few years, Wade is always cautious heading into week 1.
He does have some games that he has an inkling he thinks will go all wrong.
These include:

Cardinals (+3)-Tiny Kyler and his Cardinal Babies struggled last season to find their footing, but they should be fully planted for this contest. This will be a DFS bonanza, as both teams trade long balls all day long. The Titans traditionally start slow, and this game will demonstrate that.

Colts (+3)-Carson Wentz is back, said no one trying to intimidate another person ever. The Colts were a dominant team last season led by a ridiculous O line and fast D. There’s no reason that doesn’t change for week 1 as they battle a weak Seahawks D. Look for a home town celebration.

Eagles (+3)-Philly wasn’t so special last year as they struggled with a rotation at QB. By the time Jalen Hurts took over, there was a bit too much pressure for the youngster to succeed.
With a whole new support squad, this team can score, which is what they will do against the Falcons.

Dolphins (+3)-Mac Jones has the football, everyone be afraid! Bill Belichick has spent some time building his new squad out of clay, but that doesn’t mean that they will hold up to the toughness of the NFL. It’s one thing to do well in preseason. Miami starts the season strong, and Flores will have some mind games ready for little Mac.

Bengals (+3) -Not to win, but to cover. The Bengals can score if Joe Burrow has his head (and body) in the game. Minnesota is weak in back D, which should give the Bengals plenty of chances to torch them deep. A close game for sure.

Taking Wade’s picks, with a £10 wager will win you £310.66, a nice chunk of pocket change to start your Monday.

Come join us Week 3 at the Sports Bar and Grill Old Street to get a chance to WIN a set of tickets to the Miami Dolphins vs Jacksonville Jaguars at Tottenham Stadium.

Have a great Sunday!

 

2021 Team Schedules

by

The NFL has released the 2021 Team Schedules, and all signs point to football coming back.
Boy are we ready!

Much like every incarnation of the NFL, the release of the season schedule brings with it much pomp, circumstance, and privacy.
In years past, NFL season schedules were typed, printed, faxed, and usually made it to a 4×4 square on page 98 of the sports pages.

Oh how times have changed!
Teams are now adding a bit of pizzazz to the proceedings, with great graphics, poignant puns, and plenty of trash talk when targeting their opponents on twitter.

We’ve added some of the team schedules of all the NFL teams, so that you can plan your viewing excitement come September.

Buffalo Bills

Buffalo opens up their 2021 season with a game against the Pittsburgh Steelers.  This should be a great test to open up the playoff chances of the Bills against a team that went 11-0 to start off the season.
The Bills end their season with the Jets, which is always nice for an easy ‘W’

Cleveland Browns

The Browns added some style to their 2021 Schedule release, with some throwback graphics and helmet overlays for their opponents.
Sadly for the Browns, their season starts with the Kansas City Chiefs, who gave the Browns a right kicking last time.
Fortunately, they end the season off with a game against the Bengals.

Carolina Panthers

Keeping it simple, the Carolina Panthers threw down the blue and black for their 2021 schedule. First up is Sam Darnold and his ‘ghosts’, as the Panthers face the New York Jets in an anticipated match-up. The Panthers also have a Boxing Day game against the Bucs, which should be exciting as well.
Sadly their last game of the season is also against the Bucs.

Chicago Bears

The Bears went all ‘Insta’ on their schedule release, with a simple image that looks like Jackson Pollock doodled all over the bottom of the page.
The Bears have one of the toughest schedules in the league for 2021, and an opening game against the LA Rams will certainly be a test.
Chicago also has to face the Vikings in weeks 15 and 18, which could have playoff implications.
Unless they totally suck.

Denver Broncos

The Broncos are a team in need of direction, which shows in their 2021 schedule release. Plenty of space, but not a lot of info-fitting for this Denver team.
Denver still has that begging question ‘Are we getting Aaron Rodgers’, which could add to the team drama.
With a regular season game against the Kansas City Chiefs, an Aaron Rodgers led team could lead to an epic finale.

Green Bay Packers

Get your cheese-heads ready, we’re in for a wild ride Green Bay.
More drama than your mama, the Packers are watching their dirty laundry bounce around the neighbourhood.
Even if AR does return, what kind of toxicity will be in that locker room?
Fortunately for the Packers, their last game of the season is the Detroit Lions.

Indianapolis Colts

What can the Colts do this season? They have been ‘luckless’ as of late, with Phillip Rivers dribbling in the cup on the way to a lack lustre season.
They’ve got Carson Wentz, and the Seattle Seahawks as their first opponent.
The Colts finish their season with a divisional matchup with the Jags.
Are the Colts playoff bound this year?

There are 272 games across 18 weeks.
Some will be amazing.
Some you will only watch on catch-up the next day.
Isn’t it great to have the NFL back?

London Hosts Two-2021 NFL Games

by

Wee ha!
The NFL is coming back to London, and it looks like we are getting not ONE, but TWO matches, as it was announced London is to host two, 2021 NFL games.

So who is coming, when, and how can you get tickets?
We’ll have all that information for you shortly!

Atlanta Falcons

It was announced earlier this year that by Falcons own Arthur ‘Blank-itty-Blank’, that the birds would be perching at Tottenham stadium for a 2021 game.
While we don’t know WHO that they are to play, there are certain clues that the NFL has dropped to allow us to figure out which team might be playing here.

We know that their opponent MUST come from the opposing conference, which means that Atlanta would be facing an AFC team.
After looking at the schedules, attendance figures, past London schedule and potential COVID situation, we determined that their opponent would be the New England Patriots.
We still believe that they will be the team that the Falcons play.

The NFL also likes to take advantage of the week long gap during the time changes between Europe and North America.
With only a scant 4 hours between us, it makes game viewing a little easier on the West Coast, so that fans don’t have to get up at 3am to watch the game.
This makes the last weekends of October the most logical choices for London games.

We had originally thought that with one game, the NFLUK would want to balance the game out during the month.
With the news that Jacksonville would also be coming to the UK, we pushed that Sunday back a week, so that one of the games falls over the time change gap which occurs on Sunday October 31st, which will most likely be a game date.

Jacksonville Jaguars

Jacksonville announced this week that they would also be returning to London in 2021 for ONE NFL regular season game.
With an expanded 17 game season, and a roster buoyed by young and excitement, the Jags could be an interesting game to watch.

Trevor Lawrence will certainly bring the hype train to London, along with his cast of young, plucky stars who probably have never crossed the ocean on a flight.

As previously mentioned, the NFL International games are comprised of two teams from different conferences.
The Jaguars have 8 home games at TIAA Bank Field this season, and the London game is considered one of their home games.
Looking at Jacksonville’s home schedule we can see that they have 6 matches against AFC rivals (Titans, Colts, Texans, Bills, Dolphins, and Broncos), with 2 NFC games against the Cardinals and 49ers.
Given schedule, team priority, travel time, and local newspapers, we believe that the 2021 Jacksonville opponent will be…the Arizona Cardinals.

The NFL has a history of scheduling these international games back to back, so it makes sense that this game will be on continuous weekends.
This allows them to put all the banners across London, keep their staging facilities up, as well as package the games into a marketable, big event.
Given this, the weekends of Sunday the 24th and Sunday the 31st most likely.

Covidity

What’s the deal with Covid? Will visitors need a vaccine? Will there be passports of health? Can Americans visit?
No idea.
All of this will be a wait and see from the UK government.
For those of you from abroad, the UK is due to open to ‘normalcy’ by the end of June 2021.
Should this hold, and we stay clean and healthy, we SHOULD be able to host the games without issues.
Given the nature of the virus, it is unlikely that Tottenham stadium will be at full capacity, but it should be quite full of fans.
Again, this will take a while to figure out.

The whole schedule is released on Wednesday May 12th, at 8pm EST.
Once it’s released we will know a bigger picture, as well as how close we were to picking the right teams and dates.

Are you ready for some NFL in London?

2021 Wins

by

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!
A phrase you might hear ripping through the cavernous casinos of Las Vegas of olde, but not so much these days.
But now we’ll take a look at the 2021 wins.

British betting giant William Hill has already taken a look at the 2021 NFL teams, and released a set of projected win totals for teams this season.
If you’re a betting fan, you can look at these odds and think ‘malarky, I’ll have a bet on that!’
Or you might get pumped up with anger that the betting world thinks so lowly of your team.
Or…you might be a Jets fan.

It comes as no surprise that the ‘super league’ teams of the NFL have the most predicted wins for the 2021 season.
The Kansas City Chiefs once again emerge as the big favourites, with the pundits picking them to win 12 games in 2021.
Of course, it doesn’t matter how many wins you get if you’re going to eventually lose to the Buffalo Bills.

Super Bowl champion Tampa Bay Buccaneers are heralded to win 11.5 games this season (yes, .5 of a game), in a testament to the champs tuning up their late season surge in 2020 to open a bigger can oh whoop-ass.
The champ always has a target on their head, and the Bucs will be ‘the team’ other teams will use to set as their playoff bar.
This number might even go up higher if Julian Edelman decides to jump out of the broadcasting booth.

Green Bay Packers and Baltimore Ravens are both predicted to win 11 games by William Hill, despite lingering questions on both sides.
Aaron Rodgers has been asking questions all off-season like ‘Why am I filling in for Alex Trebek?’, ‘Why do people care about my personal life’, ‘Can I host Jeopardy full time’ & ‘They’re never going to get me a #1 receiver, are they?’
Lambeau is turning into an NFC north drama, and if the Packers don’t make it far enough to choke in the NFC final again, maybe they will show Jordan some Love?

Baltimore is an interesting pick for 11 wins given their up and down past 2 years.
The Ravens are missing several key players to make a threatening push for the playoffs, and unless Lamar Jackson is given a porta-potty-tent on the sidelines, his heroic ‘number two’ performances may become less frequent.
Baltimore feels like they’re still discovering the pronoun that they want to describe them.
Are they a ‘running team’, a ‘passing threat’, ‘Lamar’s Lament’ or a ‘Harbaugh-apocalypse’?

Pumping out with a projected 10.5 wins are the LA Rams and Buffalo Bills, both of whom will be massive threats to the two previous teams.

The Rams finally have their QB to go with that staunch defence and solid coaching by McVay. Unlike the previous Rams appearance in the Super Bowl, this feels like a whole new team with more options and attack than ever seen before.
LA will be looking to showcase their ‘post-off’ body, and the NFC is going to see a whole different Rams team.
Look out Green Bay.

Buffalo Bills predicted to win less games than the Baltimore Ravens? Pishaw! Josh Allen was the sweetheart of the league last year, racking up loads of touchdowns, highlights and ‘aww shucks’ moments.
Buffalo has always been that underdog team that America forgets about, and Canada wishes was theirs.
Although their stadium sucks, it starts snowing in September, and Rachel Bush posts more Insta than the city itself…they have wings.
Both chicken and spiritual wings that guide them through collapsable tables.
And this season, the Bills should be flying high.

Among some of the other win projections that seem off:

Cleveland Browns-10 Wins

The Browns won 10 games in 2020, so why are they predicted to win the same amount this year? Cleveland is a way better team than last year and were a victim of circumstance as much as they were tools of their own ineptitude.
Browns will win more than 10.

Indianapolis Colts-10 Wins

It’s the Carson Wentz led Colts, with a projected win total of 10. Really? The Colts limped into the last half of the 2020 season like they ran half the Grand National before dumping the rider and trotting along to the finish.
They had one of the best O-lines and used Jonathan Taylor well to gash for yards…then they lost tough games.
With other teams spending huge and others looking for fresh blood, it’s hard to believe that they can win 10 in 2021.

Are you ready for the NFL Draft?
We will be making our predictions shortly, as well as on our next podcast.

Make sure you like our Facebook page as well!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/NFLinLondon