With the Broncos and Jets set to meet Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur, the second of three London games on this season\u2019s schedule, there should be at least a tiny bit of trepidation that someone will slip into the snake pit and become the latest NFL personality to make a forgettable Brexit.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m excited to go back there,\u201d says Broncos coach Sean Payton. \u201cBut let\u2019s just say I\u2019ve had some interesting experiences in London over the years. There are a lot of things that can throw you for a loop.\u201d<\/p>\n
On many levels, the NFL\u2019s foray into the UK \u2014 part of an international strategy that this year includes games in Brazil, Ireland, Germany and Spain \u2014 has been a smashing success. The Jacksonville Jaguars have made London their European hideaway; their Oct. 19 showdown with the Los Angeles Rams will be the franchise\u2019s 11th \u201chome game\u201d at Wembley Stadium (and 14th in the city) since 2013. NFL commissioner Roger Goodell recently told CNBC<\/a> that ultimately basing a franchise in London is \u201cpossible.\u201d Either way, the league\u2019s foothold there will remain for the long haul.<\/p>\n The idea of staging the Ultimate Game in The Big Smoke has been smoldering for nearly two decades<\/a>, and a London Super Bowl now seems somewhat inevitable. Last October, at an annual NFL fan forum in London, Goodell was asked about the possibility of deciding a championship on foreign soil. \u201cWe\u2019ve always traditionally tried to play a Super Bowl in an NFL city \u2014 that was always sort of a reward for the cities that have NFL franchises,\u201d Goodell answered<\/a>. \u201cBut things change. It wouldn\u2019t surprise me at all if that happens one day.\u201d<\/p>\n However, plenty of things have happened on these London trips that are pretty far from Super, mishaps that extend far beyond the \u201cthey don\u2019t have the right kind of ketchup\u201d kind of crises. Other entanglements have been far more amusing: The Tennessee Titans conducting a walk-through at Syon Park, replete with long grass and holes, overlooking the home of the Duke of Northumberland beside the Thames River; the New Orleans Saints working out prospective punters on the unmarked front lawn of their hotel\u2019s grounds.<\/p>\n In the immediate aftermath of a lopsided road defeat to the Carolina Panthers in October 2008, Payton, then the Saints\u2019 third-year coach, decided to cut punter Steve Weatherford. With the team scheduled to fly directly from Charlotte to London \u2014 in advance of the following Sunday\u2019s game against the San Diego Chargers at Wembley \u2014 Payton informed Weatherford of his decision in the locker room, and other New Orleans players watched as the punter\u2019s belongings were located and removed from a team bus as it prepared to leave the stadium. During the flight to London, Saints front-office officials scrambled to find prospective replacements, with the caveat that they had to be in possession of up-to-date passports. Four punters were subsequently flown to London, leading to the unusual tryout scene.<\/p>\n \u201cWe didn\u2019t have a field available,\u201d Payton recalls, \u201cso we just went out to the front of this very nice hotel (The Grove) and had them booming kicks on the grass. There were English ladies having their crumpets and tea out on the grounds looking on and wondering, \u2018What the hell is going on?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \n Sean Payton and the Saints set up shop at The Grove hotel during a 2008 trip to London. (Julian Finney \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n As it turned out, the winner of that competition, Ben Graham, would only punt three times, as Drew Brees led the Saints to a 37-32 victory over former teammate Philip Rivers and the Chargers. However, Payton\u2019s game day experience was not totally blissful.<\/p>\n The previous afternoon, during a walk-through at Wembley, security officials had specified the exact path that the Saints\u2019 players and coaches would take from their locker room to the field before the start of the game: Turn left and walk through the tunnel that emptied into a midfield entry point.<\/p>\n When Payton exited the locker room on Sunday, however, things had inexplicably changed: An event security staffer was blocking his passageway and attempted to redirect him to a more convoluted route. Revved up and annoyed, Payton made what he called a \u201cswim move\u201d to brush past the security guard, making slight contact in the process. His players followed.<\/p>\n Shortly after his return to Louisiana, Payton was greeted by NFL officials who\u2019d been dispatched to investigate the incident. He was not disciplined.<\/p>\n In 2010, Goodell came down hard on another head coach after another London-related controversy. The Broncos\u2019 organization and Josh McDaniels, then the team\u2019s second-year coach, were each fined $50,000<\/a> after it was discovered that video operations director Steve Scarnecchia filmed six minutes of the San Francisco 49ers\u2019 walk-through the day before the two teams\u2019 October game at Wembley. Scarnecchia, as a New England Patriots\u2019 employee, had also been involved in the \u201cSpygate\u201d scandal (involving the unauthorized videotaping of opposing coaches\u2019 signals) that rocked the league three years earlier.<\/p>\n On Dec. 6, nine days after Goodell announced the penalties, Denver owner Pat Bowlen fired McDaniels<\/a>.<\/p>\n If McDaniels was the first NFL powerbroker whose dismissal could be traced to a London lapse \u2014 well, he certainly would not be the last. In an environment with heightened scrutiny and a lessened ability to impose control, coaches and front-office executives often face challenging circumstances. At times, they can\u2019t help but feel that when they step on foreign soil, they\u2019re also on shaky ground.<\/p>\n Raheem Morris was 33 and staring at an 0-7 record as an NFL head coach, with a mismatch against Tom Brady and the Patriots at Wembley on deck. His team wasn\u2019t due to depart London until the day after the game, and the Tampa Bay Buccaneers\u2019 rookie coach thought that imposing a Sunday night curfew \u2014 a decree from the team\u2019s front office \u2014 was a dubious idea.<\/p>\n Morris went along with it, but in the wake of the Bucs\u2019 35-7 defeat in October 2009, some of his players ignored the edict. While socializing at a small party in the hotel lobby (another team official\u2019s brainchild, and another decision that Morris didn\u2019t love), Morris noticed second-year cornerback Aqib Talib walking through the front door of the lobby. It was long after curfew, and Morris called Talib over and tried to defuse the obvious violation, telling him, \u201cGo to bed.\u201d Though Morris had publicly labeled Talib a \u201cwild child\u201d because of his penchant for off-the-field drama, the two had a good relationship, and Talib\u2019s protests (\u201cCome on, Rah, it\u2019s the night after the game. We\u2019re in London. I\u2019m finna take this fine \u2026\u201d) were loud but not hyper-confrontational.<\/p>\n Then Mike Alstott entered the fray. The popular and retired Bucs fullback approached Talib and said, \u201cWhy are you yelling at your head coach like that? You should be in bed.\u201d Talib did not take it well.<\/p>\n \u201cM\u2014\u2014\u2014-, I don\u2019t know you!\u201d he screamed at Alstott, who yelled back at Talib, criticizing him for disrespecting Morris. Things deteriorated as Morris loudly implored Talib to go to his room.<\/p>\n \u201cI was hanging out in the lobby lounge area with our video guys, having some beers and catching up, and all of a sudden there was a bunch of noise by the front doors,\u201d Alstott remembers. \u201cTalib was yelling at Raheem, and I walked over and found out he broke curfew. I think I said, \u2018Hey bro, are you really gonna talk to your head coach like that?\u2019 I\u2019m old school.\u201d<\/p>\n Recalls Talib: \u201cIt might have been 3 a.m. Alstott came out of the blue. I said, \u2018Rah, you better tell him to get out of my face before I knock his big ass out.\u2019 (Morris) said, \u2018Qib, go to the room! I got it, bro.\u2019 He (Alstott) was just trippin\u2019. I told Rah, \u2018You know me, fam. I\u2019ll knock his ass out. You better tell this \u2026 I\u2019ll knock his ass out in the lobby.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cAnd the thing is, I played well that game. \u2026 I had an interception and I followed Randy Moss and he caught like five balls for (69) yards. I\u2019ve still got that international ball, which I took from Tom Brady.\u201d<\/p>\n Alstott saw the incident as endemic to settings such as London that take NFL teams out of their comfort zones. \u201cYou always have one or two people who are gonna try to push the limits,\u201d he says. \u201cYou\u2019ve seen it at every Super Bowl. People just try to push the limits and they think they can get away with it.\u201d<\/p>\n \n Raheem Morris was the coach of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers during an unsuccessful 2009 trip to London. (Elsa \/ Getty Images)<\/p>\n A report by Tampa radio station WDAE depicted the incident as a charged, profanity-laced shouting match between Talib and Morris. It was seized upon by Morris\u2019 critics, cited as proof that he was too young for the role and that he didn\u2019t command the respect of his players. Morris, who coached the Bucs to a 10-6 record in 2010, was fired after his third season and didn\u2019t get a second head-coaching opportunity until the Atlanta Falcons hired him in 2024.<\/p>\n Then again, silence can sometimes be more ominous than shouting \u2014 as Dennis Allen, Joe Philbin and others can attest. Some high-profile dismissals have occurred in the wake of struggling teams\u2019 lopsided London defeats that preceded bye weeks, a confluence of circumstances that compelled frustrated owners to act. Such was the case with the firings of Allen (2014 by the Raiders), Philbin (2015 by the Dolphins) and Detroit Lions president Tom Lewand and general manager Martin Mayhew (also in 2015).<\/p>\n In Allen\u2019s case, the flight back to California after a 38-14 defeat to the Dolphins was especially miserable. He remembers seeing owner Mark Davis \u201csitting in his seat and stewing the whole time. It was a long flight.\u201d<\/p>\n Davis didn\u2019t have anything to say to Allen \u2014 and the silent treatment continued after the team landed in the Bay Area and boarded buses to the team\u2019s training facility in Alameda. Allen, who was traveling with his wife, went home and was lying in bed a couple hours later when he got a call from general manager Reggie McKenzie informing him that he\u2019d been fired.<\/p>\n Allen, who\u2019d gone into the 2014 campaign with an 8-24 record, had seen it coming for a while. \u201cI knew going into that season that things had to go well for it to be OK for me,\u201d he says. \u201cI think (Davis) was ready to move on before that season, and if that\u2019s the mindset of the owner, he really should go ahead and do it. If you don\u2019t have faith in the head coach to do his job, what\u2019s the point?\u201d<\/p>\n Other firings have been less telegraphed. Saleh, in his fourth season with the Jets, was coming off a 23-17 defeat to the Vikings in London last October that dropped New York to 2-3. A victory the following Monday night against the Bills could have given the Jets a share of the AFC East lead, yet Woody Johnson, in a surprising move, abruptly fired his coach six days before that game.<\/p>\n Saleh, whose parents were born in Lebanon, had worn a patch featuring that country\u2019s flag in London, something he had done on previous occasions as part of the NFL\u2019s Heritage Program. This time, given the hyper-charged state of the Middle East \u2014 \u00a0including\u00a0Israel\u2019s bombing of what it said were Hezbollah targets in Beirut \u2014 some outsiders viewed it as a political statement.<\/p>\n There was speculation<\/a>, including from\u00a0New York sports-radio personality Joe Benigno, that the timing bothered Johnson, a staunch Israel supporter who served as the United States\u2019 ambassador to the UK during the first Trump administration. A prominent member of the organization, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the topic, told The Athletic that Johnson was incensed by his coach\u2019s fashion choice. Saleh, the NFL\u2019s first Muslim head coach, has declined to comment on whether he thinks the flag display could have played a role in his firing. A Jets spokesperson says that Johnson fired Saleh for performance only and that there is no merit to any claim that the flag patch influenced the owner\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n A year earlier, Bills owner Terry Pegula fired chief operating officer\/executive vice president John Roth and senior VP\/general counsel Kathryn D\u2019Angelo in the immediate aftermath of the team\u2019s 25-20 loss to the Jaguars at Tottenham Hotspur. According to three sources familiar with the decision, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter, word had gotten back to Pegula that the two executives were openly affectionate at various functions, prompting sponsors and other witnesses to voice their concerns about the extramarital affair.<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/GettyImages-83381680.jpg\")
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