NFL in London

National Football League in London

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New York Jokes

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The New York Jets have had such an abysmal season thus far, you wonder how far they can fall before they become full on jokes.
Adam Gase has all the Bill O’Brien like qualities to put his head on the chopping block, but for some reason he has hung on thus far.
Will this be the week of his demise.

Looking at Jets players, they have the same zest and zeal for the game as an 80 year old man working in an Amazon fulfilment centre. Frank Gore looks a shell of his former 40, 30 and 20 year old self, while Le’veon Bell sits and counts his Benjamins on the bench while he dreams about opening his own Chipotle.
Word is that Sam Darnold has reached out to movie star Bruce Willis this week to help him solve his ‘ghost-seeing’ problem.

It’s not just the state of New York that is having NFL performance issues this year, as Philly & Washington add to the overall ‘suck’ of the NFC East. This was a division that people feared in the 90s’, but just like frosted tips, things can fall out of fashion quickly.
Russell Wilson has more touchdowns that the collective quarterbacks in the NFC East combined.

Ambassador Woody Johnson seems oblivious to the whole situation. Granted an Ambassador can’t really step in as he performs his duties to the nation, but he might want to look to deport Adam Gase somewhere to stop the freefall of this once great team.
Curtis Martin would be spitting in his grave. Fortunately he’s not dead, so he just spits into social media.

It’s not even like they are ‘Tanking for Trevor’, as Sam Darnold was supposed to be the man of their salvation. Will the go 0-16 this year, or hope that the Corona-Fairy intervenes on their behalf?

New Week 5 Schedule

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It’s been a topsy-turvy week in the NFL, as they tweak the schedule due to Covid 19 tests. It turns out that those pesky Tennessee Titans were practising without masks, and in close contact throwing the whole damn mess into the air.
So what will happen Week 5 in the NFL?

Broncos vs Patriots
Tues Oct 13/ 12am GMT

Stefon Gilmore tested positive for Covid, so they dumped him in a trailer out back until he gets himself fixed. There was a picture of Stefon in week 4 hugging Patrick Mahomes after their loss, and you can only image that Bill Belichick ordered this to get some favourable games in the future.
This game was originally slated for Sunday, but has now been moved to Monday at 5pm EST, or 12am GMT.
Yes, this makes it tough for fans to watch the games in the UK, but given the amount of people being made redundant, late nights have become the new normal.

Bills vs Titans
Wed Oct 14/ 12am GMT

Damn those Titans and their dirty play. Sadly this could really come back to bite them in the butt, as they have had to lose one of their bye weeks as a result of the positive Corona test. If the Titans can’t play this game, then they will have to forfeit the game. This also sucks for Bills players, because they won’t get paid if Tennessee forfeits.
This also makes things even trickier for the Bills, as they were due to play the Chiefs on the following Thursday. That would mean that Buffalo would play on Tuesday night, then play the defending Super Bowl champions 2 nights later.
Luckily the NFL has said that the Week 6 TNF game would be moved to another time on Sunday.
It’s a good thing that fans aren’t being issued tickets, as we would be hearing from a whole whack of Karen’s and Ken’s moaning to speak to a manager.

Watch this space for more NFL news. We have no idea what will go down, but we will keep our finger on the button of all news and post it all here.
Imagine what this will be all like if the virus hits hard in the winter?
Eesh.

 

Canadian Thanksgiving

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It’s Canadian Thanksgiving on Sunday eh? If you’re looking for a traditional Canadian pub to watch American football on Sunday in Britain, then we have good news for you.

The Maple Leaf Tavern in Covent Garden will be hosting their own Canadian Thanksgiving feat this Sunday October 11th and you’re all invited! You will of course have to book ahead and abide by all Covid rules, but you’re invited.

Space is limited for this event, and you don’t have to be Canadian to attend. If you would like to practise apologising to everyone about everything, that should suffice enough to ‘feel Canadian’.
You can book your table by contacting us, or emailing the manager at the Maple Leaf, Zach.
7156@greeneking.co.uk

Menu

Did you know that a traditional Canadian Thanksgiving involves wearing raccoon pelts, eating braised moose meat, and beaver tails for dessert?
If you did know that, you’re an idiot, because we made it up.
The Maple Leaf will be serving traditional ThanksG fare, including turkey and fixins.
The regular menu will also be available for anyone who would rather just have wings and beer.

There is room for about 50 people on Sunday, so make sure that you book now to avoid disappointment. This will sell out quickly.

Like all pubs in the UK, last call will be around 9:15, and you must all be out the door by 10pm.

Stay safe, and happy gobble gobble day.

New Predictions

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Week 4 of the NFL is here, and there are some new predictions based on Covid, injuries and other NFL news.
I have adjusted my picks due to injury reports that have been released on Sunday.
Fortunately, the Saints vs Lions game is still on, and the Patriots and Chiefs will either be played on Monday or Tuesday.

Here are some of the new scores that I have updated based on the new information.

Saints vs Lions

Detroit has some of their key defensive players back, and the Saints are lacking some of their top receivers.
The Lions are at home and are ready to rumble. I like the Lions to cover, or even win.
Detroit 31 Saints 28

Cardinals vs Panthers

The Cardinals injury report takes out 3 of their secondary. This will allow Teddy and Robbie Anderson to deep ball some damage to the Cards who have struggled against veteran receivers. The original line in this game was -3.5, but the Panthers at home are just too much to pass up.
Cardinals 30 Panthers 28

Seahawks vs Dolphins

The Seahawks are traveling across the country to a sweaty and hot stadium with no a lot of rest. Miami has been stellar at home, and have also had 10 days off after a Thursday night game. Russell Wilson is awesome, but his injury report is ghastly. The Seahawks will win, but the Dolphins have a chance to really cause some damage with a rested team.
Seahawks 33 Dolphins 26

Chargers vs Bucs

With the release of the injury report, it seems the Chargers will be without 3 starting offensive lineman. This is huge given the speed of the Bucs front D. Tom Brady will be looking to torch the kid despite missing Godwin. Mike Evans and Grink look to have a beast of a game here.
Bucs 24 Chargers 14

Giants vs Rams

When the original line was set at 13, I wasn’t ready to bite on the Rams being favoured by that much. Then I rewatched some of their earlier games and I felt reality kick me in the face. The Giants suck, and Jared Goff will light them up like a Roman Candle on Sunday.
Rams 33 Giants 18

Bills vs Raiders

The Raiders are now down 2 offensive lineman and 2 wide receivers. Facing an exceptional Josh Allen will only add to their woes. Allen survived a scare last week against the Rams, so he might be looking to make a statement here. A Stefon Diggs sized statement. This could get ugly.
Bills 28 Raiders 21

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London 2020 Games

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Damn you Covid 19 for taking away the London NFL games for 2020. Imagine, we could be basking in the glow of having these four games played on our soil right now. But alas, that damn virus has other plans.

The NFL will be back. We can’t guarantee this, but with the amount that the NFL has invested in the UK, coupled with the huge appetite for NFL tickets, it seems pretty dang likely.
Tottenham literally changed its stadium to accommodate the game, and tied in sponsors and partners to make the game happen here, so all signs point to the NFL returning to London, and potentially other places in the UK.
Liverpool and Manchester have all signalled moves that they would like to adapt their stadiums to host NFL games in the future.
The only real question is when.

Earlier in 2020, when everything was rosy and had the potential for an amazing year, we took a stab at which teams would be coming to London for the 4 games split at Tottenham and Wembley equally.
We used some maths, insider tips and our own gumption to determine which teams MIGHT be coming to the UK for this year.
We have no idea if they were right or wrong, but we did use some logical inference based on previous years.
Here are the games we THOUGHT would happen.

Broncos vs Falcons
Week 3-Sept 27/ 20
Tottenham Stadium

Arthur Blank had confirmed that the Falcons were going to be hosting a home game in London, although he didn’t know who they would be facing. Given that the Jags usually host the last 2 games of the London series, we assumed that Atlanta would be one of the first games up.
London gets very busy in the autumn, and their are traditional events like Diwali that are big draws in the centre of town.
The NFLUK usually dresses Oxford Circus in NFL garb at the beginning of the season to get the UK crowd hyped for the start of the season.
We looked at other events scheduled, keeping in mind the London games signify the start of bye weeks, to give teams a chance to rest when they get home.
Given all of this information, and prospecting on the Falcons schedule, we chose an AFC/ NFC matchup between the Falcons and Denver Broncos.
Were we right? We’ll never know

Patriots vs Dolphins
Week 4-Oct 4/ 20
Tottenham Stadium

Part of what determines who comes to London is home attendance. If your team is struggling to draw home fans, then the league will move you up to chuck across the pond. The Dolphins have seen attendance dwindle in recent years, so they would be at the top of the queue to come over. Add to this the mercurial hurricane weather in Florida up til November, and Miami made sense.
You also have to look at which teams HAVEN’T been here in a while, and the Patriots are a prime candidate. The Brady-less Pats and a scorned Robert Kraft might not have the gumption to say no to the league, so this AFC East matchup would make sense.
We also had an inside tip from Boston that this was on the cards, so we went with our gut.
Again, we will never know if we were right.

Colts vs Jaguars
Week 7-Oct 25
Wembley Stadium

One of the takeaways from previous NFL in London games, is that the NFLUK generally likes to schedule games around the time change. This makes the difference between the east coast only 4 hours, as the US time changes happen on different weekends. They have also made an effort to finish the UK games before America gets hit with November holidays.
Jacksonville Jaguars were due to play 2 games at Wembley, with a division rival being one of the prime targets. Since Indy hadn’t been to the UK in ages, and Phillip Rivers was at the helm, we assumed that this would be a logical bet.
Too bad, because this would have been a heck of a game.

Lions vs Jaguars
Week 8-November 1/20
Wembley Stadium

Detroit Lions were another team we were secretly told was on the chopping block for a trip to Blighty.
Their home attendance was at Covid levels even before the virus was discovered, and they hadn’t been to London in a few years.
These dates also branch over the time change, so week 7 and week 8 were the Jaguars weeks here we assumed with a great deal of certainty.
Ending the UK games by November 1st also allowed the teams to return to the chaotic November schedule, and the start of the REALLY rainy season in the UK.
Did we get this one right? We’ll never know.

Optimism is rampant for the 2021 games, as the MLB has confirmed that their 2020 games will be moved to 2021 in London. Will the NFLUK follow suit?
Hopefully, but it’s too hard to say at this point.
This damn virus is showing no signs of weakness, and adapts more than the Terminator.

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