Boilermaker Rick wrote:
America wrote:
Less about going to Europe than it is about coming back. Teams will prepare their sleep schedules for London and there will probably be a scheduling arrangement where heading to London always comes after a TNF game or bye week. But then coming back will throw them for an epic loop and theres just no way to give teams more extra time to adjust on the back end even if the NFL adds a bye.
The bye week would be after they play there. The hardest thing to plan would be the West Coast teams but they wouldn't be going there that often and they would simply schedule them on the East Coast on a Sunday and then they fly to London on a Monday. New York to London isn't that much different than San Francisco to New York especially with how they fly on private jets.
America wrote:
Not to mention there's a team that simply cannot play TNF/SNF/MNF at home or on the road. They are not going to kick off games at 2:30AM local time and it'd be pretty unfair to have the London team to the USA and have a game start at around midnight according to their body clocks. They'll adjust to that lifestyle, plenty of people commute across the Atlantic, but evening games won't be doable. It's just not fair.
The team from London would have a second "home base" in NY/NJ that they would use for the road trips. The schedule would likely be 3 road games in a row twice a year and 2 road games in a row once a year. A playoff game in London causes more issues than anything but they'd mostly be spending time just like the Jets or Giants do by living and training in a facility in the NY area.
America wrote:
The option that could work is the London team lives and practices on the East Coast and then only makes the trip for games. But then that robs them of that comfort of home games, which is a massive competitive disadvantage. Maybe you put them in Halifax? That would be a little crazy though.
They would live in London for home games but would have an East Coast practice facility too for road trips, offseason workouts, and training camp.
Only the Patriots have private planes. Everyone else charters. Charter planes are not always that great and certainly not as nice as the all-first class 767's the Patriots use. Moving a franchise to London would probably necessitate the founding of NFL Air, which if done right could be a moneymaking venture for the league year-round. The Patriots didn't buy two wide body transatlantic capable jets ONLY to fly the team around for 10 or so games a year.
As for whether its better to have the bye before or after playing in London....I dont know. If you can sleep on the plane its fine both ways really, but if you cant the outward leg to the UK sucks. You are fucked up for days. Returning is no big. You just press pause for 9 hours. Despite the flight being over an hour longer back to the USA most people are way less jet lagged, if at all, coming to North America. This is true for me and everyone I've had this conversation with.
As for trying to have players live two lives in two time zones 5 hours apart.......dude that life sucks. I know people who live it and they will tell you its brutal. And those people chose that life because deep down they kind of enjoy it. Same probably doesn't apply to some NFL player who is just unlucky enough to get drafted to the London team and now has to have two homes, one in expensive-ass London and another in expensive-ass east coast city.
Like I said the best way forward in the NFC Europe division. That way there is at least a travel parity within the division and, for the league, it means you get one of these European teams in the playoffs every year. I have feeling the travel issue, chaotic lifestyle and tax differences will make London such an unattractive free agent destination that nobody will really want to go. Especially when there are 31 other options. But if 1/8th of the league is over there it would normalize it. Maybe make it more of an opportunity than a hassle.
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