By Frank Deford
Kansas City Chiefs outside linebacker Justin Houston, second from left, shakes hands with Detroit Lions wide receiver Calvin Johnson after the NFL football game between the Lions and Chiefs at Wembley Stadium in London, on Nov. 1. Matt Dunham/AP hide caption
itoggle caption Matt Dunham/AP
United States leagues love playing games abroad. At first it was more just to show off our indigenous sports and hope the simpleminded foreigners would see what they were missing and start playing the red, white and blue games themselves.
Even the likes of King George V and George Bernard Shaw came to watch touring major leaguers, although Shaw’s sarcastic assessment was that the best thing you could say about baseball was that it didn’t take as long as cricket. I always thought that was pretty nervy of Shaw, inasmuch as anyone who’s sat through something as interminable as Saint Joan has no business complaining about times-a-wastin’.
Click the audio to hear Frank Deford’s thoughts about the NFL’s London invasion.
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