Nathan Alder,

Correspondent (Sport)

 

LONDON – As the NFL bandwagon rolled into London , a Tom Brady inspired New England Patriots cruised to a convincing victory over the St. Louis Rams with a dynamic passing game ensuring the win.

This game proved to be a perfect showcase for the NFL on the international stage, as a capacity Wembley crowd were treated to a real master class from Bill Belichick’s offense as they eased to a 45-7 victory.

This is the 6th time that the NFL have brought their franchise to England with the International Series being used as tool to further promote the sport and engage with fans from further afield. It does, however, serve a different purpose of sorts as, again, discussions of a potential London franchise has been one of the major talking points throughout the build-up to the game.

New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft spoke pre-match about a potential London franchise saying, “You’re already hosting the premier league, and we believe we’re the premier sport in the world…I think London has shown, with the way they’ve handled the Olympics and every other major sporting event, that it’s time for you to have your own NFL franchise, based in London”.

The 84,000 capacity crowd on Sunday proved that there is indeed a market for such a franchise here in England, but the American domestication and domination of the sport may prove to be a logistical nightmare for any franchise setting up outside of the US. With squads made up of 70 plus players, all of whom learn their trade in American colleges devoted to the development of the sport, bring into question just how sustainable a foreign franchise could possibly be in the long run.

Despite the obvious stumbling blocks, every year since the inaugural International Series game in 2005, the idea has been banded around, always with relative seriousness. And as of next year the Jacksonville Jaguars will play four back to back league matches in London, from 2013 to 2016, with the aim to build an English following for the team before they make the permanent move across the pond. It’s still to be seen just what the Jacksonville fans will think of their team moving a few thousand miles away, let alone how many players currently on the roster that will be willing to uproot their families and come to London.

Jacksonville owner, Shad Kahn, who doesn’t think the distance is a problem says, “If you think about it, London is no further from the East Coast teams that San Francisco is. There is no geographic issue.”

Kahn sees the NFL’s future outside of America and goes onto say that, “In any business, if you’re not growing, you’re dying. The big opportunity for the NFL now is the international market.”

Back in London, the future Jacksonville ‘fans’ were seeing Tom Brady tear apart the Rams defence as he threw for over 300 yards as the Patriots dominated throughout.

Although they fell behind early on to a fine 50 yard touchdown pass by 3rd year quarter back Sam Bradford, who found wide receiver Givens open down field, a quick response by Brady and his offence had the Patriots level going into the second quarter.

Tight end Rob Gronkowski took over the second quarter as he made big reception after big reception to help the Patriots put another 21 points on the board without reply. Gronkowski’s 7 yard touchdown was sandwiched in between two 1-yard dashes at either end of the quarter to ensure that Belichick’s men had the game sown up by half time.

Their dominance continued into the second half as first Lloyd and then Gronkowski got their second touchdowns of the game. Add to that a 26-yard Gostowski field goal and New England found themselves with a comprehensive 38-point lead with which to see out the game.

Whether or not London will ever see a team of their own play only time will tell, but this much is for sure, the popularity of the game continues to rise in England and with a performance like this from Brady and the Patriot’s Belichick’s men will surely want to come back for more real soon.