Monday, October 29, 2007

An Unequal Exchange

This weekend, the NFL held its first-ever regular season game outside of the US. Fans at Wembley Stadium in London got to watch the Giants and Dolphins duke it out in the "Mud Bowl".

No doubt the NFL is salivating at the thought of expanding into a brand new market. But if the idea was to dazzle the British with the wonders of American football, I'm not sure the singularly unimpressive Giants win over the incompetent Dolphins met that goal.

And as if the Dolphins haven't been getting enough negative publicity of late, linebacker Channing Crowder had to give a public demonstration of the meaning of the phrase "all brawn and no brains". Crowder was quoted several days before the London game as follows:

"I couldn't find London on a map if they didn't have the names of the countries," he said. "I swear to God. I don't know what nothing is. I know Italy looks like a boot. I learned that."

Crowder added: "I know (Washington Redskins linebacker) London Fletcher. We did a football camp together. So I know him. That's the closest thing I know to London. He's black, so I'm sure he's not from London. I'm sure that's a coincidental name."

Way to put our best foot forward. The British send us David Beckham and we send them...Channing Crowder and the winless Miami Dolphins. So Beckham hasn't exactly been a superstar performer for the LA Galaxy, but I still think the Brits got the short end of the stick in that cultural exchange.

Hey, maybe we can have Miss South Carolina Teen USA visit Crowder and present him with a map!

3 comments:

Veo Claramente said...

Well, I think the NFL had to send two teams whose fans wouldn't mind missing a home game :)

The colts, patriots, steelers, chargers...no way :)

VWXYNot? said...

Yeah, it's not going to catch on in the UK. Not when "proper" football and rugby are so popular.

I'm going with a big group of girls to see Beckham and the Galaxy play when they come to Vancouver next week! Very exciting.

Mad Hatter said...

Veo--That's true. And when the NFL planned this, they probably had no idea Miami would be this bad. Speaking of the Colts and Patriots, that's going to be some game next week!

VWXYNot?--I think you're right. If there were a real market for American football in Europe, I'd expect NFL Europe to have done better. Hope you have a great time at the game!

Post a Comment