Signs of US/NFL and RFU working together

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/34707958

NFL coming to Twickenham. Whilst I really cannot stand American Football, I think this is good for RFU in terms of additional income, profile in the US (the home of Rugby) and possible alliances to help Rugby in the battle against MLS for US fans attention.

I also bet this will make FA/Chelsea green with envy having been told "no entry" whenever they've tried to bring soccer to TCP.

For NFL though dumb - they already at Wembley, and Spurs, so why not go to Cardiff or Edinburgh instead of yet another London venue?

On a slightly different slant...I was lucky enough to watch one of the England games with Todd Clever over a few beers here in Newcastle.

He had some very interesting views on the current thoughts of players who didn't make the NFL coming across to rugby.

He said he had been at many of the training camps, and very strongly said that whilst they were all freaks of athletes they were struggling to pick up the basics of rugby, and he felt it would take a long time to get them acclimatised.

The odd one may make it, but not the droves many seem to think.

GeordieFalcon wrote:On a slightly different slant...I was lucky enough to watch one of the England games with Todd Clever over a few beers here in Newcastle.

He had some very interesting views on the current thoughts of players who didn't make the NFL coming across to rugby.

He said he had been at many of the training camps, and very strongly said that whilst they were all freaks of athletes they were struggling to pick up the basics of rugby, and he felt it would take a long time to get them acclimatised.

The odd one may make it, but not the droves many seem to think.

Interesting. Sounds like the RL to RU problem just much worse.

Yeah that's true LIW.

I'm not too surprised by that .. in the NFL only the skill position players actually handle the ball, and even then won't be doing much passing in any direction.

Very different skillsets, unless they are caught very young and have a natural aptitude I can't see it being very successful

Also, NFL is a different type of fitness, it is so stop start, you only need to be able to use fits of energy over short periods, with rugby union, you need non stop stamina based fitness to keep you going for over an hour.

Which is why the 7's game is crucial for developing the game sense and skills at a very early age. Bed that knowledge in early and if they then fail to make the grade in the nfl, then they'll have the understanding and basic ability to transfer to rugby.

Reading posts here and on other fora, it does seem to me that there is a sense of Rugby's conquest of the US (or at least as the top tier 2 sport behind NFL/MLB/NBA) is a formality.

Much is made of Rugby being the "fastest growing sport in the US", but that is often the case when you start from a small base.

I think Rugby has a place in every country, but people underestimate how much work there is to do in places like US, Russia, Germany.

Rugby and NFL have also had very close relationships behind closed doors, the fact is Twickenham is the best stadium in London anyway.

https://www.sbat.com/tips/todays-free-horse-racing-tips

TG wrote:Reading posts here and on other fora, it does seem to me that there is a sense of Rugby's conquest of the US (or at least as the top tier 2 sport behind NFL/MLB/NBA)  is a formality.

Much is made of Rugby being the "fastest growing sport in the US", but that is often the case when you start from a small base.

I think Rugby has a place in every country, but people underestimate how much work there is to do in places like US, Russia, Germany.

If Wikipedia is to be believed, the USA went from 80000 registered rugby players to just short of 500k in five years in the USA

I can attest that rugby is developing a monetary base before it takes hold, a lot of leading colleges in the US now employ part time or full time staff/coaches.

I know Harvard and West point both have full time Rugby coaches.

With regards to the NFL, of course it makes sense to keep within London, guarentee'd crowds, and high profile TV access to the UK market, which is why theyre here in the first place. Unlike premiership football and rugby clubs NFL franchises probably won't get away with playing fixtures in Asia due to, how do I say it, fan base pregudice?

London however may be a gateway to a large European market, which I think doesn't exist peronally, anyone whos sat and watched a NFL game just sits in absolute shock, of how slow and lacking in tempo it is.

TG wrote:For NFL though dumb - they already at Wembley, and Spurs, so why not go to Cardiff or Edinburgh instead of yet another London venue?

Because they eventually want to set up a London team to be a member of the NFL. They do not plan to set up in Cardiff and Edinburgh.

TG wrote:http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/american-football/34707958

NFL coming to Twickenham. Whilst I really cannot stand American Football, I think this is good for RFU in terms of additional income, profile in the US (the home of Rugby) and possible alliances to help Rugby in the battle against MLS  for US fans attention.

I also bet this will make FA/Chelsea green with envy having been told "no entry" whenever they've tried to bring soccer to TCP.

For NFL though dumb - they already at Wembley, and Spurs, so why not go to Cardiff or Edinburgh instead of yet another London venue?

The NFL is evaluating putting a team in London. They are using some of the major London stadia to reach the broadest possible audience whilst making the max. profit. That's their logic. The NFL and RFU are talking about a number of opportunities, so they say. Nothing close to being final though.

NFL won't make many inroads into Europe, the fact is the USA invented their OWN sports using existing sports and declare themselves the best in the World at them, that's partially how they feel good about themselves as a country.  I don't mean that in a bad way, but America declares everything as a WORLD series, but their World is actually North America.  The USA simply doesn't like competition.

Neither would I be that concerned by the attendances for NFL games in Wembley, it's one thing to sell out a one off game, it's entirely different to sell out a stadium every other week.  If your a fan of of a band and their playing in your area you may go there for a one off, but if they played there every week, you probably wouldn't go every week.

I don't know if there are many other posters on here who are of similar age to me, you might remember these:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/NFL-HOUSTON-OILERS-AMERICAN-FOOTBALL-JERSEY-KEYRING-1980s-IN-ORIGINAL-BAG-/350950832190?hash=item51b64cb83e:g:bhIAAOxyUrZSpscF

From the early 90's, we had a NFL highlights program on Channel 4, and all collected these key rings, which came with plastic helmets, and we were all Miami Dolphins fans but it was just a fad.

OMG Shifty, you have just taken me back to my childhood. Remember the stick of chewing gum you used to get with the T-shirts ? 

I had all of those, and for the record I was a Chicago Bears fan, after they won the super bowl in 1985. I remember the highlights show, I remember thinking how cool it was, then I watched the Miami Dolphins against the Cincinati Bengals from start to finish and it put me off the sport for the rest of my life, it took about two hours to watch it all, stop/start/stop/start.

I have always been a saints fan from the days of the "Dome Patrol" in the late 80's early 90's.

Had to wait a LONG time to see them win a Super Bowl...

LordDowlais wrote:OMG Shifty, you have just taken me back to my childhood. Remember the stick of chewing gum you used to get with the T-shirts ? 

I had all of those, and for the record I was a Chicago Bears fan, after they won the super bowl in 1985. I remember the highlights show, I remember thinking how cool it was, then I watched the Miami Dolphins against the Cincinati Bengals from start to finish and it put me off the sport for the rest of my life, it took about two hours to watch it all, stop/start/stop/start.

I still have them, oddly enough I was up my parents attic a couple of weeks ago and opened a random carrier bag and it was full of plastic helmets and those key rings. I remember the chewing gum as well, they used to sell them in the local post office, your the first Bears fan I ever heard of though!

Hey I'm a bears fan and have even flown out to Chicago to watch them play!!!!

I got caught up in the whizz of the Raiders from the 90's, couldn't shift them from that (I literally owned every bit of merchandise).

Bit depressing these days, the LA move didn't work, then 20 years of nothing, visit to the Coliseum a little while ago was... underwhelming also.

La Vegas needs a team, go Raiders go!

Seriously though, NFL isn't a sport europeans like, the Americans hate football and think they see a goal every 6 weeks or so, which is ironic because of the huge amount of points, and huge amount of sitting round watching nothing they do during a NFL game

I went to a Philadelphia Eagles match at Thanksgiving in the early 1980s when I was in the States on military service.   It was quite an experience with the holiday atmosphere and all the build up to the match.  By the time the match started I was really looking forward to an exciting match.   My American buddy had given me a briefing on the rules beforehand so I kinda had a fair idea of what I was watching.

What followed was quite underwhelming.  Try as I might, I couldn't quite get my head around all the changes of this team or that team being on the field and then all going off and a completely different lot coming on.   How the whole game stops every time the ball goes to ground, and so on.   I found my attention wandering quite frequently.

What seemed weirdest of all was how, with the best part of a minute remaining in the match, Dallas Cowboys, who were winning by a single score and had possession, simply snapped the ball and everybody dropped to one knee, thus stopping the play completely.  With about 15 seconds still on the clock, people started walking on the pitch and hi-fiving each other.  The clock continued to tick with everybody shaking hands.

I was told this was how the clock is run down.  I asked if it was possible that Dallas might lose possession and Phillies could then regain the ball and score.  He chuckled, shook his head and said that that sort of thing just doesn't happen.

My American host was a smashing chap and I think I convinced him that I'd had a good time. It would have been terribly bad manners to express the disappointment I really felt of the experience. On the plus side however.... I did get a selfie standing by the statue of Rocky outside the stadium.  Didn't run up the steps though.

I can't imagine Gridiron football catching on in any meaningful way in Britain.  We like a continuous game and teams that compete to the bitter end regardless of the unlikelihood of them winning.  It's how we roll.

I might be inclined to watch an occasional game of Gridiron football if there is nothing more engaging going on, like Kabaddi or International Shove Ha'penny from Huddersfield Town Hall.