European first: The NFL kicks off in London

[babylonsister]

European first: The NFL kicks off in London
The Miami Dolphins play the New York Giants Sunday to test market for football.
By Robert Marquand | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

from the October 26, 2007 edition


Page 1 of 2

London - The NFL abroad. That's the story in the land of London fog on Sunday, when the Miami Dolphins host the New York Giants at Wembley Stadium, in the first NFL regular season game ever played outside the Americas. When the tickets went on sale last February, some 88,000 were sold in 72 hours.

For the NFL's brand-name brain trust, England and its environs are the next logical phase of globalization. They see the oblong American pigskin as a rising symbol of global sports, in an age of live media everything. Click on Tom Brady, from Bristol. Join a virtual tailgate, from Wales. Look out Germany and Spain. Even China seriously considered an exhibition last August.

"Live sport, and great live sport, is one of the unifying things people want right now," argued Mark Waller, head of the NFL's international division in New York. "We don't have an English sports world or an American sports world. My kids navigate every sport on the Internet."

Here, the blokes don't play American football. But they do watch it, party, and pub with it, and in serious enough numbers to get taken seriously. Last year's Super Bowl drew 5 million viewers in the mother country, according to NFL officials in New York. In the run-up to the Dolphins-Giants game, Wembley was dangled by the NFL as a future venue for the biggest single-day TV audience known to humankind.

more...

http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1026/p07s03-woeu.html

[tularetom]

1. They could play all their games in Bumfuck Egypt far as I'm concerned

the NFL has turned into an overproduced commercialized yawn fest. I grew up an LA Rams fan when there were 12 teams in the league and every game meant something.

The technical advances, to me, have turned the games into drills and the players into droids. Plus we now know way too much about the players personal lives. All in all it's overexposure. I'd rather be fishing or playin golf, it's much healthier.

[rurallib]

4. I agree with you 100%

NFL is as much fun as watching Brittney get arrested. It is all over the media and means nothing. I grew up a Bears fan in the 50s and 60s. A game was played in about 2 hours, players played offense and defense and weren't payed a king's ransom.

[trumad]

6. Dude---you're a fucking Rams fan which explains your hilarious post.

Yeah---old fishing is much healthier... :eyes:

[Toasterlad]

2. If They're Really Serious About Trying to Convert the UK, Why Give Them Such a Terrible Game?

Dolphins-Giants is going to be about as exciting as watching paint dry. Although I can't wait to hear Eli Manning's comments to the press: "Golly! I thought I was goin' to a different country, but everybody here speaks American!"

[Poiuyt]

3. Channing Crowder already said that

Dolphins linebacker Channing Crowder was either joking around or giving Miss Teen South Carolina a run for her money.

Crowder told the Palm Beach Post that he finally learned this week that Londoners speak English. That information may come in handy if he has to ask the flight attendants where his plane is going.

"I couldn't find London on a map if they didn't have the names of the countries," Crowder told the paper. "I swear to God. I don't know what nothing is. I know Italy looks like a boot. I learned that. I know (Washington Redskins linebacker) London Fletcher. We did a football camp together. So I know him. That's the closest thing I know to London."

His Dolphins teammate Marvin Allen hails from the European capital, but Crowder continued to profess ignorance when asked about Allen's hometown.

"I knew he was from over there because he talks funny. I was surprised (when we met) because — I don't want to say he didn't look the part because that's a stereotype — but he didn't look the part. I heard him talk, and I thought he had a recorder and was just mouthing."

more -

http://msn.foxsports.com/nfl/story/7379630

I think he was joking folks

[trumad]

5. He was...

I met the dude and he's smart as a whip and funny as hell.

[trumad]

7. Because the game was scheduled a couple of years ago

and the Brits favorite team is the Phins.

[Toasterlad]

8. The Brits Have a Favorite NFL Team?

I couldn't name you one European soccer team to save my life besides Manchester United. And the DOLPHINS??? They haven't done anything noteworthy in over 20 years. I think you're pulling my leg.

[trumad]

9. Nope---

They have a huge following because they loved some Dan Marino.

[muriel_volestrangler]

10. Exactly - NFL was first broadcast in the UK regularly in the mid 80s

and Marino was the big star then. So that was the most popular team to start supporting. After a few years, interest waned, and not so many new fans came along - so the Dolphins has remained one of the most popular teams.