Keep the NFL Out of London

In honor of the Olympics this week, I thought it would be fitting to discuss with you the awful idea of the NFL forming a team in London. I honestly have no idea why some team owners and the commissioner think this is a great idea and something that should happen in the future. Roger Goddell has even discussed the possibility of hosting a Super Bowl in London! First off, lets start with the easiest question…why??

It’s the National Football League, no room in there for a London team. With 32 teams already, this would require an existing American team moving to London or the creation of a second new team to keep an even 34. That creates another mess of a situation because where is the other team going? Let’s pretend that the NFL just moved a team to London…what division would they play in? The easiest scenario would be to move a team in an East division, but I can guarantee you none of these teams, AFC or NFC, will move anywhere. If any team were to move, it would be the Buffalo Bills, and they would likely move to Toronto.

So that would mean they would have to take a team from a division even further away from London. Let’s pretend the Jacksonville Jaguars get moved to London. They play in the AFC South; so the newly formed London SillyNannies (Family Guy reference) would have to play the Indianapolis Colts, Houston Texans, and Tennessee Titans each twice a year. That’s a ton of travel just for a game in their own division! Not to mention all of the out-of-division games they’ll play. The cost of flying the teams to and from each stadium would be enormous. A team in Canada, with a system like the NHL or MLB, would make more sense than a team in London!

With all the financial, divisional, and travel issues aside, let’s analyze the common sense factor…THEY DON’T CARE ABOUT FOOTBALL! Sure, when the NFL hosts a game in London each year people come to watch. It’s exciting! A huge, foreign sport gracing their turf is something to be interested in. But they don’t follow football! They care about the “other” football; soccer. That’s why, when the Patriots played the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in London back in 2009, they had a giant, inflatable Stephen Gostkowski to welcome the team. He’s a kicker and the closest thing to a soccer player. Need I say more?

To wrap it up, let’s keep the NFL in America where it belongs.