Voice of London

The NFL’s International Series continues this weekend as the LA Chargers welcome the Tennessee Titans to their ‘home’ for the day, Wembley Stadium.

The Chargers come into the game as the favourites having won three games on the spin, while the Titans have lost their last two including a heavy defeat to the Baltimore Ravens last week.

However, if the regular season ended now, the Titans would win their division without holding a winning record, their record of 3-3 would not be enough to earn them second place in any other division. The Chargers on the other hand, who do hold a winning record of 4-2, are in second place in their division.

With future hall of fame quarterback Philip Rivers as efficient and dominant as ever and Melvin Gordon having his best season yet as starting running back, the Chargers are almost guaranteed to put up points. As the Titans are only averaging around 15 points per game it is understandable why the Chargers are such heavy favourites.

London’s gridiron future

The NFL being in London is nothing like anything London sports fans will experience for the rest of the year. The American sense of pageantry makes its way across the Atlantic as central London streets are filled with colour and decoration, however the number of events in the city have dropped in what is being called an attempt to ‘normalise’ the games.

But why would the powers that be want to normalise these games? These attempts point towards something even more exciting for Londoners – the possibility of a London team joining the NFL.

The London games are going beyond novelty and the chances of a London based team are becoming higher and higher with each passing year.

Tottenham Hotspur’s new stadium has a retractable pitch to facilitate usage from numerous sports, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell toured the stadium during its production in 2017, a move that had many pointing towards the stadium as a possible home for a London NFL team.

Although the emergence of a London team may still seem to be some way away, the decisions made by the NFL certainly point in a positive direction and with the games feeling more and more like expansion tests each year, the future is bright for London’s American football fans.

Words: George Robson I Subbing: Kristiyan Stefanov