Monday, January 15, 2007

NFL in London


Note that the title of this post is “NFL in London,” not “Football in London.” The term Football is ambiguous—do you mean Football a.k.a. Soccer or Football a.k.a. American Football? While the term NFL may not be as knowable outside the U.S., it is clear to anyone even remotely interested in American Football what is meant here. Righto.

Second side note: This post was very painful to write.

In possession of playoff tickets for the wildly successful San Diego Chargers, we nonetheless relinquished our tickets to our grateful children (who are not children, but offspring sounds way too formal). We are out of town preparing to teach the Sun Java Studio Creator course outside of London. Our mission, should we decide to accept it, was to find a bar/pub/venue of some kind where we could watch the Chargers host the New England Patriots. In anticipation of this event, we packed our powder-blue jerseys to wear during the viewing and used the tool of choice (the internet) to find an acceptable venue. The search term “NFL London” yielded a few possibilities: Cheers London and the Sports Café.

Both venues are near the wild and crazy Piccadilly Circus area and within walking distance of each other. We were in Cheers first (kick-off time was 9:30PM for the 1:30PM Pacific Standard Time start). At 12:30AM with the DJ music blasting all about us, Cheers London turned ON the lights, turned OFF the music and the TVs, and kicked everybody out. It was the beginning of the 4th quarter! We made our way to the Sports Café just in time to see LT score a touchdown for San Diego. Our glee was short-lived, however, as the San Diego defense made a costly mistake and the Patriots took advantage. The Sports Café was packed with both Charger and Patriot fans. When the Chargers game-tying field goal went wide in the last seconds of the game, we cried in our beer, poured out of the bar, and (now it’s passed 1:00AM and the tube is closed) were guided by a savvy American living in London to the proper 24-hour bus stop.
Next Entry: The Essence of London

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