THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
THE TRANSATLANTIC MAGAZINE
The National Football League returns to London October 6, for the first of three games to be played in the United Kingdom, as part of the 2024 regular season. The NFL has already been overseas once this year when the Green Bay Packers played the Philadelphia Eagles in Sao Paolo, Brazil with the Eagles running out 34-29 winners in the opening week of the campaign.
The attention now switches to more familiar territory for the NFL, the purpose-built Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Whereas Wembley Stadium is still thought of as the crown jewel for the sport in the United Kingdom with its history of hosting games going back into Second World War times, and the more modern NFL playing games there regularly since the early 1980s, Tottenham has made a clear stamp on the overseas market. The stadium in full NFL regalia is something to behold. For the record, and in case it has slipped from your diary, Tottenham will host back-to-back games, before a third game in the capital at Wembley.
This Sunday sees two teams that have big aspirations for the season and should provide arguably the most exciting match of the trio ahead. The Minnesota Vikings come to London as one of just two teams unbeaten after the first month of play, the other 4-0 team being current champions Kansas City Chiefs. This is largely due to a new found confidence in the play of quarterback Sam Darnold, who joined Minnesota from free agency having previously played for the San Francisco 49ers and before them the Carolina Panthers. On Sunday Darnold will face the team who gave him his NFL chance, the New York Jets.
Darnold has thrown for 11 touchdowns through the first four games, and four of those have been to the highest-paid wide receiver in the game today, Justin Jefferson. The Vikings' speedy superstar will be one of the highlights all season, let alone this Sunday, and is by far and away Darnold's favorite target. He will be ably supported by Aaron Jones; the running back has dashed for over 320 yards already and will be a threat from out the backfield in the passing game.
The New York Jets are riding the coattails of former league MVP Aaron Rodgers, who after a year out injured is feeling his way into a system that has allowed him to show glimpses of his old magic, but the Jets arrive at Tottenham off the back of a loss to Denver which saw their record drop to 2-2.
Rodgers has been ponderous in his passing and only has five scores to his name so far. This is down to the Jets not quite finding their rhythm yet, but having the Super Bowl winner as your play-caller the Jets will always have that what if
factor in their game. Allen Lazard has three scoring grabs from Rodgers and the Vikings will have to shut his potential down, in the ground game Breece Hall will aim to add to his two scores for the season.
Jets' Defensive End Will McDonald IV is having a tremendous start to the season with five sacks already and will be out to disrupt the Vikings passing game. But the Vikings' triple sack threat of Patrick Jones II, Jonathan Greenard and the speedy Andrew van Ginkel have 12 sacks between them and will aim to make it a long afternoon for Rodgers.
Minnesota start this game as slight favorites, and should leave the field around 5.30 pm still unbeaten, but the X factor that Rodgers brings could make the game close and spring a surprise. That's what makes the NFL so great – its unpredictability.
