The NFL has been traveling to London for the last nine years to play some regular season games. Each year, there seems to be more games played in the city and now London wants to have their very own NFL team.
Over a week ago, the New York Jets took on the Miami Dolphins at Wembley and there are still two more regular season games for the NFL scheduled in London this year. The Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars will play on October 25th and one week later, the Detroit Lions and Kansas City Chiefs will face off.
Courtesy of pocketdoppler.com
So it is no surprise that British Chancellor George Osborn would love to have an official NFL team playing in the UK. London has a pretty big NFL fan base and it is getting bigger each year. Osborne just recently said that he is hoping that London will get a team in the next four to five years. NFL’s executive vice president international, Mark Waller, is also on board with London getting their very own team. He announced his idea for it back in 2007, when the games first started in London. He said the NFL has always envisioned a team coming to London within 15 years. So it looks like London could be getting a NFL team in just a few years.
Courtesy of sbnation.com
It would be really cool for NFL fans in London to be able to have their own team to cheer on. But there are some things that come up that make me think a team in London might not work. A flight to London isn’t quick and I don’t see how teams can fly back and forth each week and not feel the impact of jetlag. I also don’t see big name players wanting to take the move to London. With that being said, a lot of football players would love to get the chance to play on any team. So London could find enough players to have a football team, but probably not full of any really good football players.
It will be interesting to see what happens in the next 4 years. In the meantime, NFL teams will continue to travel to London to play regular season games.
