The National Football League is playing seven International Games in 2025. That is, games played on a neutral field outside the United States. The third of these International Games will take place this Sunday in London … I would say Sunday morning but in London it is actually a 2:30 p.m. local time kickoff.
For those of you smart on international travel, you know that 2:30 p.m. in London is 6:30 a.m. in San Francisco. I have long balked at this ridiculous starting time for a game, the books in Las Vegas aren’t even open yet when the Minnesota Vikings and Cleveland Browns are scheduled to kick off.
Did you notice that the Vikings are playing this week in London, weren’t they in Ireland last week? Yes, in a first-time schedule decision the league decided to send the Minnesota franchise abroad and abandon them. Next week, the schedule makers have attempted to make amends by giving Kevin O’Connell’s squad their bye week.
When the Vikings left on their vacation abroad, they were scheduled to meet two teams that book makers had them beating, the Pittsburgh Steelers and Cleveland Browns. Even though the Vikings were forced to go with backup quarterback Carson Wentz last week, they were still favored to beat Mike Tomlin and company.
Didn’t happen.
Minnsota fell to a 24-6 fourth quarter deficit and then two late touchdowns and a two-point conversion weren’t enough to pull out the game. Now they are forced to play Wentz for a second straight week while the quarterback they drafted to be their franchise signal caller, J.J. McCarthy, is sidelined with a high ankle sprain.
For the record, McCarthy has been as reliable for the Vikings as a 54 Chevy with a weak battery attempting to start on a cold morning. He missed his entire rookie season with an injury, played one game this year, a contest that saw him put together a big fourth quarter to overcome the Chicago Bears and be named NFC Offensive Player of the Week, and then be injured again in his second start.
O’Connell said this week how much more prepared Wentz is to run the offense than he was in his first start. The extra week’s work was just what the veteran needed to turn what was a disappointing first effort into a winning one this week.
Are you sure?
When have you ever known someone to get much work done while traveling abroad?
Still, here we go again, the Vikings are favored in London over the Cleveland Browns who are also shuffling their starting quarterback. After four games and a single win, albeit an impressive victory over the Green Bay Packers, Joe Flacco is relegated to the bench for the Browns and rookie Dillon Gabriel will get the start today in London.
Gabriel was a third-round draft choice out of Oregon this year for the Browns, while many of the Cleveland fans were calling for their fifth-round choice this year to get the job once Flacco was demoted. One-time Colorado Quarterback Shedeur Sanders remains on the bench today while Gabriel gets to step into the revolving door that is the Cleveland Browns starting quarterback position.
Consider this, since 1999, 41 men have started at quarterback for the Cleveland Browns. Compare that to the New England Patriots, Indianapolis Colts, New York Giants, Green Bay Packers, San Francisco 49ers, Los Angeles Chargers and Pittsburgh Steelers … no, don’t compare it, add up the starting quarterbacks for the same time period for those teams and you still get a number less than the Browns.
A revolving door for the Browns quarterback position is to understate the issue akin to calling the meltdown in Chernobyl an interruption in power supply.
Anyway, I have my objection to the starting time and the International Games altogether and got to vent my feelings on this overseas series with an executive from the NFL this week. I got body slammed by the NFL employee as ill-advised and missing the point.
“No,” she said, “I don’t ever see having a franchise operating overseas but the market is so rich and the interest in NFL football being worldwide is a huge benefit.”
Later in the conversation I got the reason for the “benefit.” Sales. The overseas market for hats, jerseys and other NFL monogrammed items is a whole new market and very profitable.
Oh, I get it. Like always, it is about the money. So, send the Vikings out of the country for two weeks, schedule games that start too early on a Sunday morning and do it because, well because the powers to be found a new vein for selling their goods.
Yes, it is about the money, and for mine, I don’t see an advantage to put any on the unproved rookie quarterback starting for Cleveland or the unsuccessful veteran behind center for Minnesota.
You get to sleep in.