David Cobb

[BBQ Platypus]

Except it will never happen. Never will be able to play home playoff games and players will never move there on permanent basis. Good luck rationalizing logistics. Impossible scheduling and team will suck forever.

Yup, good business plan. NFL-Europe is only way it will work and still won't. Think clearly.

I have thought about this. There is a way for it to at least appear somewhat feasible if you squint, though I still have my doubts.

First, increase the number of bye weeks to two. If you're going to impose transatlantic travel on the players, you need to make this concession to their sanity.

Second, have the London team play their games in solid blocks. 8 home games to start, followed by 8 away games. (Or, less optimally, 4 home games, first bye, 8 away games, second bye, 4 home games). Similarly, schedule carefully so that teams that face the Monarchs in London have either a bye week or a Monday night game afterwards.

Third, give them a secondary home base in North America - a place for them to train, recuperate, have offices & facilities, etc. You could even extend this to having them play one or two "home" games a year somewhere in the States. The Packers used to play three games a year in Milwaukee - this would just be a more extreme version of that.

I'm skeptical that they'd bend over that far backwards to accommodate the idea, but I think it's JUST plausible enough to maybe give London some teeth as an "or we'll move the team to..." threat after the Rams/Raiders/Chargers move to L.A. I kind of hope it happens, though. It'd either make for the world's first transatlantic sports league (which would be pretty cool), or a hilarious trainwreck. Either way, it'd be fascinating.