NFL & Tottenham Agree to 10-Year Deal Because Londoners are 'Gangbusters For Gridiron'

The NFL’s foray across the Atlantic and into London isn’t going away any time soon. On Wednesday the league reached a 10-year agreement with Tottenham Hotspur to play two games NFL per season at the EPL club’s new 61,000 seat stadium, which is scheduled to open in 2018.

The important takeaways from today’s announcement:

• The new stadium will have a retractable grass field and an artificial surface beneath it. Soccer will be played on grass and the NFL games on turf. Simple. Let’s see how it works in practice.
• Per the NFL.com story, there could still be additional games staged in the United Kingdom beyond the two games played at the new Spurs stadium.

This quote in the story from London mayor Boris Johnson made me chuckle.

"“Anyone who has seen American Football at Wembley Stadium cannot fail to have been thrilled by the spectacle, and the wise heads that run the NFL have clearly not missed the fact that Londoners are going absolutely gangbusters for Gridiron,” Johnson said."

Aren’t we all “gangbusters for Gridiron” when you think about it? Roger Goodell probably needed some alone time after hearing or reading that press release boilerplate.

The Jaguars current deal to play one game per year in London, as the AP notes, expires in 2016.