After Years of London Losers, Packers Come Leaping to Town
GREEN BAY, Wis. – In 1773, a bunch of tea was thrown into Boston Harbor. That was a seminal moment in what wound up being a revolution against England. Since 2007, the NFL has been throwing a lot of T-for-terrible games at England.
Eventually, the United States and Great Britain became allies. Eventually, the NFL gave the British fans a good game, even if accidentally.
When the Green Bay Packers face the New York Giants at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London in a clash of 3-1 teams on Sunday, it will mark the first time in the 32 London games that two teams with winning records played on British soil. The Packers are coming off an unprecedented third consecutive season with 13 regular-season wins. The Giants are coming off a fifth-consecutive season with 10-plus losses.
“It’s about time we’re here,” Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers told reporters in London on Friday.
From 2007 through 2021, 30 games were played in England. None of those games were between two teams that wound up qualifying for the playoffs.
Last year’s games – Jacksonville Jaguars vs. Miami Dolphins and Atlanta Falcons vs. New York Jets – were the equivalent of jellied eels and black pudding. Those teams went a combined 23-45 and were outscored by 576 points.
Of the 60 teams to play in London the previous 15 years, only 16 reached the playoffs (26.7 percent). That’s actually pretty good in comparison to the recent past. Of the six games played in London the previous three seasons, only one team reached the postseason. That’s one out of the 12 participants (8.3 percent).
From 2007 through 2021, 10 of the 60 teams were winless at the time the game was played (16.7 percent). Five teams reached a conference championship game. Only one team – the 2007 Giants – won the Super Bowl.
As you might expect given the number of bad teams that have played in London, they’ve combined to play a lot of bad games. The average margin of victory has been 14.2 points. Half of the games have been decided by at least 10 points. At least last week’s victory by the Minnesota Vikings over the New Orleans Saints was competitive, a 28-25 final score.
As Peter Carline of the UK Daily Mail wrote before last year’s game between Miami and Jacksonville, which were a combined 1-9 at the time: “Too often teams start slowly and are unable to recover. Some are unable to finish. They look lethargic, jetlagged. It’s not surprising with most teams now arriving on the Friday morning before the game. As long as fans buy tickets and merchandise, the NFL will continue its global plans of expansion. It’s just a question of whether fans will grow weary of watching.”
Enter the Packers, with their history of winning, living-legend quarterback and legion of fans from sea to shining sea – and across those seas.
“I’m excited to be here,” Rodgers said. “This has been something that we wanted to do for a long time, but we have great fans and we travel well, so it’s hard for teams to want to give up a home game when Green Bay’s coming to town. And, obviously, we play in one of those iconic spots in all of sports at Lambeau Field. It’s nice to be here. This is one of those games I think at the end of your career when you think back on it is going to be a special moment to be able to play in front of the fans here.”
While Rodgers is excited, coach Matt LaFleur is not. Too much can go wrong after a trans-Atlantic flight. Case in point, the 2017 Baltimore Ravens. They started the season with back-to-back wins before getting detroyed 44-7 by Jacksonville in London. Afterward, Ravens coach John Harbaugh vented.
“There were certain things that came up that you looked at and you go, ‘That wasn't ideal,’” he said upon arriving back in Baltimore. “But, we really had no way of knowing that. Even all the people that we talked to, you do not get everything. Then, some things we have no control over. We have no control over where we stay, how far the bus ride is and how long it takes us to get to the stadium and those kinds of things. What impact they have are things we look at. To be honest with you, maybe I will get in trouble for saying this, I do not plan on going over there any time soon to play again. Somebody else can have that job.”
It will be the Packers’ job on Sunday. The last team to play an international game, it’s a job they’re excited to undertake.
“Just embrace the fact that this is so rare to be able to come over in a different country and entertain fans that are waking up early or staying up late watching our games,” Rodgers said, “and we’ll try to put on a show for you guys.”
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