NFC North/NFL Thread 2016-17

[warriorchick]

[wadesworld]

The Packers are 10-2 this season with Jerad Cook in the lineup. He has been every bit as important as I thought he would be. He can split the seam and opens everything up for this offense. I don't say this often about GBP free agents, but I would be shocked if he isn't back with the Pack next year. And he should be.

[TAMU, Knower of Ball]

Go watch the replay of Crosby's second FG... watch the fans - or should I say fan - behind the crossbar on the concourse.  Hopefully she made it out of Cowboys Stadium unscathed, though if she is from Texas, her school board is likely meeting today to vote on expelling her.

I did, what am I looking for?

[Benny B]

I did, what am I looking for?

A little girl in a green dress jumping up and down amongst the dejected as the ball goes through the uprights.  Couldn't be more than 11-12 years old, if that.

[GB Warrior]

A little girl in a green dress jumping up and down amongst the dejected as the ball goes through the uprights.  Couldn't be more than 11-12 years old, if that.

Dallas fans, while unsufferable, are not bad on average. Most fans - especially in the NFC North - are great. The following fans are the worst, in no particular order - except Philly, which is the worst:
*Philadelphia
*New England
*Seattle
*Green Bay (see https://twitter.com/JSComments)

Honorable mention: 49ers, but  I give them a pass because they've been rendered benign at the hands of their clueless ownership

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

This kid on my course tried to tell me that the Bears and Packers would move to London before the Patriots, and he was completely serious. I was so flabbergasted I had no clue how to respond, besides of course, showing him the Patriots record prior to 2001.

[Benny B]

This kid on my course tried to tell me that the Bears and Packers would move to London before the Patriots, and he was completely serious. I was so flabbergasted I had no clue how to respond, besides of course, showing him the Patriots record prior to 2001.

Bears, Packers or Patriots moving to London is tantamount to discussing whether it's going to be -5, -6 or -7 degrees in hell.

That said, your coursemate should be educated as to the ownership structure of the Packers so as to not make such asinine comments in the future.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

Bears, Packers or Patriots moving to London is tantamount to discussing whether it's going to be -5, -6 or -7 degrees in hell.

That said, your coursemate should be educated as to the ownership structure of the Packers so as to not make such asinine comments in the future.

We were trying to rank all the teams in the NFL in the order they would leave for London after the Chargers recent move.

But, I will say this. I think the Jaguars move to London sooner rather than later. They play there pretty much every year, their owner also owns Fulham, a soccer team in West London, and it's as reasonable as you get from a geographic perspective considering the North East teams will not be one of the ones moving.

That and I went to two of the games and the atmosphere, even for some crap teams was unbelievable. Louder than most regular NFL stadiums any given Sunday. The fanbase it there, its just a matter of when now.

[reinko]

We were trying to rank all the teams in the NFL in the order they would leave for London after the Chargers recent move.

But, I will say this. I think the Jaguars move to London sooner rather than later. They play there pretty much every year, their owner also owns Fulham, a soccer team in West London, and it's as reasonable as you get from a geographic perspective considering the North East teams will not be one of the ones moving.

That and I went to two of the games and the atmosphere, even for some crap teams was unbelievable. Louder than most regular NFL stadiums any given Sunday. The fanbase it there, its just a matter of when now.

The shitty AFC South deserves this.

[jsglow]

We were trying to rank all the teams in the NFL in the order they would leave for London after the Chargers recent move.

But, I will say this. I think the Jaguars move to London sooner rather than later. They play there pretty much every year, their owner also owns Fulham, a soccer team in West London, and it's as reasonable as you get from a geographic perspective considering the North East teams will not be one of the ones moving.

That and I went to two of the games and the atmosphere, even for some crap teams was unbelievable. Louder than most regular NFL stadiums any given Sunday. The fanbase it there, its just a matter of when now.

I might be wrong but I really don't see it.  The vast majority of owners would have to agree and none of them want to fly over the pond.  The Packers have essentially refused for years when regularly approached by the league because of their worldwide popularity even for a 'road' game. I think I heard that they have finally agreed to do it once like in 2020 if the league basically agrees never to ask again.  Absolutely forget about giving up a Lambeau home game.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

I might be wrong but I really don't see it.  The vast majority of owners would have to agree and none of them want to fly over the pond.  The Packers have essentially refused for years when regularly approached by the league because of their worldwide popularity even for a 'road' game. I think I heard that they have finally agreed to do it once like in 2020 if the league basically agrees never to ask again.  Absolutely forget about giving up a Lambeau home game.

The crazy thing is though, its only about a 2 hour difference from Green Bay to LA than from Green Bay to London. If you look at it from an east coast perspective, the time difference is minimal from a West Coast trip, only four or five hours depending on the time of the season.

Money talks, and London brings in a whole lotta cash.

[martyconlonontherun]

I think it would be pretty cool to have joint city franchises. The Jacksonville/London Jaguars where 6 games are in Jacksonville and 2 are in London. Also, hold training camp in London. This gives London fans a "team" to cheer for when hosting games. This will give advantage to the Jaguars and help build a true fan base.

[GB Warrior]

The crazy thing is though, its only about a 2 hour difference from Green Bay to LA than from Green Bay to London. If you look at it from an east coast perspective, the time difference is minimal from a West Coast trip, only four or five hours depending on the time of the season.

Money talks, and London brings in a whole lotta cash.

I think the issue has more to do with the ability to get talent. Money talks, yes, but it's going to be harder to get players to move across the pond due to a plethora of reasons, most notably taxes and the fact that you'd either spend: A) the entire season in the US during road games (I doubt anyone flies back between consecutive road games) or B) on a plane I just don't see it. My 2 cents - let a league with a better global footprint do it first or ask yourself why they haven't.

I tend to be in the Mark Cuban camp w/ respect to the NFL, but with a more tempered outlook. I love this game and I am a sucker for it, but I have no doubts they're spending too much time, money and resources in expanding without bolstering what's left at home. They're too big to fail, but you've seen ratings suffer for a variety of reasons (no, not the lack of touchdown celebrations (but seriously, let them play)), and I think there's work to do on the homefront.

I think it would be pretty cool to have joint city franchises. The Jacksonville/London Jaguars where 6 games are in Jacksonville and 2 are in London. Also, hold training camp in London. This gives London fans a "team" to cheer for when hosting games. This will give advantage to the Jaguars and help build a true fan base.

Conceptually cool, but it would be disgusting to see what this would do to stadium financing trends. 2 cities perpetually pitted against one another,albeit one being international and - IMO - unsustainable as mentioned above.

[Benny B]

The crazy thing is though, its only about a 2 hour difference from Green Bay to LA than from Green Bay to London. If you look at it from an east coast perspective, the time difference is minimal from a West Coast trip, only four or five hours depending on the time of the season.

Money talks, and London brings in a whole lotta cash.

That's not true at all.  ORD to LHR is an 8hr flight... ORD to LAX is 4.  Perhaps the time difference is minimal to LAX vs LHR from the east coast, but not from CST and points west.

The max anyone is flying now is 6 hrs. Add LHR and five teams are flying nearly 12 hours to London.

Relocation to U.K. isn't going to happen.  Though the split Marty proposed is intriguing.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

That's not true at all.  ORD to LHR is an 8hr flight... ORD to LAX is 4.  Perhaps the time difference is minimal to LAX vs LHR from the east coast, but not from CST and points west.

The max anyone is flying now is 6 hrs. Add LHR and five teams are flying nearly 12 hours to London.

Relocation to U.K. isn't going to happen.  Though the split Marty proposed is intriguing.

Really? Maybe I just got lucky on my flight but it took me 7 hours to get to London from Chicago and close to 5 to LAX when I went a few years ago.

[MU82]

I think it would be pretty cool to have joint city franchises. The Jacksonville/London Jaguars

Kinda like the Kansas City-Omaha Kings.

Long live Tiny Archibald and Sam Lacey!

[Dish]

There will never be a franchise based in London (unless other European cities have one also).

What agent would ever send his street free agent to London for a Tuesday tryout? No one ever would. NFL would have to compensate London players differently, and NFLPA would never agree to it. If a London team hosted a playoff game, it would be a logistical catastrophe for the opposing team and the tv networks.

It'll never happen.

[MU82]

There will never be a franchise based in London (unless other European cities have one also).

What agent would ever send his street free agent to London for a Tuesday tryout? No one ever would. NFL would have to compensate London players differently, and NFLPA would never agree to it. If a London team hosted a playoff game, it would be a logistical catastrophe for the opposing team and the tv networks.

It'll never happen.

Never is a long time, Dish, but I tend to agree with your reasons for it being highly unlikely.

[GooooMarquette]

A couple of games here and there works fine, but there would never be the long-term support to sustain a team in London.  Soccer and football seasons overlap, and soccer is way too popular for a football team to take center stage.   I can't recall where I read it, but European soccer teams get MUCH better ratings in the US than NFL teams get in Europe.

And before someone makes the argument that London is huge and can support both, I have two words for you:  Los Angeles.

[ChitownSpaceForRent]

A couple of games here and there works fine, but there would never be the long-term support to sustain a team in London.  Soccer and football seasons overlap, and soccer is way too popular for a football team to take center stage.   I can't recall where I read it, but European soccer teams get MUCH better ratings in the US than NFL teams get in Europe.

And before someone makes the argument that London is huge and can support both, I have two words for you:  Los Angeles.

I think that has to do with television packages more than anything. I actually get more premier league games on television in Chicago than NFL games and even more games then I do in London.

Also, the cable company that puts out the NFL games is ridiculously overpriced. Cable in the UK is very odd because channels are mutually exclusive to the cable company you have. So imagine (for arguments sake, just bare with me) buying cable produced by ESPN, you wouldnt get any of the games on FS1 and vice versa.

Its really hard to show the popularity of the sport here if you dont live here and while soccer will always reign supreme, I really do think it is not as a logistical nightmare as people think, and do think it will happen at some point in the near future.

[reinko]

I'm just pissed they moved the London games to normal NFL starting times.   Those 9am EST games were a fun watch.

[jsglow]

The crazy thing is though, its only about a 2 hour difference from Green Bay to LA than from Green Bay to London. If you look at it from an east coast perspective, the time difference is minimal from a West Coast trip, only four or five hours depending on the time of the season.

Money talks, and London brings in a whole lotta cash.

Chicago to LA is 1500 air miles.  Chicago to London is over 4000.

Another factor is that London is also 5 full hours ahead of Eastern time.

It isn't happening except on a 'guest appearance' basis.

[GGGG]

There is an international market that is just a stadium away from being completely viable as NFL city.  Toronto.

And that's about it.

[GB Warrior]

I'm just pissed they moved the London games to normal NFL starting times.   Those 9am EST games were a fun watch.

+1 on this. Nothing enables me to forego my responsibilities to society like a 9am start time. Especially a 9am start time for games airing on Twitter

[MU Fan in Connecticut]

There is an international market that is just a stadium away from being completely viable as NFL city.  Toronto.

And that's about it.

Supposedly they NFL and CFL has an agreement they won't encroach on each other's market.  Hence that is why the Bills only play an occasional game in Toronto.
That being said, US football is very popular in Canada.  My family friends in Ontario go to one Bills game a year and their kids play for their Canadian high school team.