Fat American goons in motorcycle helmets ruin Wembley pitch

[Bry Nylon]

...just been watching some of the coverage on BBC2

(i) they have totally f***ed the pitch
(ii) it is still a shite game, regardless of where in the world it is played
(iii) those headphone things the coaches wear are so shit I can't find the words.

 

[chez]

Yep they have f***ed up the pitch BUT it was an enjoyable game and still the best team sport other than our own football.

Only gutting thing is that I only found out yesterday that I was entitled to VIP tickets in the Giants area. Too late by then weren't it!!

 

[Frutos]

In the informed opinion of an American friend of mine who watched it on TV over there, Wembley Stadium "sucks".

 

[Bevendean Hillbilly]

it was an enjoyable game and still the best team sport other than our own football.

Says you, I have tried to like "Gridiron" in the past, especially when there was a big campaign to promote it over here in the 80's it became very popular at my school to support an NFL team...I have to tell you now, with hand on heart, American Football is utter utter gash!

Interruptions every few seconds, loads of high fiving and "Yeah woo" shouting, 30 stone black guys falling over, and inpenetrable rules. the constant breaks in play can only be for bovine America to shuffle off to the fridge for more Nachos and koolaid. The thought of sitting around in the stadium for god knows how long listening to the sound of munching and slurping watching a load of blokes in stripey shirts shouting into their headsets and heavily armoured lardies trundling about aimlessly, fills me with horror!

Go back stateside Dolphins and Giants, leave us to enjoy our proper games while you enjoy your rounders for men and crap armoured rugby wannabe game.

 

[Gully]

I have worked with Americans, most of them were really into their brand of footy, they couldn't understand why the rest of the World didn't play the game...my response was usually, take a look at the games we do play. That said, there were a couple who took up rugby while they worked in Europe and grew to prefer the game because it was faster, more skilfull and far more physical without all that padding (their words not mine).

 

[NMH]

I hope they watched our rugby final, so they will now know what a poor unworthy relation American football really is.

A nice excuse to dress up as Flash Gordon though.

They look so swishy in their peddle-pusher tights

 

[Starry]

wembley did suck yesterday. have been several times in the past for proper football and it was ok. but yesterday it sucked donkey balls. the popcorn, jelly doughnuts and candy floss was good though. we had a box and the nfl really went to town on the corporate stuff, we got all sorts of official gear from all 32 clubs, some better than others - pats jersey then a 49ers horrible beanie to a browns pencil tin. one of their promotions dudes was trying to get me to take a season pass for 08/09 at any nfl club i like. erm. long way to go and much as i like american football i would rather be at elland road.

we had a good time. the kids got jason taylors jersey and gloves after the game and channing crowders jersey.

was a good way to spend an afternoon. the pitch wasnt brilliant before the game kicked off. but england arent going anywhere. at least they can blame their failings on a dodgy pitch now.

international series in germany next year (fingers crossed - its the plan right now)

 

[Barrel of Fun]

....and still the best team sport other than our own football.

Of course it is, apart from Hockey; Cricket; Rugby Union/League; Volleyball; Beach Volleyball; Curling; Athletics; Australian rules football; Beach handball; Gaelic football; Hurling; Kabaddi; Rounders; Rowing; Tennis; Water polo; and any others I have missed.

 

[Curious Orange]

Kabaddi;

AWESOME game!!

 

[Arthur]

Of course it is, apart from Hockey; Cricket; Rugby Union/League; Volleyball; Beach Volleyball; Curling; Athletics; Australian rules football; Beach handball; Gaelic football; Hurling; Kabaddi; Rounders; Rowing; Tennis; Water polo; and any others I have missed.

Darts, tiddlewinks, shove hapenny, synchronised swimming, roller skating, ice skating, disco dancing, dwarf tossing, badger baiting, that tossing the hoop over the bottle game on the pier, donkey rides on the beach, international power sleeping and farting the eastenders theme tune.

Think that's about everything.

 

[NMH]

Of course it is, apart from Hockey; Cricket; Rugby Union/League; Volleyball; Beach Volleyball; Curling; Athletics; Australian rules football; Beach handball; Gaelic football; Hurling; Kabaddi; Rounders; Rowing; Tennis; Water polo; and any others I have missed.

Jai-Lai, ping pong, tiddleywinks, red rover....

 

[clippedgull]

Stadium looks great on TV in High Definition.

Who was the idiot architect who failed to design a stadium with a closing roof?

Game was ok, although hard to understand

 

[Springal]

Stadium looks great on TV in High Definition.

Who was the idiot architect who failed to design a stadium with a closing roof?

Game was ok, although hard to understand

I thought it did close? But needed to be done when the stadium was empty and it took like 20minutes to close?

 

[Tooting Gull]

Next year - Albion announce home regular season game in Le Havre for Canal Plus megabucks. Season ticket-holders stage mass blockade of all ports in protest.

 

[Skint Gull]

In the informed opinion of an American friend of mine who watched it on TV over there, Wembley Stadium "sucks".

Please read that back.

A friend of yours who was watching on TELLY says that Wembley SUCKS even though he wasn't there? What gives him his 'INFORMED OPINION' might I ask, simply the fact that he's American?

I'm sure that the atmoshphere wasn't as good as a game in the US because at the end of the day, probably 75% of the fans that were there supported NEITHER team. However I would suggest that most had a great time and you can inform your 'american friend' that Wembley is in fact an awesome stadium, just not a great pitch for NFL on a sodden October evening!

 

[ATFC Seagull]

Go back stateside Dolphins and Giants, leave us to enjoy our proper games while you enjoy your rounders for men and crap armoured rugby wannabe game.

Does anyone seem to understand that that the primary reason the NFL came here was because we wanted them to, and launched a massive campaign to bid for this match? And then over 1 million tickets were applied for?

I suspect that none of the "american football is rugby for pussies" brigade has ever had the balls to even play rugby, let alone have a go at both and make an informed decision.

 

[ATFC Seagull]

I'm sure that the atmoshphere wasn't as good as a game in the US because at the end of the day, probably 75% of the fans that were there supported NEITHER team. However I would suggest that most had a great time and you can inform your 'american friend' that Wembley is in fact an awesome stadium, just not a great pitch for NFL on a sodden October evening!

Wembley WAS awesome last night, and you will find that confirmed in 100% of the interviews with the players and coaches. There was slightly less noise at any one time because there wasn't a home bias, and lets face it the teams didn't give us a fantastic contest to get into...However there was still plenty of noise and an amazing atmosphere.

 

[Tooting Gull]

Does anyone seem to understand that that the primary reason the NFL came here was because we wanted them to.

It's stretching a point to say 'we' wanted them to. A tiny number of people at Sky, the NFL and Wembley wanted them to. And the ludicrous propaganda that Wembley could have been sold out 10 times was exploded with the eventual crowd, well short of capacity.

People have asked on here why it got so much publicity in the build-up in Metro, national papers and obviously on Sky (self-explanatory). That is because Sky and the NFL took a small group of hacks on an all-expenses paid trip to New York and Miami last week for several days, with the pay-off that they filled their newspapers for a week with stories about a sport no one is interested in. How journalism works Pt 47. Not that I'm bitter about missing out, or anything...

 

[Norman Baker suck my lozenge]

Them miami dolphin cheerleaders looked well worth a squirt,
bet they know they're way around a helmet.

 

[ATFC Seagull]

It's stretching a point to say 'we' wanted them to. A tiny number of people at Sky, the NFL and Wembley wanted them to. And the ludicrous propaganda that Wembley could have been sold out 10 times was exploded with the eventual crowd, well short of capacity.

People have asked on here why it got so much publicity in the build-up in Metro, national papers and obviously on Sky (self-explanatory). That is because Sky and the NFL took a small group of hacks on an all-expenses paid trip to New York and Miami last week for several days, with the pay-off that they filled their newspapers for a week with stories about a sport no one is interested in. How journalism works Pt 47. Not that I'm bitter about missing out, or anything...

Some people might not like it but there is a massive American football community in Britain, and yesterday was a fantastic event for us. I couldn't go 10 minutes without bumping into former teammates, coaches and supporters from uni or senior league, ex-Monarchs fans or old opponents wearing our team shirts and it was great, and the majority of us were experiencing live NFL for the first time, something that was exciting beyond belief. The tailgate party next door set up an NFL themes bar which was brilliant for pre-match socialising. There WERE 1 million applications, I can personally vouch for upto 100 unsuccessful applicants. Of course there was an element of NFL marketeering, but that in no way negates from the enormity of the event.

Forget people like yourselves who aren't convinced by the NFL and are unlikely to be, but accept that there are a huge amount of people in this country that are. This is my sport, has been for years as a fan and player, and it was a fantastic moment to have this opportunity. Personally, I think cricket is shit, and worldwide it is probably played in way less places than American football (albeit some very populus areas) but I don't try and undermine its position as a sport. I wish people here could just accept that the NFL has its place.

You are wrong to use the attendance as any sort evidence as to the scale of the event. The attendance last night was just over 81,000 in a 90,000 capacity. There were 2 reasons for this:

1. Much like the Champions League, the NFL has rules about distance from the pitch fans must be (or I believe it may actually be height even). For this reason, rightly or wrongly, the first 10 or so rows around the entire stadium were netted over like in Champs League games. This accounted for a lot.

2. The ludicrous system whereby a huge amount of Wembley seats are owned by businesses or individuals for all events. A large amount of them, presumably owned by people with the same narrow mindset as yourself, went unused, and were pointlessly empty.

As regarding the journalism, unfortunately American football IS a reasonably big spectator sport over here, and thus such a large-scale match is going to be covered. For what its worth, I thought a lot of the newspaper coverage was actually quite sceptical and derrogotary about the sport, certainly the papers I read on the way to Hartlepool.

I'm sorry that you factlessly need to take down a perfectly enjoyable sport on a big night for its fans, but you are talking CRAP.