Mushnick on the NFL in Europe

Learn something new everyday. I became a Dolphins fan because of Marino, but I've grown tired of the NFL altogether. Miami acting like the Bengals hasn't changed that at all.

I watch it on Sundays to fall asleep on the couch for a few hours.

 

I covered a D3 football game Saturday and every time there was a change of possession I was ready to kick back for a 2-minute break and instead realized I'd better lean forward in my chair quickly or I'd miss the next play.

For a second I missed TV timeouts. The other culture shock was finding out I couldn't write my story in the press box because they have that closed up pretty quickly after the game. Had to go to the SID's office to write and file. Still, an enjoyable assignment -- especially since said D3 school was my alma mater (graduated 24 years ago) so I got to go back and walk around the campus and town.

Small towns can change an awful lot in 24 years.

 

So, did the British complain about the lack of scoring in this football game?

 

I'm sorry - you think the country that invented CRICKET is going to think the NFL moves too slowly?

 

Fair point.

 

Hypocrites in the NFL???

 

Yes, that's why fans of chess are so violent as well.

 

This from a guy who is a soccer fan.....

 

When was the last time you saw a soccer game take a tv timeout, and last over three hours?

 

I'll take squeezing 30 minutes of action in a 3-hour NFL game over squeezing 6 seconds of action into a 90-minute soccer game any day.

And this is coming from a former soccer player and coach. I had a blast playing it, but it's hard for me to watch it without losing interest.

 

You're obviously not watching the right leagues.

Back to the point in hand. Most of the NFL columns I saw, like Vecsey's in the NYT was overridingly positive about the possiblity of the NFL working in England and the rest of Europe, pointing out that the crowd at the game understood it well.

But I guess a clever one-liner about tv timeouts is good enough to imply that people haven't been following the game in England for over 20 years.