My gut reaction to the London game:

Thank •••• for the Red Sox.

:D

Its quite obvious that the injuries are killing the Dolphions season. Their team is just lacking any real quality right now. Was happy to see the young QB finally create something at the end. He was having a very 'unfortunate' afternoon before setting up the touchdown.

Just seen on SSN and they are already talking of getting another season match for next season. I guess they will be looking to get two different sides...

Also talk of holding the Superbowl over here in next 10 years! :eek:

Am I right in thinking America will be a bit pissed off if that happened?

It would be like us moving the FA Cup Final to LA!

I don't see any enjoyment in a game where there's stoppages for 75% of the match.

I watched this game on the highlights last night and 2 things stuck out to me;

The atmosphere was more exhibition game that anything else. Largely, I suspect due to the neutrality of most fans. I suppose if we really want true passion, then the NFL needs to set up a London franchise that competes home and away in the NFL.*

The weather and pitch made any attempts to play an attactive, open game impossible.

Which begs the question, if Wembley wants to show case major international events, why at £800 million can it not have a roof?

*One thing I have been reading is that at Bath Uni, the NFL is funding a collegiate team that will take the best talent from Europe and compete on the circuit with US colleges. The students will study British degrees and will also be eligible for Draft Picks in the same they are in the US. I, myself reckon that is a prelude to a UK based NFL franchise. Why not? It would be cool.

As for the SuperBowl in London? February is too cold.

Did I hear the crowd booing Paul Potts when he was introduced to sing the National Anthem?

If so, what was that all about? (It must have been the Palace contingent, as they seem to boo everyone and everything these days)

What killed the atmosphere was Miami's complete ineptitude. The few things they did got a loud response from the mainly MIami-supportying crowd\but the GIants defense kind of screwed things up for anyone wanting a noisy game to watch.

What was fascinating was the amount of nerdy types that are NFL fans. Harmless guys and most of them are the type you'd be happy for your daughter to bring home. The trouble is, while these guys (I'm guessing here) are drawn to the cerebral part of the game with tactics and strategies here they're pants when it comes to being noisy and passionate

Well, it's a great day to be a Redskins fan :D

Enjoyed my trip with Ben to Wembley last night.

It was more laughing than booing, Russell Watson was meant to sing but has been very ill lately.

Ridiculous reaction by the fans - Paul Potts sung the best rendition of our turguid national anthem I've heard in a long time. Credit to Jocelyn Brown also - when was the last time the moronic Wembley hordes cheered a non-British anthem?

I trust the NFL were 'highly impressed' by laughing at Paul Potts, the inane booing of John Terry and the jeers when the Royal Engeers band were announced as the half time act. Christ, what the hell have the Royal Engineers ever done to pis5 anyone off??

And another thing....Mami fans......you are there to lift the team. Not just cheer as the QB finally makes a pass over 10 yards.....which is then ruled out of bounds or cheer a TD when the ball is clearly on the floor having not been caught.

Flaming Dumphins!

You're on the right lines.

The neutrality killed it. What would help further down the line would be when the novelty factor wore off so that say, when San Fran played Dallas in 2014, the vast majority there would be fans of just those two clubs.

All well and good having some planks in their Amsterdam Admirals jerseys but they aint gonna give it large like a diehard fan of one of the teams would and that's only natural.

I was thinking about it a lot last night and I wouldn't go to another one unless it involved Jets, Giants or Chargers. I'd have to be well into one of the teams to make the journey and get involved in the atmosphere.

How is a crowd of 81000 with plenty of empty seats (inc 2 next to me) in a 90000 stadium a sell out?

I see Strath is lying low. Can only assume he's burning his aqua jersey, having now seen the light.

Tony, all is not lost, you can switch teams but stay in the AFC East and support the side which had the 3rd most jerseys on display (much to my surprise I have to admit) ....

















......THE JETS

I didn't boo Paul Potts, but I know a lot of people around me shouted out a cry of "Who?".

The lack of atmosphere was doing my head in. Some people around me were trying to make noise, but they were struggling.

The lack of security presence with the streaker, and the various things that happened would all suggest to me that we won't see another game in a while.

I am sure that half of the unaccounted 9,000 were due to having the first 5 rows covered and unavailable for use. You can argue that at any time during the 3+ hours 5% of people were buying food/drinks or in the loo. Certainly when it was raining heavily many on the lower tier behind one goal evacuated to the concourse.

Saying all that there were still many seats unoccupied, probably tauts that did not sell their tickets.

I don't know particularly about the "atmosphere" on Sunday but I do know the games I've been to in the US aren't always that loud. It doesn't have to be loud to create an atmosphere.

I've been to Cleveland, where the Dawg Pound is supposed to be "where it's at" and the atmosphere wasn't loud except for when they were defending third downs. Same in SanFran.

Same in most US sports - Yankees fans don't make much noise generally but when it's late in the game and their pitcher has a couple of strikes on the board, the noise level makes the hairs on your neck stand up.

You can't always judge these things based on "soccer" experiences, IMO, as the fans are a different breed althogether.

COuld have been a Patriots game for all the tops I saw