Wednesday, October 29, 2008

London calling to the imitation zone

Week 8 had the international game. Since then I've heard nothing but complaints. Mike Ditka even put London in the dog house. It's not fair to put the extra strain and jet lag on the players, coaches, and trainers of the two teams involved during the regular season. It is a huge distraction to the season. If the NFL wants to expand to Europe, they should try pre-season games, where the games will have little to no effect on the success of the teams involved. It also affects the fans. New Orleans hometown fans lost the chance to see their team play in New Orleans for one game because the London game was considered a home game for them.

This season Canada will be seeing regular season games. Expansion into Canada is far more feasible than expansion into England. Toronto is only about 2 hours outside of Buffalo. Having the Bills play at the Rogers Centre is a great way to get the league outside of the U.S. without sacrificing the ability of the teams involved to focus on the task at hand - winning games, and continuing to the playoffs. Also, Bills fans can still travel to Toronto for far less cost than Saints fan would have to pay to get to London.

Personally, I think the London games should be changed to pre-season where the outcomes of games are far less important than regular season.

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