The NFL made two big announcements for sports travel fans yesterday. First, the Chargers and Saints will play at Wembley Stadium in London on Sunday, October 26, 2008. Second, the Buffalo Bills will play an annual game in Toronto for the next 5 years.

If both of these games were one offs, there would be no desire to travel to see the games. However, since the Bills are playing an annual contest in Toronto and this will be the second game played at Wembley Stadium; both stadiums hit the “required to attend” list.

From January 17, 2008
I am already noising around about the next NFL game overseas. If you remember, London hosted the first NFL game outside of North America on October 28, 2007 (I chose to attend the semi-finals of the Rugby World Cup in Paris on October 14 instead).

The NFL announced today that the 2nd game outside of North America will also be held in Britain (either in London or Wales). In and of itself this is not too interesting, except for the fact that Britain’s one time colony is now trying to colonize American sports on their home turf.

What makes this story most appealing is the subtext of it all. England is so obsessed with the “real football” that they are suggesting that England failed to qualify for Euro Cup 2008 because of the NFL game back in late October. Check back around Super Bowl weekend for finalized details.