Gwedd

It would take 10-20 years but, ideally, the way to set up Football in Europe is to get them to their own 32-team league. Mirror the NFL for organization of the conferences, divisions, etc. Heck, make them by country if you need to to add to the rivalries.

Once that's in place, THEN you can have the 2 Superbowl winners face each other for a real world championship game. Talk about hype.......

But....... yeah. Likely not gonna happen but you never know.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

patfanken

Comments on the comments:

1. My biggest problem with any expansion into Europe would be that expansion itself. I don't think the NFL should grow beyond its current 32 teams, and as far sending a current franchise over there, we need to find 2 teams to go to LA before we think about London. Besides there are only 2 teams that I can think of that one can even CONSIDER being good candidates to lose their teams, and those are Jacksonville and SD, and SD is a stretch.

2. On the other hand I can't get it out of my head how teams in a European division would grow quickly into such great rivalries. You think Boston and NYC hate each other. Try London and Paris. Berlin and Rome, etc. We don't have a clue about "rivalries" compared to the Europeans we are novices.

3.Brady's butboy gets my point. With guys like Demps, Ballard, Larsen, etc, the Pats have stockpiled several promising prospects who might become one of the 15-20 new Patriots next year and add some very low cost new blood. We are certainly not likely to draft anyone in the mid rounds who is going to be a better LB/STer than Dane Fletcher

Like I've said the draft is critical to your long term team building on a sound economic model, but if a smart team can easily overcome a year or two when you either don't have the numbers or the success you would like through other methods. If you think of Demps and Ballard as replacing those mid round picks, you will feel instantly better.

Dragda

I went back and watched all the long completions (10+ yds) in 2011 in the all-22 film. Almost every long play was against our zone defense. I didn't look at all the plays to contrast to see if they played man a lot or not.

The zone defense burnt most frequently--which we still seem to be using--is one deep safety and one shallow safety. One or both of the safeties is out of position due to teams adjusting their routes.

Maybe if we played man under and deep zone or mix things up a bit we'd have more success.

I haven't spent much time looking at film this year because I am traveling so much and the Game Rewind takes too much bandwidth for hotel internet.

UK_Pat37

Is it two or three franchises LA have sent down the pan? They've had enough chances. Give someone else a go.

Great point about rivalries. Whilst I think a European division is unlikely...for now...it would be interesting! The German/English soccer rivalry is huge...I think a London/Berlin rivalry would be extreme.

I see them putting one of the 32 franchises in London first...then they may test out other markets like Germany. The NFL would make unbelievable amounts of money there.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.



To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Patsfanin Philly

If you're assuming that Jax is the likely candidate to move to London, adding them to the AFC East and moving Miami to the NFC South makes sense. Then you take the Saints and put them in the AFC South (replacing JAX) with Indy, Tenn and Houston....
It's not like teams haven't switched conferences before. Clev, Pitt and the Colts were all in the NFC before the merger. Seattle was once in the AFC West and Tampa Bay was also there for a short period of time.

__________________
Um, Mr. Brady, can we line up?

JoeSixPat

Nice Post.

These are far from idle thoughts - they're the key to the rest of the season in many ways

The Gregory injury had much more of an impact than most fans thought - when he was signed it didn't get much attention, but he's clearly one of our best players and playing without him has had a significant domino effect.

Adding Talib helps limit the ongoing domino effect - but more importantly, the Patriots now have a guy they can assign to cover the best WR on the other team and can expect him to generally get the job done.

That's HUGE in so many aspects of the game - not the least of which is stopping big plays and third down conversions.

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

gomezcat

Great stuff, Ken, as always. I went to the Wembley game last week and, as I posted elsewhere, thought that the secondary mostly played well; once the result of the game was beyond doubt, I spent more time watching the D and they made Bradford/Clemens really work for their completions.

Re games in London- I personally DON'T think that the NFL is actually thinking of a London franchise any time soon. The NFL, for the most part, is extremely well run in commercial terms and they will know that a Franchise isn't remotely sustainable at the moment.

I think the purpose of the games at Wembley has been to get more people interested in Football, which it has done, and therefore more revenue through TV, merchandising etc etc etc. The arguments against a team in London have been done a lot and I won't repeat them here.

__________________
The blog of our recent trip to The States (September and October 2012):


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.

Joker

They should hold the next game in Oslo ,Sweden....get them Swedish chicks interested in tight ends....

Mike the Brit

Well, since it's the bye week, I will ...

Ridiculous travel
Taxation You'd have a much worse version of the state income tax issue that there is now.
Employment law/anti-monopoly There's no way that the salary cap and draft would be legal in the UK
Dilution Either you expand the number of franchises or you move one. Either you bring another mouth to the table or you take one from a less profitable location -- but why assume that London will be MORE profitable?
PEDs

The main argument for:

Global Brands It's sad if your main sponsors are domestic beers and domestic airlines. But global brands want a global product. That's the NFL's main limit. It's dominant in the U.S. but can't get past that.

BUT!!!!

It's perfectly possible to expand the interest in the game globally but keep the franchises in the USA. It's about broadcasting (including the internet) and merchandising -- both of which are hopeless outside the U.S.

__________________
My prized possessions: Our family pictures; my dad and me getting doused by Bruschi in Super Bowl XXXIX [Shalize Manza Young Up Close with ... Bill Belichick]


To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.


They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Well, Pats fans should be invincible by now. [Fitzy, 16 November 2009]

Still here to learn

italia44

I could be wrong,joker,but I see you more as the "Girl With the Dragon Tattoo"-typehttp://ia.media-imdb.com/images/M/MV...V1._SY317_.jpg

__________________

To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.
Audentes Fortuna Juvat
To view links or images in signatures your post count must be 10 or greater. You currently have 0 posts.