England Manager Roy Hodgson Doesn't Sound Too Thrilled About the NFL Games in London, Either

NFL fans such as our own Jason Lisk, unhappy with the NFL’s continued Quixotic idea of staging games in London, might have an unlikely ally in the form of England National Team manager Roy Hodgson. England host Slovenia at Wembley Stadium on Nov. 15 in a Euro 2016 qualifier. The Jaguars and Cowboys play at Wembley Stadium on Sunday — the third and final NFL game at the venue this fall.

The wear-and-tear caused by gridiron football, along with rugby matches at Wembley, apparently caused the usually milquetoast Hodgson to get upset — by his standards anyways — in a news conference related to his squad selection. Here’s Hodgson quoted in The Guardian about the state of the pitch, err, field, err, turf at Wembley.

"“I am a football coach, a football manager, and I am talking about English football, not American football,” he said. “I don’t really think you could expect me to say: ‘Excellent, delighted, well done.’ I’m realistic, I’m pragmatic and this match [on Sunday] has been organised for a period of time. The pitch, unfortunately, is not in the best of nick anyway, which we’re all a bit unhappy with. “Adrian Bevington [the Club England managing director] is in charge of taking this matter forward and I am sure we will find a good solution but at this particular moment in time I would honestly have to say, if I’m asked if it is a good thing or not, I would have to say not. I can do nothing about it and we won’t use it as an excuse. We will adapt and get on with it and hopefully in the future the pitch will recover to its normal level and when it has done that we will be better able to support this type of activity.”"

Making it all the more comedic is that Hodgson’s comments came before the NFL announced its 2015 “International Series” games that could conflict with England National Team matches next year. Jokes aside, if I were in charge of a football team — whatever the rules code — the state of the field would be a definite issue, but not enough for the NFL to stop sending teams across the Atlantic Ocean to spread the gospel of the gridiron.

Something tells me that Hodgson being concerned about the Wembley field or American NFL fans upset their favorite team is giving up a key home game isn’t going to sway the decision makers in this process. Once the NFL figures out a way to maximize television revenues on a 9:30 a.m. (Eastern) kickoff, first seen last month when the Lions edged the Falcons, expect the number of games at Wembley to increase.

Sorry, Roy.