Thoughts on NFL in London/cross country sporting pollination
 

As a US based Brit this is of interest to me.

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do they even speak english in london?

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The NHL just played 2 regular season games in London and it was a success.

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do they even speak english in london?

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Ask London Fletcher.

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London Fletcher wouldn't know, he's black, so he's obviously not from London, just a coincidental name. You must be thinking of Channing Crowder.

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All I know is that every time I talk to foreigners from a non-football country they always talk about how they can't understand the rules. I just don't get it, I thought football was pretty simple and stuff like rugby/cricket was at least on an equal level of complexity, but maybe I'm wrong. Maybe all the penalties, and why certain things are against the rules, are a bit tough to learn until you've watched a few dozen games or so. For example I would have a tough time understanding why a big play would be called back for holding, since it looks like they are holding on every play anyway, partially because they are. Then again, in the end you could have watched a thousand games and never understand, coming to the conclusion like me that non-obvious phantom holding/pass interference calls are basically just one of the ways they rig the sport so that spreads are covered, just like deal-making in cricket or something.
Football is brutal, expensive, and has large land requirements so I don't see it catching on in most countries like basketball has. Basically to play serious organized football you have to accept that your entire body is going to hurt like hell for the entire season + another two weeks or so after, plus you're going to have a serious injury about 20% of the time. There are plenty of other sports that are just as if not more fun without these requirements, and the play to practice ratio of those sports is much higher. Personally I don't understand why it is as popular (to play) as it is. Tradition I guess.
I can see nascar becoming big in europe before football ever does.

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NFL ain't even popular in england anymore and absolutely [censored] no-one knows the rules

and i didn't get a [censored] ticket [censored]

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I can see nascar becoming big in europe before football ever does.

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lol no

Pretty cool to have a game over here, could have got a ticket but chose not to as it'd be way too expensive a day

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All I know is that every time I talk to foreigners from a non-football country they always talk about how they can't understand the rules. I just don't get it

[/ QUOTE ] The penalties and semi-obscure rules can be really frustrating for someone not very familiar with the game. I can appreciate this since I never really watched football until college. Every time I try to watch a game with with a European it goes something like this:

Euro Guy: Touchdown!
Me: No, he only had one foot in bounds.
EG: What the hell.
EG: Wait, why is that a penalty?
Me: The cornerback is only allowed to bump the receiver within five yards of the line of scrimmage.
EG: [censored] this mate, you can watch this by yourself.

If someone had never seen a soccer game before, they would probably be able to enjoy it and figure out what was going on within any explanation. Not so with the NFL. People also find it boring because it's not a continuous action game like soccer or rugby.

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If someone had never seen a soccer game before, they would probably be able to enjoy it and figure out what was going on within any explanation

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figuring out the flopping is pretty tricky

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If someone had never seen a soccer game before, they would probably be able to enjoy it

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This is almost assuredly not true.

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Goddell shows he is a dummy again. Why waste money taking the NFL back overseas. NFL Eurpe busted. I admit it was a bunch of practice squad rejects but the concepts they never picked up over there. They have soccer, rugby, cricket and tennis. Why do they care about the NFL? I think it interferes with tea and crumpet time anyways.

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If someone had never seen a soccer game before, they would probably be able to enjoy it

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This is almost assuredly not true.

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Yeah soccer is pretty unenjoyable whether you know the rules or not.

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NFL in London

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London...

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NFL in London

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London...

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London!

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NFL in London

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London...

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London!

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London...?

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NFL in London

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London...

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London!

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London...?

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Yes, London.

You know -- fish, chips, cup o' tea. Bad food, worse weather, Mary [censored] Poppins -- LONDON.

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If someone had never seen a soccer game before, they would probably be able to enjoy it

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This is almost assuredly not true.

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Yeah soccer is pretty unenjoyable whether you know the rules or not.

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Fun to play.

Incredibly effing boring to watch. Especially the nil-nil games. Yay. Like watching paint dry.

As exciting as watching ants chasing an aspirin.

b

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A couple billion people worldwide beg to differ.

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A couple billion people worldwide beg to differ.

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Good for them.

If they really like watching paint dry during a 1-nil game, hey, more power to them.

Most people worldwide can't afford equipment for football. Soccer only takes on real piece, a ball(you can make a goal out of just about anything). So obviously it's going to be more attainable and appealing to play in general.

Soccer is a simple game that doesn't really take much thought to watch and process what's going on or even to play.

I think watching frog races are more exciting.

b

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Soccer is a simple game that doesn't really take much thought to watch and process what's going on or even to play.

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ding ding ding!

how many people watch soccer sober? 4?

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at least soccer doesn't have advert breaks every 5 minutes

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Eurotrash,

Beautiful.

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at least soccer doesn't have advert breaks every 5 minutes

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That's why you watch one game on TV and stream a backup game on the net for the breaks. When both games are on break at the same time, it's usually time to get a new beer. Ideal solution.

Re soccer: I actually agree that it can be a boring game. If you're watching two teams you have little interest in, and both teams suck at attacking it can be pretty sleep-inducing. That is true for most other comparable sports too, though. Don't really get the obsession with having a ton of scores either. A 1-0 game can be well-played, exciting and nerve-wrecking under the right circumstances, but I guess some people crave instant gratification and lack the attention span to appreciate soccer. Their loss...

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I'm here on holiday and if it weren't for the [censored] Dolphins I'd love to see how receptive the Brits are to real football with violence.

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If the NFL was trying to make themselves look good why the [censored] would they send the Dolphins and the Giants over

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The value of two good teams not playing SNF or MNF outweighs who they send here.

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All I know is that every time I talk to foreigners from a non-football country they always talk about how they can't understand the rules. I just don't get it

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Too many penalties and rules + slowest game ever + hard to understand (if you don't watch it on a regular basis) = boring for most non nfl fans.

Anyone who thinks football is better or more popular than soccer is just being an arrogant American. I'm surprised we don't call the Super Bowl something like the World Championship. Like baseball, World Series my ass

That said, I [img]/images/graemlins/heart.gif[/img] football

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I don't think using NFL Europe as an argument for the NFL in Europe failing is fair. Its the same game, but not the same product.

I personally think this is all a good idea, I have no idea if it will work but I think that it can build up steam and be successful to some degree in foreign markets.

I don't think the NFL is risking to much, so why not give it a shot?

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If the NFL was trying to make themselves look good why the [censored] would they send the Dolphins and the Giants over

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Well the Giants are one of the marquee franchises in the league and the biggest media market in the country, so I don't see any problem in sending them over. But I guess your Redskins allegiance clouds your judgement [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

The dolphins are a whole other story though...

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I'm surprised we don't call the Super Bowl something like the World Championship. Like baseball, World Series my ass

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1) The World Series crowns the best baseball team in the world*

2) The best baseball players in the world play in the USA.

How is it not a world championship?

*Discounting variance and whatnot. Whoever wins the World Series is still better than any non-MLB team.

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I'm surprised we don't call the Super Bowl something like the World Championship. Like baseball, World Series my ass

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1) The World Series crowns the best baseball team in the world*

2) The best baseball players in the world play in the USA.

How is it not a world championship?

*Discounting variance and whatnot. Whoever wins the World Series is still better than any non-MLB team.

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Baseball is an American sport. Most players are Americans. Some are hispanic, and few are Asian. Few people outside the U.S. give a [censored] about the World Series. It's an American sport, an American pastime and calling is a "world" anything is a bit arrogant.

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Making this an argument about soccer is silly.
Some people hate soccer and think it's a dumb sport. Fine...we get that. Just stop whining about how much you don't like it in every thread. Don't watch it if you don't like it. No biggie.


I was in London in 1990 and met some various people at a BBQ/picnic/gathering thing. Sitting around drinking beers with a bunch of Brits I was blown away by how much they knew about American football. "Denver Broncos...John Elway...blah blah blah." They asked where I was from and when I said Cincinnati they knew that was where the Bengals are from even if they had no idea where Cincinnati is. I described it as being about 6 hours southeast of Chicago.

Many might not know all the rules, etc. But they do show the games over there and some people actually do watch.
90k attending some random NFL game that they are getting kind of proves there is some significant interest.


Back to the football/soccer thing really quick:
My GF is from South America so knows nothing of American football. Took her and her Dad to the Liberty Bowl last year and they now get the basic concepts like "yellow flag = penalty" and the very basics of scoring and 4 plays to get 10 yards, etc.

They kind of get it but overall it definitely gets pretty complicated. And when you watch it live and your eyes aren't trained to follow the fake handoffs and stuff it gets difficult to tell what's going on at all.

She doesn't care about sports at all but obviously can understand soccer. Anyone can.
Without knowing anything of offside or other infractions you can understand that when someone dives forward at the ball and heads it into the net that's a goal.

You don't have to understand any of the strategy to get soccer.
And I also don't think you need to get THAT much about American football to enjoy it either.
Really no different than someone like my mom who went to and would watch a ton of UW and Green Bay games and still cheers for them even though she has no idea what clipping is or why some TD was disallowed, etc.

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Useless trivia:

First player to score points in an NFL game in Britain is British [img]/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

Lori

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lol @ having it at the same time as the Liverpool v Arsenal football match when the vast majority will be watching that.

way to promote the game over here

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If the NFL was trying to make themselves look good why the [censored] would they send the Dolphins and the Giants over

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They aren't sending the Giants and Dolphins over. They are sending New York and Miami over, two known cities. Brits are likely less familiar with Indianapolis, Carolina, etc.

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If the NFL was trying to make themselves look good why the [censored] would they send the Dolphins and the Giants over

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They aren't sending the Giants and Dolphins over. They are sending New York and Miami over, two known cities. Brits are likely less familiar with Indianapolis, Carolina, etc.

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You underestimate the branding of the Giants and Dolphins.

We started getting football in the early/mid 80s so they were two of the first teams to get names over here. (Along with the Bears and possibly even the Broncos)

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I'm against a super bowl there because the economic benefit should go to an American city.

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Football is obviously way easier to understand than NFL. Come on, that much is clear.

I'm not sure how much of the interest is due to novelty value and how much due to followers of the sport. I suspect the former is the major factor. Superbowl would be a HUGE event tho I think.

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Are you the poster formerly known as Dean?
What's up with the name change?