Hey New York, it’s 6:30 a.m. in California.
The National Football League continues their International Series this weekend when the New York Jets meet the Minnesota Vikings in London. I am still not convinced that playing games over the pond or in Brazil is really necessary. Isn’t the fan base in the United States enough? Shouldn’t we be taking care of those fans before we jet off in all directions and cause games to start on the west coast at ridiculous hours?
In Las Vegas on Sunday, the game between the Jets and Vikings will start at 6:30 a.m., before some of the books in town have even opened for business. Six-thirty a.m. is a good time to milk cows and let the dog out, but start a football game?
No thanks.
I’m at work on Sunday at 6:30 a.m. but I’m busy checking final injury reports and weather conditions while getting ready to post our picks by 8:00 a.m. along with our GameDay feature story. It would be impractical for me to move my schedule up on the rest of the schedule to accommodate one game starting before most of my clients have even ventured out of bed. I learned a long time ago it is best to just disregard these early starts to avoid a client coming to the site at 8:00 a.m. and seeing he has already missed a play on a game that started a couple hours earlier.
Then, occasionally, like this week, there is a matchup that has an intriguing possibility for an investment if the game was played at one of the team's home stadiums. But, in London at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium, forget it.
Take this week’s matchup.
Off a loss at home to the suspect Denver Broncos the Jets and Aaron Rodgers need to battle the undefeated Minnesota Vikings. The Vikings looking to protect their perfect record, the Jets looking to not fall too far back of their primary AFC East Division rival, the Buffalo Bills.
This game sets up well for the Jets … but it is useless because it is starting way too early and in a foreign country and on an unfamiliar playing surface. Winning in the NFL requires eliminating as many unknowns as possible, games outside the country add to the uncertainty.
Now, if the league wants to play International Games, why did they decide that 9:30 a.m. starts in New York were not too early? That doesn’t seem too early in New York, but what consideration did they give to us on the west coast?
None.
They could have started these games in London at 6:00 p.m., which would have been 1:00 p.m. in New York and 10:00 a.m. in the Pacific Time zone. Sound familiar? It should, that is the time most NFL games start on Sunday in the United States. But no, they kickoff the contests at 2:30 p.m. in London and leave us to wake the roosters before kickoff.
Yeah, I would like the Jets here, but the league has already ruined that opportunity.