Cleveland Browns At Villa Park?

According to the BBC, the UK could be a front-runner in the quest to stage the first competitive NFL game to be played outside the American continent.

They explain: The NFL’s 32 team owners voted last month to play two regular-season games a season outside the US from 2007. Building delays at Wembley put a one-off game on hold this season, but the stadium is now almost finished and could host a game next autumn.

NFL UK boss Alistair Kirkwood said the UK was ‘guaranteed to have games’.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Kirkwood said: ‘The question is when, not if. There is nothing guaranteed for 2007 but it’s between us and one other country, and I think we’re the front-runners. Favourites have lost in the past but our cushion is that if we don’t get it in 2007, we’ll get it in 2008. But we desperately want it in 2007. The sooner we get (a game), the sooner we will feel the benefits.’

The report claims that enthusiasm for the NFL in the UK is rising again and Kirkwood feels ‘If we stage a regular-season game we will get the kind of broad media attention that we haven’t had for many, many years. We’ve done friendlies in the past and that helped launch the game here, but fans are so much more knowledgeable now and have more choice – it has to be a competitive game for it to really resonate. Unless you’re an indigenous sport, and you are in the hearts and minds of the public, you have to keep raising the bar.’

So, as Murph suggests in the Browns Backers forum: Click Here , lets have a Browns game at Villa Park!

I’ve set up a Browns Backers (details in the forum above) BUT with not being able to see the games as they’ve not been featured on tv as yet, it is really hard to get ‘hooked’ and get a real feel for what it is all about.

Meanwhile the Browns are suffering a torrid season and lost once again yesterday, this time to the San Diego Chargers.