The NFL news cycle is frenzied, but to an extent it’s still predictable. Give me a week — any week, any week at all in the entire year — and I can pretty much tell you exactly what I’ll be writing about, because although the subjects change, the basic subject matter often doesn’t. Second week of April? Some potential first-round pick smoked a doobie in college, and this could make him an asshole. First week in December? At least 19 teams are still in playoff contention. Discuss.
It’s circular, but never, ever boring, because the different pieces that fit into the churning machine during any given year remain unpredictable. That machine is halted sometimes, but it takes a unique and compelling story. Like, say, bountygate allegations, or Jesus changing teams, or Peyton Manning signing somewhere that isn’t Indy. And that’s just this past offseason.
But in January for at least one day during the height of the playoff lunacy, there was an off-field item that directed our gaze elsewhere. The Rams volunteered to become London’s first “home team,” with owner Stan Kroenke — who’s also a majority owner of Arsenal, a team that’s sort of a big deal among those who follow the other kind of football — signing his team up to play three home games on the other side of a very large pond.
It was more than just a friendly international gesture. As we wrote at the time, with the lease on the Edward Jones Dome expiring in three years, it was a flirtation with a move to a different city that maybe wouldn’t leave over 11,000 seats empty during home games. It seemed very real too, with Kroenke making no attempts to bat away the suggestion of a move by offering even a public relations response that was steaming with the stench of fecal matter.
Now, abruptly, that’s over, or at least on hold, with the Rams backing out of a commitment to play games in London in 2013 and 2014. We blame the Spice Girls after they reminded the world yesterday that they exist.
Preseason ponderings: Andrew Luck doesn’t look like a rookie…yet
Posted by Sean Tomlinson under Andrew Luck, Commentary, Indianapolis Colts on Aug 13, 2012
We’re just a few hours away from the kickoff for the final game in the first week of fake football, with Cowboys owner Jerry Jones quite anxious to begin a season that brings his franchise back to the days of glory holes. Oakland sure seems like a fine place to start that journey.
So as you mentally prepare for your first Jon Gruden exposure of the 2012 season by wedging Double-A batteries deep into your ear drums, let’s take a look back at the most prominent developments and observations that inspire rants from the weekend of preseason play. When we left off on our meandering through meaningless but important football on Thursday, we were reminded that Julio Jones is pretty good, and Bob Griffin was also alright. As is often the case during preseason games, much of the focus is on the quarterbacks, and the young arms who are either playing their first game, or are continuing to develop after an inconsistent Year 1.
Andrew Luck is one of those arms, and it seems he may have a future. Maybe.
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