Leave the NFL at Wembley as a one-off

Sat in on Tom Brady's press conference in the bowels of Wembley following the NFL game on Sunday, I glanced to my left and recognised a familiar face.

Where do I know that face from? I thought. Have I seen him in the football press boxes of Yorkshire and what's he doing here at an American Football game in London?

Noticing me staring hard at him, the person in question returned the glance.

No hint of recognition on his face but it was bugging me.

I was just about to whisper - Brady was still opining to a packed hall on the Patriots' performance - if he recognised me when it finally twigged who it was and my blushes were saved.

It was Jake Humphrey, of the BBC. I had actually remembered him off the telly from far flung destinations, not the press box at Millmoor as I originally thought.

Not a chance in hell that he would know my face, the same face I had stuffed earlier with free half-time hot dogs.

I tell this story more to paint the picture of the massive appeal of American Football being played on English soil, our hallowed soil for that matter, and a meaningful regular season game to boot.

The media area at Wembley on Sunday was packed, the queue to get into the locker room to interview players was as long as a Josh Johnson hail mary and for the second season running I bypassed the chance to interview a naked nickelback in favour of hearing the coaches thoughts on their sides performance in front of 84,000 'new' fans.

Journalists from Florida, Boston and all across America had descended on our capital for what is now becoming a regular mid-season slot. There were also members of the media from across Europe, eager to catch a glimpse of one of the richest sports in the world out of its comfort zone and on their doorstep.

In Europe, the NFL's International Series is greeted with open arms from lifelong fans of the Packers, Jets and Browns, and members of the media curious to see what it's all about and gauge the merits of its appeal.

Opinion in America is divided as to its impact, with fans of those teams who have to forego a home game particularly against it. The teams themselves have to sacrifice a lot of practice time to criss-cross the Atlantic.

The American media have gone past curiosity and are now merely getting irritated and will be irked further by suggestions that there could be two games played in England next season, or the extension of the regular season from 16 to 18 games to accomodate games abroad, or even a London franchise in future years.

For me, the NFL deserve praise for the bold move to expand their game. It is a gamble that has and continues to pay off.

Expanding that however, could seriously damage its appeal and its relations. Wembley has sold out in each of the three years because there are enough knowledgable American Football fans who want to see a game every year. The stadium is also a big appeal, but even if it were Detroit Lions versus Cleveland Browns, NFL-mad UK and European fans would still flock to the game.

But a second game in the north of England, perhaps Manchester, as has been suggested for next season, would be a step too far. The setting would not be as grand, and indeed would not feel like playing in a Superbowl, as Brady likened Sunday's game to.

Plus the league would be running the risk of exposing the games to fewer fans pouring through the turnstiles. The media attention would also suffer if a rarity becomes the norm.

The NFL has a big market in Germany, Spain and Holland, where the shortlived NFL Europe was a success. Twin games in London and Berlin would work, but overloading one country with games, and testing the strength of a minority sport in one nation, would be a stretch too far.

There are too many pitfalls as well for a London franchise, in the logistics and organisation, particularly with the amount of travelling teams, fans and media would have to do. Would British fans still pay good money to see an English team full of American rejects lose to the Houston Texans each week? No way.

The NFL International Series in London has proved a roaring success and should be kept as it is - a one-off at Wembley, a rare treat for gridiron fans, and an opportunity for the sport to dominate the headlines in Europe for just a few days.

Get ready for the Yorkshire Post blog revolution

Hi there blog fans - yes all four of you; mum, dad, my good friend Rob McBride and some chap I met in the mess called Bernard.

After an extended hiatus from all things blogging, myself and the rest of the Yorkshire Post sports team have decided to relaunch the blog network and will be hitting readers of the esteemed northern publication and its associated website with a three-prongued attack.

It begins with the hard-hitting Matt Reeder, sports editor extraordinaire of the desk, a veteran of World Cup final coverage and Champions League semi-finals. Matt is a multi-award winning journalist and now the director of football of Tockwith Juniors Under 7s.

Try and encourage him to blog about the time that as an impartial referee he hi-fived his son for scoring a goal. He also has a 'great' story about when he interviewed David Beckham.

Next up is Dave Craven, the Yorkshire Post's latest signing who has slipped effortlessly into the role of rugby league correspondent. It's a timely appointment I'm sure you'll admit, with the Super League season set to conclude in a little over a week!

So with four months to sit twiddling his thumbs and work his backside groove into his swivvely desk chair, what better way we thought than to fill his time by making the bugger blog about the sport he loves best.

Dave has a strange fascination with the X-Factor so look out for him boring the pants off everyone as he regales us with tales of the funny comment Louis made.

And then there's myself, who after blogging consistently last summer, somehow lost the ability to do so again. I got lost in reading and re-reading my NFL post last October which I was mightily proud of and therefore mightily miffed to learn even my dad didn't like it.

The NFL will be another of the topics I'll be covering in my weekly blog, along with the other sports I cover for the Yorkshire Post, namely, rugby union, golf, the Olympics, Formula 1, stag doo go-karting and pro-celebrity javelin throwing.

So we're all back - and we reckon we might even be able to convince ice hockey and squash reporter Phil Harrison to follow suit - admittedly without a regular time slot and date at which we will be communciating to you, but with a solemn promise that amid a world seduced by such technologies as 'Facebook', 'Twitter' and 'Statellite Television', we here at the Yorkshire Post will stay true to the pioneering world wide web phenomenon of talking rubbish, and thinking ourselves intelligent as we do so. Blogging.

Fasten your seat belts, and await further updates.

EPL should follow NFL lead

The so-called 39th Step which has had football traditionalists shaking their heads at the ever-changing face of the beautiful game into a global business was afforded an insight into how to achieve such a bold move at Wembley Stadium yesterday.

The National Football League (NFL) played its second regular season game at England’s famous venue with New Orleans Saints powering past the San Diegoe Chargers in an explosive and entertaining match in front of more than 83,000 fans.

It was a brave move by the NFL 18 months ago when it announced ahead of Superbowl XLII that the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins would play the first ever regular season game outside of the United States, taking the national game out of its comfort zone.

And it is a move that suggests to the FA and the Premier League that taking your brand into other growing markets can only enhance your product.

Even though the first installment of gridiron in Europe was a drab affair between the Dolphins and the Giants in torrential autumnal rain, it did little to dampen the spirits of the NFL’s governers who immediately set about a return to England for a second outing.

The enthusiasm of the British and European fans for the game was also strengthened by the fixture and they again marched in their thousands down Olympic Way yesterday, decked out in colours of all the 32 teams with shirts sporting names from the past like Dan Marino and future Hall of Famers like Tom Brady.

For fans of American Football on this side of the Atlantic, the Bridgestone International Series is the only chance they get to see the biggest league in the world up close.

So they do not care who plays who, what the score is or how many touchdowns are scored; all that matters is they are seeing the sport played by the best in the business, in the flesh.

And that is all that fans of ‘soccer’ and the EPL - which is the Premier League’s acronym according to our American colleagues - want to see; club football played at the highest level by the best players, in their country.

Fans in Bahrain won’t care if Stoke City are playing West Brom, the Sydney branch of the Everton Supporters Club won’t be put off by Liverpool v Hull City, and Cristiano Ronaldo worshippers in Singapore will still turn out in their thousands to see Tottenham Hotspur v Sunderland.

One solution to the 39th Step that the Premier League continue to look into, would be a seeding system for which teams are involved in which cities.

Seeding could be based on positions a team finishes in at the end of the season, ie. with the three relegated teams replaced by the three promoted teams, and the 39th Step being matches contested the following winter. First could play second with the second and third promoted teams also playing each other on one day in say Dubai.

In another city, Tokyo perhaps, third would play fourth and 17th play the winners of the Championship, and so on...

The suggestion that English fans would miss out - which continues to be one of the concerns forwarded by clubs - is ludicrous.

Loyal fans follow their team all over Europe from Paris to Moscow, Istanbul to Oslo. Why would they not support their team in a meaningful fixture in Los Angeles or Cape Town?

The Premier League could also learn from the NFL on how to make the event an occassion and not just a football match. The Stereophonics did a pre-game set at Wembley yesterday, followed by the respective national anthems being sung to help engender an atmosphere inside the stadium.

The game itself was a cracker, and exactly what the NFL powerbrokers would want from an isolated contest charged with promoting the sport.

New Orleans and San Diego conjured eight touchdowns between them, two of the game’s most exciting young quarterbacks Drew Brees and Philip Rivers threw three touchdowns apiece, and the two teams combined for a staggering 860 yards total offence.

In LaDainian Tomlinson, the San Diego Chargers running back, NFL fans in England witnessed one of the game’s greats in action, his speed of thought and movement providing some of the main highlights of the day.

Such high-power offense begs the question of what happened to the defense. Well, they were sloppy with neither quarterback troubled and coverage in the secondary sparse, although New Orleans’ linebacker Jonathan Vilma proved the exception with some key plays.

Any NFL game that goes down to the wire is going to be exciting, and the outcome of this match was still up in the air in the final second when Rivers’ hail mary into the endzone failed to find a Chargers receiver.

The Saints opened the door for their opponents with a bizarre safety which head coach Sean Payton later explained as a well-drilled practice designed at shaving seconds off the clock.

Whatever it was, it led to an exciting conclusion.

Few British fans among the 83,000 in attendance will have left Wembley feeling short-changed by the match or the event.

I for one will be going back next year, and will be in support of the Premier League if they go ahead with the bold but beneficial 39th Step.