NFL News: Bear vs Bucs In London

With the release of the 2011 NFL schedule yesterday, one of the interesting things is to see which two teams are tapped for the annual game in London. This year, on October 23rd,it will be the Chicago Bears and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.

This will be the fifth year since this tradition has begun. It started in 2007 with an incredibly ugly matchup on a rain sogged field or "pitch" as the Brits call it between the NY Giants and the Miami Dolphins. The Giants won 13-10 and went on to win Super Bowl XLII.

Each game has been sold out but TV ratings in the rest of England have been average.

I get that the NFL is trying to make football more of an international appeal, and there are even rumors that they are considering having European franchises some day. Business is business.

My take; bad idea. It is incredibly disruptive to the teams involved, deprives one of a home game and could potentially cost a team a playoff spot (lets say you are the team that loses a home game. Lets also say that you enjoy a tremendous homefield advantage. Lets further say that you lose a close one in London on a neutral field and just miss the playoffs....).

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Comments

[Bill Zeltman]

It is ridiculous to have a game in England. With only 8 regular season home dates many fans do not get a chance to see their team in person as it is. Taking away 1/8 of the home schedule for a team is ridiculous. In addition, no one in England or Europe care about American football. The sell out at the stadium are Americans that are either in England on vacation or live there.

Their interest in American football is about the same as if two of their soccer teams came to America to play a game. WE JUST WOULD NOT CARE!