Comments on: Goodell says team in London is a "real possibility"

By: richmach

richmach — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 04:37:59 +0000

“New Wembley _has_ a retractable roof.”
Not in the way you think it does. The sections of roof at either end of the stadium slide out sideways in order to allow sunlight onto the pitch, but the pitch cannot be covered.

By: FumbleNuts

FumbleNuts — Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:13:05 +0000

Roger Goodell should be rushed to the hospital for a COMPLETE brain scan.
pip pip, cheerio and all that other BS can stay across the pond.
Keep the NFL in America!

By: Jim Rome

Jim Rome — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 20:10:16 +0000

Ridiculous! Eff Goodell and Eff Every other Country when it comes to “AMERICAN” Football. I hate you Goodell and I hope you and your buddy Obama Fall off a cliff somewhere! Ridiculous!

By: Free_Tramopoline

Free_Tramopoline — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 16:53:11 +0000

@ Florio’s Lawyer:
I do remember the Pats getting booed at the pro-bowl, but when did the Ravens whine about not wanting to travel to Pittsburgh? They play in the next state over for God’s sake! Isn’t Pittsburgh closer to Baltimore than their other division rivals in Ohio anyway?

By: a sensible person

a sensible person — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:32:48 +0000

Imagine the season when the London team matches up against one of the western divisions! Road games at San Francisco, Seattle, Oakland, Denver, Arizona, or San Diego would be almost impossible.
They would be flying half way around the globe & back for a football game!!!
HAHA
what a stupid idea.
Oh yeah and the Super Bowl could never be played there because there is too much of a time difference.

By: CanadianVikingFan

CanadianVikingFan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:32:29 +0000

Piss off Rodger Goodell. Its bad enough your taking games away from the people who live in the city of their team and its surrounding areas, but to move the idea of a Superbowl in London is Disgusting! It’s hard enough for me to see games since I’m in Canada now how can you move them to a whole different continent away from both major viewing populations of the United States and Canada..

By: Florios-Lawyer

Florios-Lawyer — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:30:18 +0000

# Free_Tramopoline says: September 8, 2009 12:59 PM Kinda makes my "Hawaii team" idea seem a little less stupid by comparison...." Nothing wrong with Hawaii, except the Pats can't play there. Remember, the Pats players got booed there during the '07 Pro Bowl. Christ, even the Japs don't get booed in Hawaii anymore. And count out the Ravens too. They already cried to the league because they didn't want to travel to Pittsburgh.

By: Kevin from Philly

Kevin from Philly — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:55:32 +0000

Gern,
Brit Officer: “Sir, is this your Wizzinator?”.
Austin Powers: “That? That’s not my thing, baby”.
British officer: “It has your name on the box”
Austin Powers: “Really, that’s not my thing, baby”.
British officer: “It has your picture. And a caption that reads ‘Yeah, this really IS my thing’”

By: Kevin from Philly

Kevin from Philly — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:53:14 +0000

By: ukpackfan68

ukpackfan68 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:44:15 +0000

As a uk nfl fan,i have been watching this great sport for nearly 20 years since it was first shown here in the uk.But some of the comments posted here regarding a UK based franchise/Superbowl are beyond belief.If i want to be pedantic,how can you americans call the NFL champs..the world series champs (baseball) etc. true world champions when you only have North American teams competing for the title ? The “Soccer” world cup allows every nation in the world to compete.You even have a half-decent “soccer” team at the moment.Get over it,let Goodell bring this marvelous game of yours to the world.

By: The Bion

The Bion — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:41:53 +0000

Not to dispute the point that much but last I checked Sunday Night Football had the better/more important games and has done for a few years. MNF is a shell of what it once was.
Oh and Dewey, your “32 distinct regional/social/cultural/etc etc” rant would maybe be worth something if it weren’t for teams like the Ravens and Colts. Don’t think I need to explain that one to such an avid fan. Oh, and the whole teams moving in and out of LA. And 1/8th of the teams being less than 15 years old. Deep-rooted, they are, mm-hmm.
Fan_of_Four you should be ashamed of yourself and your BS.
Florio if you actually read this can you please just stop posting stuff about the London games? I know I know it’s news etc etc but honestly, at this point it’s complete pie in the sky and until something solid materialises all you’re going to do is rile up the more sheltered and xenophobic portions of your readers who will inevitably drown out with LOUD NOISES GOODELL SUCKS OMGWTF those who actually want to reasonably discuss the issues.

By: Youth In Asia

Youth In Asia — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:22:56 +0000

No way this should happen! Keep the game here! We spend the money to watch it, either going to the games or ordering Sunday Ticket and then to go the whole season supporting the NFL, they’re gonna go and take it overseas for the Super Bowl. Complete B.S. I hope the owners go against having a team in London. How many players are going to want to move to London?

By: ZN0rseman

ZN0rseman — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:21:15 +0000

The naming possibilities are almost endless…
The most obvious are…
Saxons
Knights
Crusaders
“So STFU and keep your cumbaya-singing, UN flag-waving, patchouli-reeking hands off our football league.” – Dewey Axewound
Right on brother.

By: TBTrojan

TBTrojan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 14:06:06 +0000

Don’t worry about losing a team or the Super Bowl to London.
The NFL can’t even get a single British TV station to pick up Monday Night Football, all this talk of a London franchise is horseshit if they can’t get the game of the week/flagship game shown on TV.

By: footballrulz

footballrulz — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:56:23 +0000

@ GoVols–Funny, sad—but funny

By: Pastabelly

Pastabelly — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:42:17 +0000

It will be interesting to see how London reacts the to Patriots game this year. There is a real draw in having Tom Brady playing in London. He SHOULD have the same cachet as the big time soccer players (Beckham) do when they come here. But you have to wonder if that’s going to be the case. It will probably just be “another game” and the NFL should learn its lesson.

By: Dewey Axewound

Dewey Axewound — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:33:18 +0000

Young8 says:
September 8, 2009 12:16 PM
Ugh, can we tone down the jingoism to like a 6? I love how Dewey Axewound is outraged as the “European Socialism” that is threatening us and the in the very next sentence decries corporate greed. I’m guessing there is a healthy dose of Fox News in the gentlemen’s diet.
=================================
“Ugh”,
Only an unimaginative dimwit who swallows every dollop of propaganda the popular media crams into his gaping, passive suckhole would think those two things are mutually exclusive, with divergent interests.
And you presume wrong, jingo-hole:
1. Not everyone who has a dissenting voice/opinion gets it from some dominant media outlet (like you). Believe it or not–there are a few of us left in the world who are actually free/independent thinkers, whose opinions are shaped by forces outside of Manhattan or Hollywood.
2. And I’m not even close to being a goddamn “gentlemen”…
You would carelessly tamper with 32 distinct regional/social/cultural fanbases/identities whose strength and fervor you probably barely comprehend, let alone our certain national sporting identity.
So STFU and keep your cumbaya-singing, UN flag-waving, patchouli-reeking hands off our football league.

By: aj

aj — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:30:38 +0000

The Jags DO have a stadium issue. Too many seats.
Keep the NFL where it belongs. I think I speak for many season ticket holders that don’t want our teams playing ‘home’ games in another country.

By: Duan

Duan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:20:32 +0000

Timo22 made a good point!
If it was a audience over there, then NFL Europe would still be thriving!
Which should have been teams placed in smaller markets over here in the states!
But back to the lecture at hand, if you want to venture out of the country I can see placing a team in mexico and canada (montreal, toronto or vancouver) where they follow american teams and sports. England just does not make sense. I can see playing a game or two over there, but anything else is just not logical

By: woodreaux10

woodreaux10 — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:12:37 +0000

terrible idea, beyond terrible…

By: NFLFanForever

NFLFanForever — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 13:11:11 +0000

The only way this would be viable long term is to have not just one team over in Europe. You would need an entire division. Then six games would be against divisional foes with no real issues with travel. (London, Paris, Berlin, Amsterdam), an additional division could be added to Canada/mexico. So each conference would have 5 divisions (North,South,East,West,International). Have a larger playoff, or remove one wildcard team.
I am sure the NFL hopes something like this is possible. Its only a drain on the league if just one team goes to London.

By: Free_Tramopoline

Free_Tramopoline — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:59:44 +0000

Kinda makes my “Hawaii team” idea seem a little less stupid by comparison….

By: Go Vols!

Go Vols! — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:57:32 +0000

And what about all the restrictions on criminals and international travel? Half our teams wouldn’t even make it across the pond!

By: CB

CB — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:55:21 +0000

RE: The Jaguars – leave it as it is, I call them the Jagyouares. All they’d need to do is just change the logo to the car company’s one and its sorted.
Anyway….
One thing that no one has mentioned is that its horrifyingly unlikely that there’s any chance of a new stadium getting any public money anywhere in the UK for the foreseeable future. Wembley Stadium is almost certainly, once you factor in the exchange rate, as expensive than the Cowboys’ new stadium. It came in at somewhere around £800m, which with an exchange rate of generally £1=$1.6 comes out at somewhere around $1.3bn.
Then there’s the Olympics in 2012 which is expected to cost somewhere well north of £9bn (that’s in excess of $14bn by my count), including an Olympic Stadium which is set to cost £547m (as of February – it was originally quoted at somewhere shy of £300m).
Neither the Olympic Stadium nor Wembley have a retractable roof, and the English winter (grey, damp) isn’t conducive to a Superbowl outdoors if the NFL continue to insist on dry Superbowls (I’d personally love to see a snow Superbowl!).
So basically, either the team would have to stump up for a new stadium or significant alterations to an existing stadium (almost certainly the Olympic Stadium, which doesn’t yet have a post-2012 use, a capacity of 80,000+ and no commitment to hosting football ["soccer"] games). I can’t see any way that a Government will be able to sanction the spending of public money on a stadium for an American sport. And remember, the UK doesn’t have taxes separated by location – the tax paid by people in London, Manchester, Newcastle, Birmingham, Cornwall and probably the Falkland Isles all goes into the same pot.
IMO it won’t happen. I can see a Superbowl being played in London and a franchise moving somewhere out of America and Canada in the next 10-20 years, but I can’t see a London franchise.
Feel free to look more deeply into this Florio. Dropping an email to the office of the Mayor of London (mayor@london.gov.uk) would probably get a reply that would be worth publishing.

By: Gern Blanston

Gern Blanston — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:46:15 +0000

Oh Yeah! The Shaguars baby! British racing green helmets! Does that make you horny? Does it, does it?

By: Zaggs

Zaggs — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:43:46 +0000

Stupid. It would unfair to both the UK team and others in its division as you’d basically have a stretch of 8 home games followed by 8 away games or vice versa. There is no way they could have a home game and then go travel the next week, then be at home and then travel.
They would have to be given special considerations until we get commercial scramjet powered aircraft.

By: Zaggs

Zaggs — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:43:17 +0000

By: DCPowerGator

DCPowerGator — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:41:40 +0000

alfie – tarps covering up thousands upon thousands of seats is not a “stadium issue”?
the jaguars would be a perfect fit in london. hell, wayne weaver could even sell them to tata so they can be owned by the same indian conglomerate that now owns the jaguar car company!

By: BucsFan

BucsFan — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:31:17 +0000

Great a 2pm Eastern Time kick off for the Superbowl

By: the rik

the rik — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 12:31:01 +0000

RIGOD@#%DICULOUS!!!