NFL In London

So if you know just a little about me, you all should know my (sometimes unhealthy) obsession with football. And you should know that over on this side of the pond they refer to it as American football. Ha, not in my world and in my blog! Anyways, I have said on many occasions that the year is broken down to football season and then planning/waiting for football season. I love football!

So yesterday Dan found a pub close to Baker Street and Oxford Circus that showed NFL games. Our house only has freeview, so we had to go to a pub to catch a game. We had to watch Liverpool draw Arsenal first, then they showed the NFL games. Unfortunately they showed a pretty awful game (Cardinals v. Pats), though it was cool for the English to see the snowballs and snow covering the field. I was hoping to see the Skins v. Eagles, but that meant I would have had to stay at the pub late.

So in England, if you have Sky cable, you get a choice a choice of 3 NFL games (during the 1 or 4pm EST slots), and then you get Sunday and Monday night games. And now that the NFL is having strange Thursday and Saturday night games, Sky cable will also bring those to you as well. If you have freeview, like I do, you get the Sunday and Monday night games on TV 5! Woot! Sunday games aren't so bad, as they are on at 6pm or 9pm GMT. I attempted to stay up to watch the Giants v. Panthers at 1am GMT, only stayed till half-time, and read in the paper today that it went into OT. :( So sad!

Overall, it's not a complete loss with football. I'm glad they show the NFL versus nothing at all. I'm devastated that I cannot watch college football. I don't think there are pubs in Cornwall (where I'm going to be spending New Year's) that carry NASN (North American Sports Network) that show college football games. So I'm going to be sad that I won't be able to see my Hokies on TV. And because my IP address says that I'm in England, I probably won't be able to get a live stream of it. Sadness.

Other funny UK football related news...

There is a UK governing body for football. It's called the British American Football Association (BAFA). There are also a bunch of club teams throughout the country, including 3 or 4 London teams. During half-time last night, they interviewed some players on the club teams about why they wanted to play American football. I need to give you some history to rugby. According to Dan, rugby is played by posh (upper class) people--it's surprisingly a gentleman's sport. With that said, the guys they interviewed were all overweight and unathletic men who are not classy enough to have learned how to play rugby as youths. It was quite pathetic really.

In the UK, TV lacks the amount of commercials we are used to. Sky sports definitely doesn't have commercials, as does the BBC. So what does Sky show during the commercial breaks? At first, it was just a screen saying, "The programme will return momentarily." But then they would just show the NFL cheerleaders doing their routines during commercial breaks (much to Dan's enjoyment too). However, TV 5 has a British guy and a strange American guy analyze the teams during breaks. It's not so bad as the American guy explains the very basics so that Brits can get into the sport, but it's a far cry from the cheerleaders. And it was pretty good too, since last nights game was very much an offensive game, which makes analysis more interesting.

We are hopefully going to have a new kitchen built in this house by Super Bowl. Which means, I could theoretically have a Super Bowl party here!!! And I'll have Rock Band and Guitar Hero World Tour for half-time entertainment. Meaning you all really should come here for the party! Any takers? There are two extra bedrooms for people to crash in!!! Do it!