Jaguars, Dolphins, Browns, Rams give up home games for London

Posted by Michael David Smith on December 13, 2016, 8:21 AM EST
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The Jaguars, Dolphins, Browns and Rams will give up home games next season so that the NFL can play four games in London for the first time.

The league had previously confirmed that it would play four games in London in 2017, up from three this year, and today the league announced what the four games will be:

Week 3 or 4: Ravens at Jaguars, Wembley Stadium
Week 3 or 4: Saints at Dolphins, Wembley Stadium
Week 7 or 8: Vikings at Browns, Twickenham Stadium
Week 7 or 8: Cardinals at Rams, Twickenham Stadium

The Jaguars have a longtime commitment to playing one “home” game a year in London, and the Rams agreed to play one “home” game a year in London while their new stadium in Los Angeles is being built. The Dolphins agreed to play a “home” game in London when the league awarded the 2020 Super Bowl to Miami. The Browns may simply have agreed to go to London because they know they’re in a rebuilding mode and will struggle to fill their stadium anyway.

The league will wait until the full schedule is released before determining the Week 3/4 and Week 7/8 game orders.

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85 responses to “Jaguars, Dolphins, Browns, Rams give up home games for London”

  2. …..the NFL knows the average fans views on London games…….but they just don’t care……as long as they can make money shipping the product overseas, they will…..MAYBE our next president will hit the NFL owners with a special tax or tariff for selling out……….

  6. And people keep coming up with silly reasons why the TV ratings are down. It’s all about the new breed of billionaire NFL owners constantly crapping on the fans.

  8. A new low and slap in the face in the face to loyal Browns season ticket holders. Count on my non-renewal.

  9. The nightmare continues…and why shouldn’t it. Now we”re giving up home games to the people of London. Thanks again, Jimmy.
    I HATE BEING A BROWNS FAN!!!!

  12. “Rams agreed to play one “home” game a year in London while their new stadium in Los Angeles is being built”. If their new stadium is ever built. Check the news wires, the FAA is having something to say about that subject.

  14. If ever there was a time for a startup, rival league to come into play this is it … bring back the hits, stop catering to the ultra rich for sky box seats, and kick the players off the team that don’t stand for the anthem..

  15. Love the back room deals that brought this stellar lineup together.

    Award us a SuperBowl and we’ll go to London .
    Help us finance a new stadium and we’ll go to London.

    Integrity. Yeah right.

    I thought the early season ratings drop would send a message that Fans wanted real home games with competent officials and a new honest commissioner, not gimmicks like international games.

    Instead the NFL doubles down and gives us more weak games. Go ahead Rog continue to dilute the product. See where that goes.

  17. Jaguars, Browns, and Rams are bad enough but the fish too?
    Those folks are our closest allies, cant imagine what might get sent to China. Jets/Niners maybe?

  19. “the NFL knows the average fans (sic) views on London games”

    The question is why does the average fan care? You’re watching the game on television. What difference does it make if the game is played at a team’s stadium, London, or the Sahara Desert?

  20. How come it is always teams like these giving up the home game? Perhaps the NFL uses leverage etc. It is never NE, PITT SEA GB etc.

  21. They’re not looking to grow Internationally, they’re just looking to grow the threat of growing Internationally.

    How many fan bases got strong-armed into paying for new stadiums because the threat of their team moving to LA loomed large? That threat is pretty much gone now so they need another threat (or others).

    If the Raiders don’t go to Vegas, that will likely be the next immediate threat, with London still looming in the background. Mexico City is going to come into play sooner rather than later as well.

  23. It’s pretty bad when the best matchup of the four is Cardinals-Rams, and only because it’s a divisional matchup.

  26. The NFL is burning both ends against the middle ! Season Ticket owners who have payed big money for PSL’s before paying big money for Season Tickets, are fuming over this and join the majority of NFL Fans, who want to keep the Home games…HOME !
    I think the NFL is trying to implode their product andare going to get the job done !….I watch less than 20 percent of the games that I did last year and have been an NFL Fan for over 50 years !

  28. Not sure how sending all those bottom feeding horrible teams is going to attract new fans in the UK.

  31. When America sends its football teams, they’re not sending their best.

    They’re fumblers, they’re interception throwers, and some, I assume, are game managers.

  32. .
    Jaguars, Dolphins, Browns, Rams season ticket holders get shafted by the NFL.

    Meanwhile blackouts are still occurring that have proven for the last 20 years to not be effective

  33. I’m sure the rest of us can come up with more horrible games to send out of the country. How about a 49ers-Rams game? Also, we can assume that Jacksonville will be playing Cleveland. That one should leave the country as well. We should build a wall and not let those teams back in.

  34. Better these teams than my team. I dont mind these overseas games as long as my team isnt playing in them.

  35. That line up is bound to bring ratings back! 😛 well done NFL. Hopefully the people across the pond don’t bother to go to watch such awful teams!

  36. Where are the packers never had to go there yet. Where are the Pats on this schedule? Have they been there? NFL takes care of certain teams.

  37. At least send good teams over to London. You think an international fan base is going to grow with the likes of an 0-13 team, 4-9 team, and 5-8 team?

    That’s like sending West Ham against Bouremouth. Not worth spending money to see.

  38. The Jaguars have a longtime commitment to playing one “home” game a year in London, and the Rams agreed to play one “home” game a year in London while their new stadium in Los Angeles is being built. The Dolphins agreed to play a “home” game in London when the league awarded the 2020 Super Bowl to Miami. The Browns may simply have agreed to go to London because they know they’re in a rebuilding mode and will struggle to fill their stadium anyway.

    _______________________

    This probably won’t get posted either…

    London, the only reason why the NFL will send teams there is because they’re not making any money off of them here right now.

    I’ve had to travel back and forth from there for several years. Sitting on a plain, jet lag and time change takes several days and on up to 5 days to adjust to (oh yeah, the food is bad and give up on seeing the sun most of the time there).

    So if the NFL is willing to keep doing that with teams that can’t spend the money on GM’s and coaches to make money in their city then then need to either make the owners sell the teams, move to a different city or both.

  39. And yet the NFL are cancelling the one thing that American fans liked about London games – the morning time-slot! And quit whining Westies – I’m out West and either just watched the 2nd half or TiVo’d it and enjoyed fast-forwarding through all the breaks.

    And to those saying WLAF & NFL Europe flopped: WLAF only failed statside not in Europe. The league then replaced the American teams with more European teams than there was sufficient market interest for and yet kept the American “spring league” timing which conflicted with the climax of the European soccer season. And to cap it all, the league didn’t make the long-term $-commitment to get those teams established. They started WLAF with a “5yr commitment” and quit after 2yrs, which meant many European fans were wary of bothering when NFL Europe started a few years later – the lineup of which was radically changed yet again after another few years. It eventually folded with annual losses of $30M, but that’s peanuts for an entire league.

    At least for an East-coast team, London is only an hour further than Seattle. And by 2023 – just 7yrs – supersonic passenger jets are supposed to be back in service, making a London team theoretically viable – but only if the league really wants to invest at all levels in the UK. Somehow I doubt it – and scrapping what are morning games for us shows how messed up their thinking is.

  42. And the Ravens are playing their because London needs to see a real football team on the field.

  43. This is what happens when you have a losing season! Besides “Hard Knocks” this is the league officially designating your team as “Losers”…especially when you don’t even get the “Big Stage” in London and have to play some obscure soccer field!
    We can only hope that “Keeping American Business in America” extends to the NFL and we are going to see the bout of the ages between The Roger and The Donald! LOL…although I have a feeling one palm greases the other with those two.

    Disgusted Cards fan ordering her Richard Sherman gear as a Christmas gift for herself.

  46. Let’s set something straight. amazing how so many people are uninformed or uneducated in the US today. CIVICS 101 – Presidents CAN NOT set tariffs. You may also want to inform yourself that almost of all American companies like Coca Cola, Boeing, Microsoft, Apple, Koch Industries, Pepsi and on and on make most of their money outside the US. If we put up any tariff, immediately most other countries will put up tariffs against out products thus killing a lot of job. But basic point is: EDUCATED yourself. No matter what side you are on, at least KNOW how basics CIVICS work. Rise of the uneducated idiots will kill us all.

  48. If they want this London experiment to work they need to send over real teams with greater regularity. IF they want to do this (and I believe they should stop going to England alltogether) they should compel teams to go and rotate who has the obligation. That’s right, send over the Patriots, Steelers, Seahawks, and Cowboys and pair them up with at least decent teams to make for a good matchup. If they do 4 games a year with 32 teams there’s no reason a team should have to give up it’s home game more than once in 8 years and should be going over every 4.

  50. Good Lord! That is a terrible slew of games. Can we pull the plug on this London thing already? 1 game there a year was too many

  51. Good job Rams. No doubt this will endear you to your home market. You’ve done such a great job of that so far. _signed 25 year Rams Masochist.

  52. From the country that gave you Scientology, childhood obesity and Donald Trump comes the lowest qualify football you could ever hope to see….

  53. This is all a bunch of crap. None of those teams should be playing in London or anywhere else but the U.S. It’s ridiculous that the home team fans of these teams lose a game so the owners can line their pockets with even more millions.
    Roger Goodell and these owners are money grubbing vultures who don’t give a damn about the players or the fans.
    If Europe wants the NFL, then let them start their own league and build it up. When they think they’re good enough, tell them to challenge the NFL for a real world championship. Until then, tell them to go watch soccer and their Royal Prince play polo.

  55. No one cares about a football game in London especially people in the US. Speaking of the Rams , that was part of the relocation deal they made with the NFL. They agreed to play in London. That’s how much they think of the fans in LA. They take one of your home games away.

  57. And this betters the markets of Jacksonville, Cleveland, Miami and LA by how?

    Taking a home game away from these markets does not build them. A home game today, the team tomorrow (except LA which has an owner who they will learn cares nothing about the on field product, only the money to earn).

  58. Having this lineup of games will thankfully kill the idea of ever having an NFL team in Europe. Vikings vs Browns? What a matchup with the high octane offense led by dink-and-dunk Bradford against a team led by RG3, Cody kessler, or Josh McCown. Better have plenty of Guiness on tap.

  59. Such a joke. The players hate going there. No one watches the games. All it is is a money grab. I have never watched one game played in London. Stupid

  61. Why would fans of losing teams carp about dropping a home game?
    Doesn’t that mean they don’t have to shell out big bucks for one more game to maintain their season ticket status.
    There may be more masochists out there than I realized.

  63. When will other teams such as the Patriots, Steelers, Giants, Jets, Redskins, Seahawks, Packers, etc give up a home game? I know some have refused but accept their full allotment share of the profits.

  64. The Rams have been the home team for every single f***ing game they’ve played there. It’s completely unfair to Ram fans, and by the way, when Demoff says “we can end the season with hope” after the Fisher firing, it’s not ending the season with hope when you announce you’ll fly the team 6000 miles each way next season to throw away an important home game.

  67. I like the way they never give up a home game to a “good” or a “big market” team.

    New York (the city), N.E., Denver, Pittsburgh, Dallas, have played in London a total of 9 times. number of home games by those teams NONE!

    This will be the 4th home game given up by Miami in 10 years. The Rams and Raiders 3 times, If one of those teams I listed would have had 4 home games taken away there would have been law suits filed.

  69. Who cares anymore? Maybe they’ll just keep Haslam’s Browns. Obviously, these are NOT the Cleveland Browns.

    Browns fans, any of you think that maybe Truckstop Jimmy and Dee Haslam are intentionally torpedoing the fans so that they have an excuse to move the team?

    That may be the bottom line for this MONEYBALL tactic. It certainly isn’t about winning football.

  70. The purpose of London games is to raise the anxiety levels of politicians and taxpayers over the prospect of their beloved NFL teams leaving them. Either build a new stadium with taxpayer bucks, or tally-ho to London, the NFL wants the world to think.

    The Brits are probably thrilled at watching even these crap games…..still more exciting then watching some 160lb dork bounce a soccer ball off his head.

  74. Say you’re a fan of the Minnesota Vikings, living in NE Ohio and your favorite team comes to Cleveland once every 8 seasons… now they won’t be here, instead they are travelling to London.

    Please tell me how this doesn’t alienate some of the fans?

  77. This array of games is even worse than the pathetic Thursday games. May as well televise them at 3:00 am.

  78. People missing the point. The teams that give up the home game are all poorly followed teams.

    League won’t send over “home” teams who sell-out their home games every week.

  79. If your lucky enough to afford it, go over make a holiday of it, watch a soccer game, see the real Big Ben, visit the Tower of London we’re they use to lob people’s heads off. Scotland, Ireland, France, Germany, all a very short trip away. All good stuff.

  81. some people look at the cup as half empty.

    how about looking at the cup as half full: at least we’ll know these won’t be lowsy Thursday night, Sunday night, or Monday night matchups like some of the ones we got this year.

  82. The average ticket to Sunday’s game cost 80 pounds, or $127, while the average ticket to a home game in Jacksonville costs about $58. Thus, a sellout at Wembley Stadium could produce revenue of about $6.7 million more than a sellout at EverBank.Nov 10, 2014

  84. The Browns are spinning it to their season ticket holders that their ticket prices will be less due to one less home game. They try to say that paying full price for two preseason games is an honor and take one of the better home games from the fans. I usually would sell one or two games for profit to make up for preseason costs but now have lost one of the top 3 most marketable games next season. Haslam is selling out the season ticket holders to line his pockets.

  85. I’d watch a London game over a Thursday Night Football game any day.

    That said, I don’t like it when interconference games are sent over there. It means that the fans losing the home game have to wait eight years to see that team from the other conference.

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