The Jacksonville Jaguars are already committed to playing one “home” game a year in London, and tight end Marcedes Lewis is on board with that. But if the Jaguars start playing two games a year in London, Lewis believes that would be a bad move.
Lewis told Mike Freeman of CBS that playing multiple games in London “would be highly stressful for a team. It would disrupt a big part of your season. There would be a competitive disadvantage for a team that did that. . . . [P]laying two games in London would be pretty rough for any team no matter what you try to do.”
If the Jaguars do start playing two games a year in London, it would likely be one “home” game and one “road” game, so in addition to giving up one of their home dates, the players would have to make a longer road trip than they otherwise would for one of their road dates. It’s possible, however, that the NFL could book Wembley Stadium for back-to-back Sundays and allow the Jaguars to stay in London for the week in between, and save them the trip.
But the reality is, the NFL is badly wants to grow its game overseas, and the league views regular games in London as the best way to accomplish that goal. And that’s not going to change just because some of the players who are forced to play there twice a year don’t like it.