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The Sports Blog

London, baby!

If you happen to be in London tonight, make sure you head to Wembley stadium. Because that’s where it’s going to be. The NFL, that is. The reasonably successful New England Patriots face the Malcolm Glazer-owned Tampa Bay Buccaneers in a regular season week 7 match that promises – well, not much.

The Buccaneers are NOT the National Football League’s Manchester United, although they managed to win the Super Bowl six years ago. Interestingly enough that victory was wedged between the first and second of the Patriots’ three Super Bowl victories.

But that’s history, and it will not play a part tonight. Tom Brady will. NFL’s poster boy tossed six touchdowns against the Tennessee Titans last week and should pick up where he left a week ago. The Buccaneers have not won a game yet this season and are in a three-way tie for the worst record in the NFL. The team is in a rebuilding state and should not pose a problem for the Patriots.

The Bucs also used to have a picture of Erroll Flynn on their helmets. Now that’s bad Karma for you.

The interesting thing about tonight’s game is the location. This is the fourth time an NFL regular season game will be played outside the US and the third one in London (the first one was played in Mexico). Tickets to tonight’s game sold out a long time ago, which speaks of the somewhat silent popularity of the game in Europe. NFL tried for years to conquer the old continent through two different leagues, both of which were unsuccessful. After burying the last attempt, NFL Europa, the executives at NFL switched their focus to presenting the game to a global audience through television and by bringing the real games to the people. There is even talk about a franchise in London and maybe even Super Bowl at some point.

Come and see the Buccaneers get their bottoms kicked tonight at O’Connel’s! The game starts at 7PM.

Posted: 25 Oct 09, while you had lunch and the staff had breakfast!

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