Andrew’s Wembley Review

A special review this week, and one that allows me to stop thinking about how bad the Redskins are or dwelling on Chris Cooley’s broken ankle.

So NFL Sunday at Wembley! As we’ve done for all three years now, I met up with Graham, Ant (Pats’ fan) and Dom (general good time guy) early in the afternoon near one of the many eating and drinking huts that were set-up around the stadium. In the past we’ve played a sort of Shirt Bingo – to see if we can see all 32 teams represented. They obviously are, and this year we limited ourselves to picking out shirts of distinction (“Is that a JaMarcus Russel shirt? In public?”… that sort of thing).

Anyway, a couple of beverages to the good and we headed inside. The inside of the stadium never fails to impress me – the walkways are wide, there are plenty of tables and areas to stand about with a beer and a hotdog. There are bars, eateries and shops dotted all over the place. In Club, where we were this year, there are also leather sofas dotted about and enticing windows into fancy restaurants and hospitality sections. As old pros, we got a beer and settled down. Only heading for our seats about an hour before kickoff.

I won’t give a play-by-play rundown, you’re probably all aware that it wasn’t a great game.

The Good

Wembley Stadium. It looked fantastic again. The US NFL stadia are all impressive in their own ways, but Wembley holds proud against them all. Seeing it decked out NFL-style is an amazing sight.

The Spectacle. Football could learn so much from the NFL in terms of presenting a match. And it was all with pinpoint precision. A countdown told us how long before the pre-show would start, and it was to the second. The pre-show music I could take or leave, but it was well done. The anthems were nicely done, and all three years we Brits have shown the right amount of respect to the US anthem. And the British anthem was brilliantly delivered and sung along to (unlike like last year, Ms. Stone)
Best of all, the Bucs’ intro video (which shows the galleon defeating it’s divisional rivals then turning on the Patriot’s ship) included a Wembley fortress island. Little touches like that put the NFL a league apart.

The Pats. Love ‘em or loath ‘em, this is a professional outfit that can really play ball. All aspects of their game was working. Brady made some nice plays (though he also made some bad ones) and Wes Welker had a great game. I’d have liked to have seen more deep shots, but it wasn’t necessary.

The Bad

Just the one thing really… The Bucs. This is a poor team in the deepest part of its rebuilding process and it showed. If there were any doubts about how the game would go, they were gone the second time Brandon Merriweather picked off Josh Johnson. The first pick though… if we could see from the stands where the pass was going, then he was telegraphing it.
Even though the crowd wanted to back them (well, it was more like 50-50 Bucs to Pats in terms of the fan split) we all pretty much gave up early in the second quarter and just enjoyed what was happening.

All in all though, another great day out. The game was never going to be as good as last year’s Saints and Chargers throw down, but it was enjoyable for different reasons.

There is talk of two games next year. If there are, the NFL will need to be more considerate with the teams it sends. Given the choice, I’d pick any other team than the Bucs.

Image credit: Graham!
Image credit (Cheerleader): Vanessa Guzan