NFL in London

National Football League in London

NFL international series

Half Bakered

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We’re into the first week of July, which means the preseason is only weeks away as we get set to kick of the 2022 NFL season.

With all the hoopla and huzzah, Wade and Ryan take some time in this podcast to look at some of the lingering NFL news prior to the start of the season, with this Half Bakered Podcast.

Here’s the link to get your weekend sorted.

Among some of the things the guys talk about in this episode includes:

Baker Boy

Baker Mayfield is officially a Carolina Panther. Or is he?
Further to a medical test, BM could be shooting his load down the coast this season to help the woeful Panthers move on from Darnold Time.

With all the drama coming out of Cleveland, it’s nice to see some sort of finality come to the situation for Mayfield, who has been trending dirty water in the wake of the Deshaun Watson trade.

Whether Watson plays this season is up to the football Gods (or Goodell)-but the way it’s looking, he’ll be riding the pine, while Baker has a chance to start and finish the season.

It could be the Jacoby Brissett show now in Cleveland, as Baker can finally go off to his own pizza oven and get baked.

Jimmy G

Now that Baker has finally found his new forever home, the lens of focus hits over to Jimmy Garoppolo and his perfect jaw.

With Baker shuffling off to Carolina, the only real places to fall for Jimmy G are the Seahawks, and the Seahawks.

Given the divisional double tap, it’s highly unlikely that San Fran would want to allow him to come back and torch them twice.

Jimmy might be best to wait until week 4, when many of the teams will have already lost their starting QB to injury  or jail.

That’s Jimmy’s perfect sweet spot-sliding into the DMs.

Nice Tat Bro

A few weeks have gone by without anyone mentioning Aaron Rodgers, so he did something about that…he got a tattoo!

True to Rodgers form, the tat is cryptic, mysterious, and way to expensive for regular chums like us to afford.

Aaron went all witchy with this one, incorporating lions, the all seeing eye, and only black and white bro.

If only the tattoo could run a 4 second 40, then it might have a chance to really impress the fans this season.

Bear Up and Down

The rumours are swirling that the Chicago Bears are teasing the city that they are indeed ready to pack up and move for 2026.

With a big ass facility in Arlington Heights, the Bears could benefit from creating a whole new world around the team, adding shopping, hotels, bars and a home for Aaron Rodgers to own the team.

The city of Chicago came back this week with a plan-put a dome on it!

Mayor Lori is proposing taking the NFL’s smallest stadium (61,500) and raise the roof, adding a dome and another 15000 seats.

Sure it would take away from being an outdoor stadium in one of the coldest NFL cities, and erase the gorgeous views of Lake Michigan…but Soldier Field!

The Bears have the city over a barrel right now…finally someone they can dominate!

Lion Bite

Who has the most expensive NFL offence heading into this season?
Nope-not them.
It’s the Detroit Lions. Wait, what?

Yep, the Detroit Lions have the highest pad roster this season, with a whopping $123m in salaries spread across the Goff.

Ranked by CBS sports as the ‘5th worst team in the NFL’, the Lions are ready to change their fate in 2023, by not becoming the worst team in the league (again).

No matter how much money they spend, they will never be the Jacksonville Jaguars.
And that’s a good thing.

London Games

We will be announcing some parties and social fun stuff planned for the next season in the next month.

If you’re a bar or pub in the UK looking to hist NFL parties and viewing events this season, make sure that you get in touch.

 

Bicentennial Men

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200 episodes of the podcast? Holy crap Wade and Ryan talk a lot of nonsense about the NFL!

We want to thank all of our faithful listeners with our latest, 200th episode podcast called Bicentennial Men.

In this 200th episode, the boys rally their NFL gusto as the drone of the off season continues to stagnate our summer.

If you want to listen to the latest episode. Here it is! Make sure that you follow us on all the great podcast sites so that you don’t miss an episode.

Among some of the things the guys discuss in this episode includes:

Watson

Ching ching Deshaun, the numbers keep rising faster than any wins the Browns have achieved over the past decade.

Cleveland is dropping the steamer on Watson’s chest to hold him down for the season, but will fans protest, or will they even get to play with him this season?

It’s sad for everyone involved, we just want to see the guy go back to tossing INTs and throwing the whole AFC North into disrepair.

Commando Style

If any franchise was to receive a POS award, it would have to be the Washington Commanders.

From the creepy Dan Synder, to a stadium that floods poo, secretly recording cheerleaders, and a coach who thought the actions on Jan 6th was just good fun.
Commanders, we have a problem.

Jack Del Rio gets a slap down from Ron Rivera, but the problems remain in the capital.

Things seemed to go easier for the team when they were known as ‘Redskins.’

Buck the Broncos

“Attention NFL shoppers! The Walmart family is now an NFL owner, please head to aisle 4 for the blue light specials.”

Rob Walton (sounds so wholesome) has dipped his whistle into the NFL ownership, paying a whopping 4.65B for the Denver Broncos.
With the death of Paul Allen, that makes Walton the richest NFL owner by a long shot.

Of course the family is no stranger danger to NFL ownership, with Rob’s sister married to LA Rams own Stan Kroeneke.

The other owner in the new Broncos is Melody Hobson, who also happens to be married to the dark force of Hollywood-George Lucas.

So much for getting a black owner.

USFL

Have you been watching the USFL this season? No, us either.

It seems to be doing well ratings-wise, as the games are filling that bereft gap that happens during the early summer months.

With the final season happening this weekend, it looks like the Birmingham Stallions have the whole league wrapped up with undefeated play.

Of course it’s the USFL, so anything can happen. Like Donald Trump buying a team, then running it head on into the NFL out of spite.

Could happen.

Miami Dolphnuts

What a world it is in Miami, as all of the rumours about the Payton Super Team come out of the wood work.

If you hadn’t heard, the plan was for Sean Payton to lead the Dolphins, as Tom Brady switched to Miami to lead the fish to an AFC title, and another Superbowl for TB12.

Shit got real when former coach Brian Flores felt he was being told to use the ‘other fountain’ in a shameful display of racial bias towards the coach.

It all came tumbling down, but some of the rumours are holding water.

Brady confirms that this was the plan, but shucks-gee-golly, he always meant to be a Buc.

Maybe they’ll try again this year.

London Games

We have some exciting news to share with our UK fans for the upcoming year in the next month regarding NFL London experiences, and some fun stuff to happen for 2022.

Watch this space.

 

London Games 2022

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‘Whomp there it is’, in the words of the immortal ‘Tag Team’ we now know the full dealio for the NFL London games 2022.

Who’s coming? Where are they playing? Is Antonio Brown coming?
All of these questions answered and more in a ‘too early to tell’ about what’s going to actually go down for these games.
We are fuelled by excitement at this point.

Germany

Raise up your steins and scream out a ‘Prosit!’, as the NFL makes its way to southern Germany for a great 2022 game, when the Tampa Bay Buccaneers host the Seattle Seahawks in Munich.

Slated for November 13th at 2:30 pm GMT (9:30am EST)-this is the penultimate game in the international series this season.

Everyone in Europe knows that the Germans have a HUGE love for the NFL, and are some of the nicest, coolest fans to pop to London when the games are in the UK.

German fans deserve this game, although they may not deserve a Drew Lock led Seattle team that will probably get blitzed by the Bucs D all day, every day.

Todd Bowles will be at the reigns for the Bucs this season, with Tom Brady being the best dang sports ambassador for the league in decades.

Who knows, maybe TB12 will jump behind the FOX booth to throw down a little broadcasting while he’s at it too?

Wembley

Once the most prestigious stadium in Europe, Wembley is back once again to panhandle a game from the Jags for the series.

Wembley is a far cry from its early 2000s’ NFL games, when there was nothing around the stadium, and fans found their own tailgating options-often gooning back tinnies in the Curry’s parking lot before kickoff.

This October sees the return of Russ, as Russell Wilson and his new look Broncos will be ready to rock the Urban Meyer-less Jacksonville Jaguars.

October 30th sees the Jacksonville Jaguars hosting the Denver Broncos for a 1:30pm (9:30amEST) kickoff in northwest London.

Chances are both teams will already have a losing record heading to London, but that’s the momentum they’ll need to head home and kick some ass.

Tottenham Stadium

Welcome to the jungle, as north London gets two beauties of games at the brand spanking newish stadium in Tottenham.

Sure, there is nothing to do around the stadium-and some of the side streets look pretty dodgy, but what a stadium!

White Hart Lane will be banging for two straight weeks of NFL games, as early October brings us our own harvest of gridiron feasts.

Sunday October 2 sees the New Orleans Saints hosting the Minnesota Vikings in a miracle rematch that will have NFC fans frothing.
With a 2:30pm (GMT) kickoff, this will be the first of our international games, and will harken back to 2017 when these two teams faced off in the playoffs.

It will be the Kirk Cousins led speedsters versus the punishing D of the Saints, in what should be a very exciting NFL game to start our journey.

Sunday October 9th is the day that Cheeseheads in UK will be sniffing their fingers, as Aaron Rodgers and the Pack make their first appearance ever in Europe, when the Green Bay Packers host the New York Giants at Tottenham.

It’s been a long wait for Wiconsinites in the UK, as the heralded Packers are finally playing their first game in Britain.

This game will sell out very quickly, and will be as tight as the Packers cap space for this season.

Going to be a great game!

Mexico

Ola! Welcome to Mexico City-please put your laser pointers in the bin-as the Arizona Cardinals host the San Francisco 49ers Sunday May 21st in Estadio Azteca at 1:30am GMT.

Will Jimmy G be leading the charge, or will they Trey Lance the boil that is the 49ers QB situation?

This game will have major divisional consequences, and it’s too bad it will be too late to watch.

Fun Things

We are already very excited about the games, and are working on some tailgating, after parties, as well as regular season events to entertain our loyal fans.

Watch this space as we drip feed some of the exciting things we will be doing for 2022!

 

 

London 2022 Games

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Smell that in the air?
That’s freedom…a bit of petrol…and the return of the NFL.
It’s coming back to London again soon, and boy are we tickled.

So here are our predictions for the London 2022 Games.

Draft Days

The NFL Draft is now done and dusted, as teams watch the offseason to witness which one of these prospects burns and turns their own future after Las Vegas, making bad lifestyle choices that ultimately leads to leaving the game.

Or…they have a bright and lustrous future, without any incidents.
That’s the hope anyway.

The NFL Draft also heralds the beginning of the international adventure, as the league announces who will be headed across the shores to bring the beautiful game to hungry global audiences.

London gets 3 games, Germany gets one, as does Mexico.

So how does it all play out?

London Schedule

The NFL announced that they will be releasing the full international schedule on May 4th, 2022 (evening).

We will then get to know who will be making a passport application for the first time, so that they come visit us at either Tottenham or Wembley stadium(s) for an autumn jaunt.

Who will it be?
Well, we make our yearly predictions prior to the NFL officially announcing the REAL teams that will be visiting.
It’s a fun little exercise that helps build hope to those of us who haven’t seen our teams hit the UK in years.

And so without further adieu, we present our predictions for the 2022 London International Games.

Baltimore Ravens vs Jacksonville Jaguars

Sunday September 25th-Week 3
Wembley Stadium

Jacksonville is back (again), as they shed their Urban skin, and have returned with fresh faces and feelings as the Trevor Lawrence era has finally sputtered out of the gate.

As for the Jags home opponents this season, they face the following: Colts, Texans, Titans, Broncos, Raiders, Ravens, Cowboys, Giants.

Given that many of these teams have been here in the past few years, the most obvious team to come would be the New York Giants, who haven’t played in London since they beat the Rams in 2016.

The Ravens however last played in London in 2017, where they took a 44-7 blowout to the face.

There are rumblings and rumours out of Poe-town, that the dirty birds would once again be flocking our way.
We’ll jump on this rumour!

Minnesota Vikings vs New Orleans Saints

Sunday October 2, 2022-Week 4
Tottenham Stadium

Of all the rumours that have been circling as to who would most likely be playing, this game is the most solid to bet on.

Minnesota and New Orleans are scheduled to play each other this year, and reports out of Minneapolis point to the fact that the team is preparing for an international adventure for the 2022 season.

The miracle moments between these two teams are many, and it seems to be the most likely scenario for both teams.

As per the date, Week 4 has been persistent in both reports from New Orleans and the Vikes, so we will also double down on the intel we are getting stateside.

This will be a great game for fans of both teams, who last appeared on our shores in 2017, beating the Dolphins and Browns respectively.

We’re quite confident in this one.

Tennessee Titans vs Green Bay Packers

Sunday October 9th-Week 5
Tottenham Stadium

The Pack is finally making a trek to London, as British fans finally get a whiff of the mane of Aaron Rodgers and company.

Green Bay is the ONLY team to have NEVER made the trip to London, so this will be a massive game for all the cheeseheads here who have missed out on NFL action in the past.

As for the Packers home opponents, they have the Bears, Lions, Vikings, Cowboys, Giants, Patriots, Jets, Titans, & Rams.

While the LA Rams are rumoured to be another team playing in an international game, they are more likely to play the Arizona Cardinals in the Mexico City contest.

Bill Belichick and the Patriots are also an interesting possibility for Rodgers and the boys to play-since they haven’t been here since 2012, but the Titan in the room keeps popping up its head.

We like Tannehill and Tennessee as they combatant in the Packers contest, making their way to north London for week 5, in an exciting match.

Considerations

There are some other factors that we looked at in determining not only the teams, but the dates of the London games.

Ukraine is most likely still going to be burning in the autumn of 2022, and many Americans are not likely to travel as they believe that anywhere in Europe is a war zone.

London & European visitors dropped by 8% during the Gulf War, and plummeted after the terror attacks here.  As long as Russia keeps acting like dicks, the situation in the area will be tenuous.

The World Cup will also play a factor in the scheduling of NFL games, as the league will want to avoid any clashes with ‘soccer’ for the end of the year.

Kicking off on November 21st in Qatar, the World Cup will overlap much of the NFL schedule, as many major games are happening on NFL Sundays.
Spain faces Germany on Sunday Nov 27th at 7pm GMT-running smack into the NFL for many fans who will be looking to catch the games.

Caveat

Once again, these are only guesses by our team.

We will all know the true teams heading our way when the NFL officially announces it next week.

 

 

 

2022 Schedule

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April is almost dead, so it’s time to bring on the NFL Draft!
Football is slowly creeping back!

Wade McElwain and Ryan Cull break down all the latest NFL news in our 2022 Schedule podcast, a compendium of all the top stories, arrests and stupid stuff going on during the off season.

Here’s a link to all the comedy NFL gold!

Among some of the top things that the guys talk about in this episode includes:

London Games

So we know who is coming to London this season (Jaguars, Packers, Saints) we just don’t know when.

Luckily, the US press gets whiffs of nuggets of gold, which is how we were able to figure out that the New Orleans Saints will most likely be hosting the Minnesota Vikings either week 4 or week 5 of the season.

As for Aaron Rodgers and the Packers, their most likely opponent seems to be the Tennessee Titans on either side of the week of the Saints contest.
This game would also be played at Tottenham Hotspur stadium, giving London a full fortnight of Sunday games.

The NFL has announced that we will officially know the London games on May 4th at 11pm GMT. (hopefully we will let you know ahead of that.

Germany Game

Get your steins ready, as the NFL heads to Germany for the first time to kick off the 2022 season.

Thanks to some heavy thumbs at the US Consulate in Germany, we can glean that the full details of the game there.

According to reports, the game will feature Tom Brady and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers hosting Patrick Mahomes the Kansas City Chiefs in Munich, on Sunday November 13th.

While this Sunday falls on the German holiday of Repentance Day, it is assumed the folks at home will be okay with that.

An epic game in a country who has deserved this NFL honour for a long time.

Deebo Days

Deebo Samuel looks to be done in San Fran, after a tough year that saw him being used in an even tougher role.

The Niners were happy to slap old Deebo in on any speed-need role, even if it meant that the young man might have a shortened career from all the beatings he was taking.

Another wide receiver looking to get paid, in a league with empty pocketed teams looking for some accounting magic to stuff it all under the cap.

Good luck Deebo! You might just find yourself on the Jets!

Apple Bites

The long awaited rumours about the demise of Direct TV are upon us, as the US rights for the NFL package look to lapse after this season.

Like a Betamax player in a digital world, the satellite dish era demands of Direct TV has finally come of age.

With claims of complaints of being held hostage by the service, expensive billing, poor customer service, and the fact that no one uses dishes anymore, the old girl is just an anachronism in this world.

Apple is looking snap up the NFL package rights for over $2.5 billion, which sadly means that people might have to pay for Apple TV once again.

As much as everyone loves the Morning Show…and uh…what else do they have on their? Seinfeld? Teletubbies? More streaming!

Baked

Baker Mayfield can count this phase of his life as ‘bullying’ as he continues to get shit kicked in the press for his ineptitude.

The young man isn’t happy, wants to go, but no one wants to play with him-and to boot-his alma mater made an ugly statue of him to add insult to injury.

Let’s just let the kid play football again, then we can give him a rough time.

NFL Draft

Wade & Ryan will be releasing our NFL Draft Podcast this week, so make sure that you watch this space.

If you’re looking for a place to watch the 2022 NFL Draft, we are aware that the Empire Casino in Leicester Square will be showing it.

The Draft is due to start at 1am, with coverage starting in the UK from 11pm.