Contrary to popular belief, playing football on Thanksgiving Day is not an NFL invention. The league may be credited with bringing a lot of innovations to the sport, but the origin of games being played as part of festivities celebrating a successful harvest predate the formation of the National Football League by nearly 50 years, when the college teams from …
Week 12 of the NFL season should have come with a health warning. Blocked punts, missed extra points, botched holds, onside kicks returned for touchdowns, muffed kickoffs recovered and housed, overtime and game-winning field goals. Not suitable for the faint of heart. The beady-eyed among you will note most of those pulse-raising plays happened in one game. In fact, in …
The National Football League will continue to honour the late John Madden at next Thursday’s Thanksgiving games with commemorations of the former player, coach and commentator liberally sprinkled throughout. Madden once said that, ‘There’s no place that I would rather be on Thanksgiving than right here, right now, at a football game,’ and the now-annual John Madden Thanksgiving Celebration aims …
Week 10 was one of the worst weeks of the 2024 season in terms of offensive output. Teams averaged 1.86 points per drive and threw interceptions at a 2.9% rate, both “good” for the second-worst weeks of the season. But while Week 11 can’t guarantee more explosive play on offense, it promises to be a fascinating week with several key …
In a league season characterised by close games, it’s only inevitable that kickers would take centre stage more and more frequently. There have been 82 games decided by seven-or-fewer points and 72 games decided by six-or-fewer points this season, both the most such games through Week 10 in NFL history. That said, rarely would you see so many games decided …
With nine of 18 weeks — and 138 of 272 games completed — the 2024 NFL regular season has edged past its halfway point with the Kansas City Chiefs still clinging the league’s last unbeaten record, having moved to 8-0 with a hard-fought overtime victory over the Tampa Bay Buccaneers on Monday Night Football. With the win, the Chiefs became …
Week 8 of the 2024 NFL season was a riot of scoring, with 777 points scored across the 16 games. But the theme of the season, namely close games, continued, with 13 of the games within eight points heading into the fourth quarter. Through the first eight weeks of the season, 67 games have been decided by seven points or …
While the league’s best tight ends tried to take the headlines on their special day, it was Jayden Daniels who delivered the lasting image of Week 8 of the 2024 NFL season. The Commanders’ last second Hail Mary was one of five game winning scores in the final two minutes of action on Sunday. With one game left to play …
Week 8 of the 2024 NFL season sees all 32 teams in action, and all back on American soil with the London leg of the International Series in the books. A rarity in being a full house during bye weeks, there is also no shortage of fascinating matchups, with legends chasing history, historic powerhouses looking to kickstart their season and …
In a season that had been characterised by tight, low-scoring affairs, Week 6 of the new NFL campaign brought a barrage of points as a number of teams signposted their status as contenders with statement wins. The 622 points scored in the 12 completed matches so far, for an average of 51.8 points per game, would be the highest average …
Chicago Bears tight end Cole Kmet will surely be remembered for the two-touchdown performance he put up in his team’s 35-16 win over Jacksonville in London, but will go down in the NFL annals for an anomaly that rarely happens. When long snapper Scott Daly went down injured at the end of the Bears’ opening drive, Kmet suddenly found himself …
Chicago Bears rookie quarterback Caleb Williams is good. Who’d have thought that of the first overall pick in April’s NFL Draft? Williams’ first couple of games in the pro league may have been shaky, big stage nerves maybe, but a four-touchdown performance in the Bears 35-16 demolition of the Jacksonville Jaguars in London confirmed that the USC product has found …
Caleb Williams and Jayden Daniels became the eighth quarterback pairing taken with the first two picks of the NFL Draft to start on the opening weekend of their rookie season, but both learned that life in the pro game is vastly different from the college game they graced in 2023. Along with 12th overall selection Bo Nix, who got the …
“This is a unique time in our history to advance our growth, particularly internationally. It may be the single-most important growth moment in our history.” Those were the comments made to me when I sat down with NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell in Frankfurt last November. The league has certainly backed up that bold statement by announcing that five regular season …
The NFL is set to stage its biggest opening weekend ever, with four days of games and global events designed to engage fans worldwide. To excite fans for the start of the season, the NFL recently unveiled its season-long brand campaign for 2024, titled ‘This Is Football Country’. The campaign highlights the passion and community spirit that football cultivates, while …
NFL Network will wrap up its preseason schedule by showing no fewer than eight live games this week, including a double-header on Friday (August 23rd) and a quadruple-header on Saturday (August 24th) as well as re-airs of every game played over the three-day period. The schedule kicks off in the early hours of Friday when the reigning Super Bowl champion …
NFL Network’s preseason Week 2 schedule features six live games — including a quadruple-header on Saturday, August 17th — as well as re-airs of every matchup. Although the live programme kicked off on Thursday, with the New England Patriots hosting the Philadelphia Eagles, Saturday’s lineup provides the main attraction, starting at 6pm BST when the Chicago Bears welcome the Cincinnati …
The National Football League has announced the schedule of the 2024 International Games that will be played across London, Munich and São Paulo as the league’s global footprint continues to expand. The Minnesota Vikings will kick off the league’s return to Europe on Sunday, October 6th, as they play the New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. The following — …
Eight NFL franchises opted to make use of the franchise tag — and one more the lesser-used transition tag — as the league hurtles towards the start of another new year. Player designations had to be confirmed by Tuesday, ahead of the 2024 NFL free agency signing period, which begins at 4pm ET next Wednesday (March 13). Each club can …
The National Football League’s International Series roster continues to expand with news that Spanish capital Madrid is to host a regular season game in 2025. The announcement confirms the NFL’s continued prioritisation of global growth by taking the International Series to new cities and markets around the world, and follows hot on the heels that the Philadelphia Eagles will be …
This article originally appeared in Issue LI of Gridiron magazine, back in 2019 – for individual editions or subscriptions, click HERE As good as things appeared to be during the 1970s, unrest still simmered within the National Football League as the decade turned. Players and owners were running low on patience with the league office as the 1980s began, prompting …
What constitutes a great sporting rivalry? I’d define it as a situation where games between the teams involved are so important that winning can mitigate against an otherwise unsuccessful season. Those kinds of rivalries are defined by tradition, competitiveness and longevity. The NFL is full of great short-term rivalries, but many peter out when teams decline; think Raiders/Steelers in the …
As the smoke clears on the first ever virtual NFL Player Selection Meeting, we grade each NFC team on the strength of their acquisitions. NFC EAST Dallas Cowboys: Jerry Jones and Mike McCarthy got outstanding value all the way through this draft. CeeDee Lamb was just too good to pass up in R1, whilst Trevon Diggs and Reggie Robinson should …
Looking back at Super Bowls is like reviewing my adult life. I remember the first clearly, Pete Rozelle’s NFL-AFL World Championship Game – Lamar Hunt wouldn’t christen it the Super Bowl until the second year – even though I wasn’t yet a rebellious child of the Sixties; I rooted for the Green Bay Packers’ triumph over the trash-talking Chiefs and, …
