London-Based NFL Team A Certainty, But Still Not Good Idea

Telvin Smith Some time in the next eight years, an NFL team will move to London, according to Rocky Boiman. Just because it is destined to happen, however, doesn’t make it a good idea.

Beyond the obvious travel obstacles the NFL would face having a franchise across the pond, a London-based team would face scores of other challenges, not all of them purely logistical. It is far from known how long British fans would maintain their fervor for American football, not to mention where prospective free agents would try out in-season.

Then there is the fickle regional loyalty that could complicate something as seemingly simple as naming the team.

Boiman, an eight-year veteran of the NFL now broadcasting in London, laid out five of the potential problems the league would face placing a team in the market.