A SuperBowl in Wembley?

[Dr Mordrid]

Link....

Goodell: Super Bowl may someday be held in London

SCOTTSDALE, Arizona -- A future NFL champion may someday be crowned overseas in a game witnessed predominantly by a foreign audience, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said.

"There's a great deal of interest in holding a Super Bowl in London," Goodell told reporters Monday. "So we'll be looking at that."

The commissioner said London's Wembley Stadium would make a great candidate for American pro football's biggest matchup, given the opening of the stadium's lastest incarnation and enthusiasm overseas for the game.

The NFL has been expanding its overseas presence for years by televising games around the world. It's held preseason games in numerous countries in Europe, Asia, Mexico and Canada, and in 2005, the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers played the first regular-season match outside the U.S.

The game at Azteca Stadium in Mexico City drew the league's largest crowd to date, 103,467.

On Oct. 28, Wembley will host the first regular-season NFL game outside North America. It took just 90 minutes to sell the first 40,000 tickets for the game between the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants. Goodell said event organizers have sold 95,000 tickets in all.

Goodell spoke about the possibility of a British Super Bowl after a luncheon Monday in Scottsdale sponsored by the host committee for the 2008 Super Bowl in Arizona.

AP NEWS

[Jammrock]

What exactly do they call american football in Britain? American Football? I've heard it called Grin Iron before...

[Fat Tone]

I don't think its generally polite. All that padding...

[FatBastard]

a regular season game I can see happening. I think the NBA held a season opening game outside the US (If memory serves me right then it took place in Japan, but I could be wrong) .
The problem with the superbowl is the time difference, especially in the west coast. they'd have to start the event at 2 AM (UK time), which IMO is counter productive as Europeans won't watch . the SuperBowl is consistently the most viewed broadcast year in year out. take that away and you're left with very little. Am I missing something?

[Fat Tone]

An 8pm kickoff here would be 12pm-3pm in the USA, no?

[Dr Mordrid]

I don't think its generally polite. All that padding...

If you were playing American/Canadian football (more alike than different) and some 350 pound defensive lineman who could run the 40 yard dash (36.6 m) in 5.x seconds had you in his sights you'd thank God for all that body armor.

Our high school defensive line ranged from me @ 6' 1.5" - 245 lbs to a 6' 7" - 310 lb'er who was 16. Our offensive center was 400 lbs at 6' 8" and was quick as a rabbit off the line. The smallest guy on the whole team was our wide receiver who weighed ~175, and he held the State record for the 100 yard dash @ 9.9 seconds.

A bunch of Nordic, German and Polish farm boys

[FatBastard]

How the hell do you discipline a 6"8 / 400 teen ager ? sheesh ..

[FatBastard]

An 8pm kickoff here would be 12pm-3pm in the USA, no?

yup.

[Dr Mordrid]

How the hell do you discipline a 6"8 / 400 teen ager ? sheesh ..

You tell him he'll go to bed without dinner if he doesn't straighten up. Worked for John every time

Funny thing was his mom was about 5 foot nothing, but she could raise holy hell with those kids no matter how big they were. She'd wet a bath towel and start swingin'

[FatBastard]

My brother in law is twelve, he is already 5"11 (same as I) 160.
He still nurtures a secret grudge against me for ... you know ... doing his sister ...
I hope I'll make it to my 40s in one piece ..

[Fat Tone]

Doc, you know I'm stirring, right?

Ever heard of rugby? The only protection they wear is gum shields. Real Men.

[Dr Mordrid]

Rugby players don't last 5 minutes with un-armored football players in the scrum.

Been there, done it to 'em in college. One of my lineman buddies pushed over 3 of 'em with one shove, but then he could drive a blocking sled, with the coaching staff standing on it, by himself.



You have to remember that these guys can bench press 300-400 lbs (with reps) and leg press >1200 lbs (also with reps).

Ronnie Coleman once did 2300 lbs with his legs.

[Fat Tone]

They need to be 400lb to cope with the weight of all that cotton-wool padding.

[Dr Mordrid]

Not cotton or wool. Where'd you get that from, a 50's movie?

The pads are nylon plates suspended by straps and high density foam. The shirts (jerseys) are tear-away webbed polyester to allow free air flow.

Quarterbacks (the guys who run the offense) have extra foam pads over the ribs & kidneys (the "flak jacket" extension) because they can get hit by well over half a ton of helmeted humanity moving at warp speed. Instituted because of several career-ending injuries, and close calls.

Linemen and backs have less extensive coverage. Other foam nylon pads are used on the thighs, knees and hips to reduce bruising due to helmet hits.

Helmets are there because of the violence of the sport, and even with them concussions are still a problem that has ended careers.

You may think rugby is violent, but you haven't been hit by blitzing defensive line. Severe, even fatal and disabling, injuries are all too common even with this gear. Without it someone would likely get killed every other week.

"Regular" pads



Quarterback w/flak jacket

[Fat Tone]

Not cotton or wool. Where'd you get that from, a 50's movie?

No, on How It's Made on the Discovery Channel. Apparently the team owners are so nervous about protecting their phenomenally expensive players with all that valuable dentistry work and cosmetic surgery (everyone knows football players are congenitally ugly, right?) that the day they are hired they are forced to lose 100lb then taken to a factory and wrapped in cotton wool and have a protective cage welded to their heads.

At least, that's what the programme said.

I think the jackets you linked to are to protect others from Real Men who play Rugby.