Column: Rams vs. Cardinals is a critical game — and a sign of London's increasing relevance in the NFL

Staff Writer

Oct. 21, 2017 11:05 AM PT

One of the reasons NFL Europe didn’t survive is because football fans across the pond became increasingly discriminating as the years passed. They wanted to see the sport played at the highest level, so a second-tier version didn’t cut it.

For the past decade, the NFL has been playing regular-season games in London, with the 20th of those taking place Sunday when the Rams play Arizona at Twickenham Stadium.

Although the London games have never pitted two teams with winning records, this one comes close. The Rams are 4-2, and the Cardinals are 3-3. More important, it’s a critical game in the NFC West, with Los Angeles looking to hold onto its division lead, and the Cardinals determined to build momentum with just-acquired running back Adrian Peterson.

For London, playing host to a record four games this season, it’s a reminder of its increasing relevance in the NFL mosaic. These aren’t just throwaway games anymore, but sometimes critical divisional matchups.

“I think the end game is ,to try to build the popularity of the league over there on a broad basis and they’ve continued to do that,” said Rams owner Stan Kroenke, who also owns the English Premier League soccer club Arsenal. “They’ve set a path, and I think they’re doing a pretty good job of it.”

All but one of the 20 London games sold out, and the NFL estimates its United Kingdom fan base at 13 million people.

“I think the most encouraging thing we’ve done this year is a really improved performance on our media consumption,” said Mark Waller, the NFL’s executive vice president for international. “We’re seeing really good growth in terms of audience viewership and engagement. At the end of the day, that’s what we’re trying to do.”

Whether that burgeoning interest ultimately translates into an NFL push to put a franchise in the U.K. remains to be seen. There are daunting hurdles in that regard, most significantly the travel, scheduling and marketing complications of putting a team across the Atlantic.

“I think it’s premature to discuss a permanent team,” said Steve Tisch, co-owner of the New York Giants. “This is still a work in progress that seems to be working.”

Tisch said owners have not discussed staging more than the current four games in London, but added: “If the fan base supports it, and there seems to be an interest in more games being played there, that’s going to be listened to by the league.”

Hot rod Hundley

A compelling storyline beginning Sunday will be the quarterback situation in Green Bay, with former UCLA standout Brett Hundley taking over for injured Aaron Rodgers, who sustained a broken collarbone at Minnesota last Sunday. Hundley makes his first career start against New Orleans at Lambeau Field.

Rick Neuheisel recruited Hundley to UCLA but never got a chance to coach him as a starter because a basketball injury sidelined Hundley as a freshman, and Neuheisel was fired after that season. But the coach will never forget watching the Bruins’ opener against Rice the following season, when Hundley ran for a 72-yard touchdown on his first play.

“I’m watching it and going, ‘Son of a gun!’ I thought I needed to make it one more year, and it turns out I needed to make it one more play,” Neuheisel said. “If the Packers incorporate the pieces of the offense that will make it easier, and they incorporate his legs — and it doesn’t have to be [quarterback Robert Griffin III] incorporate his legs — he’s going to make plays.

“I know this about Brett Hundley: I don’t know that he’s a great second-string quarterback, the kind of guy that’s engaged such to the point that he’s learning vicariously as much as someone else would because he needs to be in there. But I do know that when he’s in there, he can flat play. … It’s never going to be too big for him.”

Incidentally, former UCLA running back Johnathan Franklin, who now works in community affairs for the Rams, remembers something else about that 72-yard touchdown run: The ball was supposed to go to him.

“Brett was like a little brother to me, and throughout practice that week he was nervous,” Franklin said. “He was like, ‘Listen, I’m not keeping the ball. I’m going to give it to you.’ The first play comes up and he keeps the ball, and I’m like, ‘The jitters done got the best of you, huh, Brett?’ ”

Recalled Franklin with a laugh: “I was like, ‘What are you doing, Brett?’ That’s the first thing I asked him when he scored. I didn’t say congratulations. I was like, ‘You were supposed to give me the ball!’ ”