Great win from our boys, not long got back to the hotel from Wembley! Took just over an hour and a half!
- Except for the opening drive, the D were great! Run D was good as usual, and the pass rush would have had more sacks if Bradford hasn't been impressive at getting the ball out of his hands when pressured (except his two penalties)
- the O were exactly what I wanted to see! Brady marched down the field! Only punting once when Brady was in. Some guy behind me and my girlfriend shouting 'Brady, you suck, nobody wants you here' which allowed me to shout 'what was that?' After the first TD,
- while there were more Patriots fans than any of the other 31, the majority of other fans support against the Patriots! But this worked in our favour when most don't realise that you cheer when your team is on D not O! Pats would be on D, third down and the crowd were cheering!
- I had said to my girlfriend earlier in the day that most fans of American Football in the UK do not take the sport as serious as other sports. When you have a one off game like this, I know that you will get a mixture of fans, but a lot don't seem to care for a team! So I saw someone wearing a Bronco's jersey, but wearing a Jags hat! I also saw a guy in a Brady jersey and a Steelers hat! I know this is silly but it really annoyed me! You wouldn't see someone wearing a Liverpool top with a Newcastle wooly hat!
- I was also annoyed at the number of people leaving early! I know it was a blow out and leaving at the 2 minute warming is fine, but people started leaving after the third quarter! I actually felt sorry for the Rams, because fans were basically saying 'you are ****, we are going home'!
- the Rams cheerleaders were terrible! They were out of time with each other!
- the marketing from the NFL, NFL UK, and the sponsors was likely planned by an idiot! The organisation at the official tailgate was bad! Put popular things near the exit, so the queue (which was 50+ people) covered the exit! As for New Era, they had a tiny tent at the Fan Rally and sold out of Patriots knits, and then at the tailgate, they had a massive stand with promotion bits, but the queue was huge (and slow) and no way for people who just wanted a hat! We also heard someone say that they had sold out of a load of hats, I believe the sold out were Pats, Packers and Cowboys, which are pretty popular teams over here! Stock more!
- Nike Town on Oxford Street was all NFL downstairs, yet stocked bugger all Pats and Rams gear compared to others! There were really nice jackets but only in Packers, Raiders, Steelers and Giants! I know the NFL is raising the profile of the sport, but they should show off the teams that a playing! Anyone without a team will likely want to wearing the clothing of the teams playing!
- a missed opportunity for money was the lack of pink beast cancer awareness merch! Nothing! There are a lot of female fans of the sport and know that they would buy pink stuff as well as the male fans! I know my girlfriend wanted a pink hat, but nothing!
While I list a lot of annoyances, the game (the most important part) was great, from the perspective of a Patriots fans!
And to finish it off with a joke, the best quote I heard while waiting for the tube: (about there being 2 games next season and the likelihood of them not both selling out) They should play the games further apart, maybe one in October and one in March!'
The UK does like the sport, honest!
