Poll Would you support an NFL team in London?

To what degree would you support an NFL team based in London?

  • Total voters
    30
Olivier said:
Is there any interest across the pond on the game this sunday? This year is a bit of a letdown with the so-caled (cue BBC) deflate-gate going on, but at least Lenny Kravitz is performing in the halftime show ...
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I'm not watching, but only because I absolutely despise both teams involved. Plus the commercials aren't that funny anymore (and even if they are they're all online the next day). And the halftime show is Kate Perry (shit) with a guest appearance from Lenny Kravitz, so it might be good for a couple of minutes. I do love Lenny though.

As far as rugby goes cider_and_toast I've watched sevens and Rugby League and find them incredible to watch, but Rugby Union is much harder to pick up on, plus its slower paced so you can't just marvel at the athleticism and brutality if you don't know what's going on. Do wish they were on more often us Americans are so closed-minded, especially our sports media (more like media in general really).
 
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Not closed minded as such mate in the Media's case they go where the money is.

Union takes a bit of getting in to but no more so than League. Just don't get us started on the battle between the codes though. :D
 
It's strange though I could watch Union all day long but stick in front of a league game and I'm bored within 10 minutes and as for rules I don't have a clue what the hell is going in in American football, there seems to be like two teams per side but only one of them can attack at any one time and they bring on some bloke to kick the ball if there is a shot at getting the ball between the posts, and it seems there are things called downs and you have to make 10 of them or something and then there is the hut, hut, hutting thing and sticking your fingers between your legs to pass on some kind of code plus someone gets sacked quite often..
 
soccerman17 I'm surprised that you'd say that because I thought that, apart from Basketball which is end to end and high scoring, one of the reasons that Football and Baseball were so massive was down to the fact that they are slow tactical games that take time to build up. With the occasional burst of activity. I couldn't imagine watching Rugby Union for 2 or 3 hours while the attacking line up went off and a defensive line up came on and then each time the ball stopped the play was re-set and off you go again. Rugby Union has many phases of play where the ball is kept moving for as long as possible.

Of course, it's horses for courses as the saying goes.
 
cider_and_toast that is the very reason why baseball is losing popularity and football is starting to be dominated by fantasy games and goal line channels that flip between games showing those where a team is close to scoring. Personally I rarely ever watch baseball and can't watch football without something to read or people to talk to.
 
Honestly, I'm not a big American football fan, but I'm going to say this: every time I've had the opportunity to watch US military football, it's been wicked good, much better than NFL.
 
I was driving back to work this morning and caught the last two quarters of the Super Bowl. From what I could understand it sounded like a cracking game.

The problem with catching the UK commentary half way through the game is I'd obviously missed the bits in the pre-match warm up where they explained some of the finer points of the game. I understand the basics.

Seattle must have lost their heads in the last couple of minutes of play.

It's still annoying though when the commentator on the radio declared the New England Patriots "The World Champions"
 
I mean I guess they are the "World Champions" of American Football since nobody else really plays it... that one bothers me much less than the NBA and MLB winners declaring themselves world champs since those sports are actually played elsewhere.
 
When I went to the Rugby a couple of weekends ago there was a few guys recruiting for a new Bristol based American Football team. Back in the 80's, American Football was quite big over here and there was a reasonably successful league in the UK for a while as a result of that. (This was before NFL Europe). The Bristol Bombers as they were called were one of the first established team in the league.

NFL Europe never really captured the imagination because it arrived on the scene way too late. Football (Soccer) had gone through a massive slump in the 80's due to a number of major incidence, the ban on British clubs in Europe, the continuing behavior of fans at games and the fact that the ancient and crumbling stadiums were just not very nice places to be. That was the time at which other sports could have gained some sort of foothold into the soccer market. By the late 90's with the premier league well established, all seater stadium, sky sports showing a vast number of live games and the lifting of the restriction on the number of foreign players in a team meant that there was nothing that can come close to it.
 
Mephistopheles said:
Who were the world champions of the FA cup last year?
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Arsenal. Duh.

We're by far the greatest team, the world has ever seen!

As to the Superbowl, it was a cracking game. Seattle started slowly, came back, had it in the bag, lost it, almost won it back and got it nicked from them right at the end. Not as fluid as real football but dramatic nonetheless :)
 
Tuscan1969 Many of them don't touch the ball, but that's by design. To make a cricket analogy for you brits its like how probably not every player is going to bowl. Many get paid to block or play defense rather than do things with the ball in their hands.
 
What I don't understand is that the New England Patriots were caught cheating (by deflating the balls) in the championship game that got them into the Super Bowl, yet they were still permitted to go to the Big Game. Who says cheaters never prosper?
 
soccerman17 - I was trying to be (slighty) sarcastic. I know and I respect that there are often skilled players of many sports who may rarely be called upon to carry out their specific task but in American football you completely change the whole team. e.g. a cricket wicketkeeper is very rarely first to bat but the thing is he is part of the team and he's there fielding at all times when his team are "bowling". A good goalkeeper in a (soccer) football team may only be required to touch the ball once or twice in a game if his team are dominant, but again he is on the field all game and never knows when a breakaway may happen so he has to concentrate at all times and follow the whole game.

Only in US football can I think of a situation where a full "team" trot onto the field, play for 4 seconds and then may go back off again. There is no need to concentrate for more than a short time, no way you can possibly get tired out and whilst a great touchdown throw or an interception may be worthy of a TV replay is it really enough to justify a 4 or 5 hour TV orgy?

A mens tennis final in a grand slam may take a similar time but its two guys there all the time, always concentrating, always competing for every point and having done just that for 6 previous rounds in the previous two weeks. Seriously that could be more than 24 HOURS of play in 2 weeks ; I will not even attempt to calculate how long it would take an NFL player to rack that much play up...

I respect that others may enjoy the whole thing (I like watching cars go round in circles) but for me I just can't connect to it hence why I'd never go to a game....
 
Totally understand your logic Tuscan1969 at the very least I urge you to watch the highlights- you get the minute or two of good play isolated from the rest, and even if you don't understand the game in many cases you can marvel at the sheer athletic ability. Football's nature means that the most insane fast-twitch athletes thrive, and at times its a beauty to watch them work.

As for the cheating siffert_fan they won 45-7 against my Colts, Colts player said it best when he said the Patriots could have played with soap instead of footballs and still won. And quite a few former quarterbacks came out and said deflating the footballs was a pretty common practice. Not that they shouldn't be punished, just keeping them out of the Super Bowl would be too extreme. And no, Karma wasn't going to bite them because the Seahawks karma is just as bad.
 
siffert_fan said:
What I don't understand is that the New England Patriots were caught cheating (by deflating the balls) in the championship game that got them into the Super Bowl, yet they were still permitted to go to the Big Game. Who says cheaters never prosper?
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In the grand scheme of things a few deflated balls are penats compared to other issues NFL is dealing with; domestic violence, child abuse, concussions...
 
I have to admit, even with my very limited knowledge of the game, just what the Seahawks quarter back thought he was doing with that final play is anyone's guess ?
 
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