What now for the International Series? In this year's programme introduction Roger Goodell referred to the fact that the previous two games had been very close but also very different. In 2007 the New York Giants beat the Miami Dolphins 13-10 in the rain in a game which was dominated by defenses whereas in 2008 the New Orleans Saints beat the San Diego Chargers 37-32 in an offensive shoot out. In early December 2008, the NFL announced that the third game in the series would be between the Tampa Bay Buccaneers and the New England Patriots, at the time the Bucs were 9-3 and with the Patriots being perennial winners, there was no reason to believe that the NFL were not on a to another sure fire winner and we would have another close game. Since then as we know all too well the Bucs have gone in to freefall, which has seen significant changes to the front office, the coaching staff and the roster all of which contributed to the one sided debacle we witnessed on Sunday. This raises the question how does the NFL avoid another such mismatch next year, which could have a significant long term impact on the viability of the series. Within the next month Alistair Kirkwood would have us believe that he has to convince two owners (or possibly four if we are to have two games) to come to the UK and one owner has to be prepared to give up a home game. How much input he actually has to this process is debatable and I think it may be a case of him being told who is coming. I think we can immediately discount the likes of the Rams, Browns, Chiefs, Titans and Raiders as this would make a repeat of this year’s game all the more likely. There are then the teams covering the middle ground such as Buffalo, Jacksonville, Chicago and Washington who are also a massive risk as they could easily be next years Buccaneers. Therefore the NFL has to find two of the top teams in an effort to ensure a quality, competitive game. Presuming the trend of pitching an AFC team against an NFC continues and the current scheduling pattern is also to continue, then in my opinion the possibilities for next year would come from: AFC East v NFC North – Jets v Vikings or Packers AFC North v NFC South – Bengals, Steelers or Ravens v Falcons AFC South v NFC East – Colts v Eagles or Cowboys AFC West v NFC West – Cardinals v Broncos As a neutral my first choice would be the Colts v Cowboys although this could easily turn out to be very one sided affair, followed by the Steelers v Falcons. But what about expansion? There’s talk of 2 games next year and 4 games by 2012. I don’t know if the intention is to play them all at Wembley or to move around the UK to other venues such as the Millenium Stadium in Cardiff or Murrayfield in Edinburgh but something will have to change to sustain the interest. I don’t think Wembley could handle two games a year never mind four. I’ve seen Alistair Kirkwood talking about one game late September and another in late October but at the moment much of the pre game entertainment revolves around the tailgate party and I don’t think the average fan would turn up four or five hours beforehand, fork out up to £100 for a ticket for the game and then depending on whether they have travelled, stand the cost of spending a weekend in London for something that was happening more than once a year. Appreciate it’s all about supply and demand but once it’s happening regularly I think the interest immediately wanes. Sunday’s game was my first at Wembley and convinced me that I would never turn up as a neutral; to me it’s all or nothing. I remember the 1996 World Bowl at Murrayfield when the Scottish Claymores beat the Frankfurt Galaxy, this game attracted almost 40,000 fans and if there is still such a fan base in Scotland then they are more than capable of taking a game on an annual basis. The layout at Murrayfield certainly lends itself to some proper tailgating, they put on a good show before the final of the World Bowl. If Murrayfield takes one additional game and with its transport links I think it could but where any other games go I just don’t know, unless you are in London or the South West, Cardiff isn’t the easiest place to get to and as stated previously I don’t think Wembley is an option for more than one game a year. Only time will tell how this whole thing develops but my doubts that we can handle more than two games a year, leave me in no doubt that a NFL franchise in this country is pie in the sky and something that will never happen. Steve Garget, 31 October 2009