The worst day (in sports) ever...

Before I begin this entry, apologies for not posting anything recently, time has been a huge factor and other things have taken priority. But, it has allowed me to think of some more hugely exciting things to write about. I'll start those things one day.

As I have posted before, I've been watching NFL football for most of my life now, and have seen some great, awful and downright ugly moments during my viewing career.
But one moment, one game, one play will always live with me and never be forgotten for it's impact on a (then) young fan. After all, what do you do when your hero is destroyed in front of your very eyes?

In 1990, my team, the San Francisco 49ers were virtually unstoppable, and well on course to contend for their fifth Super Bowl championship, and third in a row. All that stood between them and a berth in the big game, were a team that had grown in rivalry over the last ten years, the New York Giants. No strangers to each other, each time the two teams met was like two trains meeting head on. Physical games, blowout games, tight defensive struggles - these two had developed a rivalry of truly bitter proportions.

The Giants, with their blue collar, hard hitting ethos, and San Francisco, cool, businesslike and almost cocky - and with much justification. Giants/49ers games were rarely pretty, but always eventful.

I'd had a dislike for the Giants since my first full season watching the NFL, and seeing them destroy my team in the 1986/87 playoffs. The Giants went on to win it all that year, and, to be fair, were the best team in the league. Seeing Jim Burt's clean hit on new hero Joe Montana and knocking him senseless though, certainly didn't endear me in any way to New York's men in blue...

Between then and 1990, the two teams had met another 4 times, with San Francisco winning each meeting. The rivalry was there, and you had the feeling that New York were due a win - but with the 49ers juggernaut at full speed, surely it wouldn't be this year, would it?

January 20th, 1991 is a date etched in my sporting memory forever. The game was a classic defensive struggle, nothing between the two teams and as hard hitting and physical as these two had ever been. (One thing of note from the above clip, Jim Burt was now a 49er, and squaring up with a lot of former teammates.) Coming into the fourth quarter, and with the score a taut, edgy 13-9 to San Francisco, the 49ers and Joe Montana were looking to drive downfield and hopefully build a bit of a cushion between them and the Giants.

I mentioned Jim Burt again, because he perhaps contributed to the Giants mentality in the last 15 minutes of play. A low hit on Giants quarterback Jeff Hostetler around the knees clearly hurt Hostetler, although he would play on. However, this didn't go unnoticed by the Giants defense, who from that point wanted revenge. And revenge meant there was only one person they were interesting in getting to...

On a third down play, Montana was forced to the outside whilst looking for a receiver downfield. Giants linebacker Lawrence Taylor tried to get to Montana, who slowed up in his run just long enough to make Taylor miss. However, unseen by Montana, defensive end Leonard Marshall had been battling and scrambling over to the right to get through the line , and, with Montana's back in his sights, launched his 288lb frame at the unaware, 195lb Montana. The results were devastating.

I'd seen Joe Montana hurt before, and he'd had injuries before. But this was different. I had a sickly feeling in the pit of my stomach, because I knew even then, that there was more to this hit than a piece of highlight film. My spirits rose as Joe slowly moved to a kneeling position. He was tough, frail looking maybe, but no-one ever questioned his toughness. Teammates and team physicians ran over. Joe was sitting again now, and concerns were growing - this looked more serious than first thought. It was a huge hit, but Joe would get up. Surely.

The faces on the 49er sideline seemed to say otherwise, they knew this was bad. Now, Joe was lying down again, and the team doctors were talking to him. In between replays of the hit, and pictures of Giants defenders celebrating on the sideline, Joe could be seen gesturing, nodding and breathing very heavily. Another replay. Then, Joe was getting up, supported by the doctors. But  this wasn't Joe Montana getting up. Ashen faced, clammy looking - Joe looked shellshocked. This wasn't Joe Cool. Joe Montana didn't break. But I was looking at Joe Montana, broken quarterback, and I really didn't like it. The game didn't matter anymore, because even if we'd have won, Joe wouldn't have been there. It was irrelevant. I wanted to know how Joe was. The game passed and the Giants won - but I don't remember much of the last few moments anyway. I was honestly distraught.

Back then, it was hard to find news on the NFL - obviously we had no internet, only magazines and newspapers to try and find out anything that was going on. Over the weeks, the news started to filter through. On that hit, Montana suffered a bruised sternum (I don't have much knowledge of sternums), a broken rib and what was termed 'a severe concussion'. Montana also had a broken finger, which he claimed Marshall deliberately snapped back as he was crushing Montana under him.

Joe Montana didn't play again until late 1992. It was the end of a glorious era in San Francisco - after the 1990 game many big names from the team moved on. Eventually, Joe did too. It was a time I had very little interest in the NFL. And it cemented my hatred of the New York Football Giants forever.

An NFL franchise in London? Yer 'avin' a larf, Guv'nor.

Back around 1986, I read an article about the growth of American Football in the United Kingdom. In the article, then San Diego Chargers quarterback Dan Fouts raved about the possibility of an NFL team based in London, citing only logistics as being a potential stumbling block. 

Back around October 2012, I read an article about the growth of American Football in the United Kingdom. In the article, current Patriots owner Robert Kraft raved about the possibility of an NFL team based in London, although with no immediate mention of potential stumbling blocks. 

Similar stories, 26 years apart. In 1986, British fans were at a frenzy; viewing figures on Channel 4 were still standing up well in the 4 years it had been on our screens, the Dallas Cowboys and Chicago Bears had enthralled an enthusiastic (and soggy) British crowd at Wembley Stadium (and that's the proper one, with twin towers...) and the NFL was unleashing a merchandise marketing offensive that was drawing in more and more young fans. Teams were appearing all over the green fields of the British Isles, and whilst the athletic standards were not by any means professional, no one could doubt the enthusiasm that the players played with. 

26 years on, and NFL in the UK is at a similar juncture to the one it was at in 1986. After a lull in following during the mid to late 90's (a lot due to less TV coverage here), the popularity has grown again to such a point that there is talk of basing a pro team in the UK. And for me, that sets alarm bells ringing. In 1986, as an excitable young NFL fan, it was a hugely exciting prospect. But as an older, marginally wiser if no less excitable fan, I can see more reasons to not see this happen than I would like.

Without getting into deep details, my personal view is that it's essentially a bad idea for many reasons. The obvious arguments are the logistics borne from the distance between certain teams, especially those on the West Coast. Whilst the distance from the East Coast to here is relatively similar to the distance between Eastern and Western America, there is still a lot of mileage to cover in a regular season. Some excellent arguments are written here, on the NFL-Ireland site: http://nfl-ireland.com/2012/10/nfl-international-series-london-lacking/. This also perhaps explains the situation better than I can write, and perhaps gives one of the better thought out reasonings of why a London franchise may not be the best thing for global expansion of the NFL. If a new team was to be created, that would mean for league parity another team would come into existence as well - and I feel that would dilute an already tight talent pool still further. When I started watching NFL there were 28 teams. At present there is 32 teams in the league. Would 34 be too many? I think so. 

So while UK fans are split into three probably fairly even camps, the No's, the Yes's and the Couldn't Care Lesses, how about the view from America? Let's take a look at some genuine comments I pulled from various Facebook threads around the time that Kraft paid a huge lip service to the notion. The question here was simply 'Should the NFL base a team in London?' 

Oh dear. American's aren't overly keen on the idea either, it would seem. A point about the second to last comment. I have seen numerous similar statements, that we should be given the pointless and uncompetitive jolly day out that is the Pro Bowl. Evidently, to some US fans, us UK fans would be quite happy with this. We stopped going to preseason games at Wembley a long time ago because they were clearly not competitive or meaningful enough. It's unlikely the British fan would tolerate something like the Pro Bowl.

Moving on, and some more words of wisdom.

The World League/NFL Europe also often crops up as an argument, and there is a point there to a certain degree. But again,  knowledgable fans were still feeling shortchanged in the skill stakes; and nothing was as good as watching real NFL teams that we were more used to seeing in the first place. The NFL should take heed that we are an incredibly fickle sports nation, and view change and development with pessimistic eyes. NFL Europe failed for us because there was little consistency from season to season. Players, teams and venues changed often and made it hard to build a solid fanbase. There was also much less coverage on TV.

I can understand some views that there are more deserving cities in the US alone that would be guaranteed to support and uphold their own NFL team. But what I can't understand is some fans who clearly don't want the NFL to work overseas because it's 'their' sport. You know, the sport that is a mutation of Rugby and Soccer(ball)? It is nothing but an American take on these games, and perhaps this should be remembered by some of them. I also disagree with the common notion that we don't like the NFL in this country anyway. It might still be a lower tier sport over here, but the generalisation that no-one likes it is something that many Americans are wrong about. Although, I have read numerous comments from the other side of the fence, with British people dismissing the NFL as a novelty sport (and the age old cries of padded men in motorcycle helmets of course) - and maybe herein lies another obstacle. There are clearly cultural differences at work here, as much as anything else. Whilst some of us choose to embrace this culture, it does go against the grain of the British stiff upper lip. The average British sports fan doesn't have much interest in the NFL, and the cross Atlantic distrust seems to operate both ways.

So, all in all there is still a stalemate. Whilst realistically, the idea of an International team is probably the wrong route to take, the subject will stay hot for a good while yet. In my eyes, if the NFL wants to up it's profile overseas, support the grassroots game. Grow the fanbase by really getting behind the amateurs who play in this country. Go back to flooding the marketplace with merchandise - we are still not seeing goods anywhere near like the volume we enjoyed 25 years ago. Whilst we get more TV coverage, the efforts still aren't enough to make it mainstream. The time difference means that a lot of TV coverage is purely for the hardcore, and without opening other avenues the sport will never flourish at the rate needed to sustain a team here. The arguments for not having a British franchise still clearly outweigh the positives that could come of it. I can't see it happening anytime soon, and to be honest, I don't think it's in the best interests of the sport to entertain it. The International Series every year is irrelevant, people will always attend, but should not be the yardstick used by the League to gauge favour amongst us. But, quotes such as potential London team names:

The London Limeys 
The South Bank Bear Baiters 
The Sex Pistols 
The Lost Empire 
The Snaggleteeth

The Wembley Willies

The London Tallywackers

The Great Brittan Gingivitis

The London Tea Sippers

And the general impression that Americans have of us:

Isn't England full of a bunch of guys that have a tea parties everyday? They don't seem like the type of guys who like a man's sport (football).   seem to open the culture gap even wider. Oh dear. Again.

Genuine quotes - take them as you will. Whilst not directly abusive, they do hint at some of the impressions we as 'Brits' seem to give out, and for some reason it really annoys me. I'm presuming that these people have never been over here. It's frustrating to read so many replies to articles that are along this same vein. I gave up trying to correct them. Whether they are the majority or the minority I can't say. But there is opposition nonetheless, and I do sympathise. I just wish that their claims were backed up with more reasoning.

Amazing to think that really, we are in a similar position to that all those years ago. If it was no more than a notion back then, what's changed today? The world is no smaller, the game is likely no more popular. The rise in interest is only comparable to the first wave of interest - it is not, in my opinion any stronger than that. Maybe the NFL could think of better ways to further it's following overseas; at the moment expansion is not the answer.