SCOTT JACOBS

Get excited Europe, and planet Earth!  The Patriots will be stopping in London next season.

The much hyped London game should be the most intriguing Euopean game yet, staging a most likely healthy and recharged Tom Brady versus a stout Bucs team.  It probably won’t match the points that came with this year’s London shootout, a 37-32 Saints win over the San Diego ‘not so super’ Chargers, but it will nevertheless be an exciting contrast of styles.

London has sold out the past two games at Wembley, getting 83,000 excited fans to pack the building, and many more to sign on waiting lists.  I got blasted back ion October when I bluntly stated that the London experiment was a waste.  Needless to say I was proven wrong.  European football fans are passionate and truly dedicated.  Some fly 6,000 miles, others would pay $6,000.  And for that I commend them.  I find it interesting that all three teams that have been picked for the London game have been from the Southeast United States.  Miami, New Orleans, and now Tampa Bay.  Just interesting I suppose.

But next year’s European tilt should be a good game.  Then again, in the ever-changing NFL landscape where you can beat a 10-0 team on the road one minute, and then lost to a .500 team at home the next, who the heck knows.  But I know one thing is for certain.  London will look forward to this game, and I will never again, bash the European experiment.

For the record, the NFL plans to stage a fourth game in London in 2010.