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By JOHN BRANCH
Published: October 27, 2007
COBHAM, England, Oct. 26 — The Giants took to a lush and newly striped field, with a recently erected goal post at one end. It was a temporary conversion of a distant edge of the Chelsea soccer club’s vast training ground, and a couple of soccer players watched the American football players practice.
“Look at the size,” one said.
“Look at No. 96,” said the other, nodding toward the 306-pound defensive tackle Barry Cofield. “He’s got to be the biggest lad, doesn’t he?”
The Giants arrived in London before dawn after their five-and-a-half-hour chartered overnight flight from Newark. They made an immediate impact at touch down — not to be confused with touchdown, although as an American export, the Giants scored plenty of points on their first day in England.
Try as they might to treat this as a normal week, it became immediately apparent Friday that it is anything but.
Having flown across the ocean to play Sunday’s sold-out game against the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium, the N.F.L.’s first regular-season contest outside North America, the Giants were greeted by reporters and cameras at Heathrow Airport.
The team was shuttled to its hotel, along tony Park Lane and across from Hyde Park. After a few meetings, and after tight end Jeremy Shockey took photographs with fans on the sidewalk, the Giants boarded buses for an hourlong, police-escorted drive south across the River Thames, past fields of sheep and into the country.
Dozens more reporters and cameras met the team there, at Chelsea’s training ground. The players, most of whom had never left the United States before and acquired passports for the first time, arrived in their practice uniforms. After some confusion over where to go, most shuffled to a pair of meticulously kept fields that outdid their practice home at Giants Stadium. All the prerequisites were there, from yardage markers to rubber mats to clean the grass from cleats. There were two cherry picker lifts to allow staff to videotape the workout from above, just as at home.
But it was far quieter and quainter, the fields surrounded by trees instead of chain-link fences and parking lots, and minus the soundtrack of jets flying low on their approach to Newark Liberty International Airport.
A few of the top players, including Michael Strahan, Eli Manning and Shaun O’Hara, along with Coach Tom Coughlin, lingered in the parking lot, as they were asked to do, in front of the assembled reporters. The Giants were on display, football players on a paved lot acting like models on a red carpet. The cameras clicked, and the Giants self-consciously spoke to one another and tried to look as if they were not posing.
Coughlin, with an admitted distaste for disruptions to his weekly schedule and a leery eye toward this trip in particular, wore a brave face and made small talk with anyone who came close.
“Tom’s loving this right now,” John Mara, the Giants co-owner, said with sarcasm and a laugh.
There was some sort of photo shoot scheduled for someplace else on the grounds, so the people with cameras headed off and the chosen Giants stuffed themselves into a small van, like clowns into a circus car. The driver needed a heavy foot to set the van in motion. Unsure where to go, he did a broad circle around the lot, with players smashed against the windows, completing the circus effect. Onlookers laughed.
Sleep deprivation took its toll as the short, loose practice began. During a special-teams drill, Antonio Pierce and Plaxico Burress slumped in the seat of a cart. Gibril Wilson carried a cup of coffee, an old-fashioned energy drink, and sipped it on the sideline.
“I thought guys might fall asleep on the field, but they didn’t,” Strahan said later.
Near the sideline, the Giants co-owner Steve Tisch spoke about the N.F.L.’s latest global experiment.
Chipper and rested, Tisch had come to London a couple of days before the team, and had breakfast on Thursday morning with Ken Livingstone, London’s mayor, and Wayne Huizenga, the Dolphins’ owner.
On the way to global dreams of overseas franchises, the league wants to play two games outside the United States next season. Owners are expected to choose those cities this winter. But much of the next step depends on how well Sunday’s game is received.
“Monday morning, everyone will try to get a sense of what this meant,” Tisch said.
After practice, most players grabbed a sack lunch and boarded the buses for the trip back to the hotel. A few of the better-known names stayed on the field for interviews and were quickly surrounded by reporters. A Giants banner was hung on the temporary goal post, and a box was placed on the grass below. Coughlin stood on it and gamely answered questions. All of the Giants, tired and loose, stated their happy willingness to be part ambassador, part pioneer.
Shockey, who has a weakening reputation for carousing, said he had traveled extensively to Central and South America, but never to London. He wanted to see the sights, he said.
“No curfew tonight,” Shockey said, smiling.
Nearby, Strahan entertained reporters drawn by his recognizable name and his broad, gap-toothed smile. He was asked about the effect of jet lag, and he said that the key was to stay awake until bedtime. He did not say what time that would be.
“So if you see me out, just act like you don’t know me,” he said.
He smiled. The cameras clicked.
LINK
Published: October 27, 2007
COBHAM, England, Oct. 26 — The Giants took to a lush and newly striped field, with a recently erected goal post at one end. It was a temporary conversion of a distant edge of the Chelsea soccer club’s vast training ground, and a couple of soccer players watched the American football players practice.
“Look at the size,” one said.
“Look at No. 96,” said the other, nodding toward the 306-pound defensive tackle Barry Cofield. “He’s got to be the biggest lad, doesn’t he?”
The Giants arrived in London before dawn after their five-and-a-half-hour chartered overnight flight from Newark. They made an immediate impact at touch down — not to be confused with touchdown, although as an American export, the Giants scored plenty of points on their first day in England.
Try as they might to treat this as a normal week, it became immediately apparent Friday that it is anything but.
Having flown across the ocean to play Sunday’s sold-out game against the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium, the N.F.L.’s first regular-season contest outside North America, the Giants were greeted by reporters and cameras at Heathrow Airport.
The team was shuttled to its hotel, along tony Park Lane and across from Hyde Park. After a few meetings, and after tight end Jeremy Shockey took photographs with fans on the sidewalk, the Giants boarded buses for an hourlong, police-escorted drive south across the River Thames, past fields of sheep and into the country.
Dozens more reporters and cameras met the team there, at Chelsea’s training ground. The players, most of whom had never left the United States before and acquired passports for the first time, arrived in their practice uniforms. After some confusion over where to go, most shuffled to a pair of meticulously kept fields that outdid their practice home at Giants Stadium. All the prerequisites were there, from yardage markers to rubber mats to clean the grass from cleats. There were two cherry picker lifts to allow staff to videotape the workout from above, just as at home.
But it was far quieter and quainter, the fields surrounded by trees instead of chain-link fences and parking lots, and minus the soundtrack of jets flying low on their approach to Newark Liberty International Airport.
A few of the top players, including Michael Strahan, Eli Manning and Shaun O’Hara, along with Coach Tom Coughlin, lingered in the parking lot, as they were asked to do, in front of the assembled reporters. The Giants were on display, football players on a paved lot acting like models on a red carpet. The cameras clicked, and the Giants self-consciously spoke to one another and tried to look as if they were not posing.
Coughlin, with an admitted distaste for disruptions to his weekly schedule and a leery eye toward this trip in particular, wore a brave face and made small talk with anyone who came close.
“Tom’s loving this right now,” John Mara, the Giants co-owner, said with sarcasm and a laugh.
There was some sort of photo shoot scheduled for someplace else on the grounds, so the people with cameras headed off and the chosen Giants stuffed themselves into a small van, like clowns into a circus car. The driver needed a heavy foot to set the van in motion. Unsure where to go, he did a broad circle around the lot, with players smashed against the windows, completing the circus effect. Onlookers laughed.
Sleep deprivation took its toll as the short, loose practice began. During a special-teams drill, Antonio Pierce and Plaxico Burress slumped in the seat of a cart. Gibril Wilson carried a cup of coffee, an old-fashioned energy drink, and sipped it on the sideline.
“I thought guys might fall asleep on the field, but they didn’t,” Strahan said later.
Near the sideline, the Giants co-owner Steve Tisch spoke about the N.F.L.’s latest global experiment.
Chipper and rested, Tisch had come to London a couple of days before the team, and had breakfast on Thursday morning with Ken Livingstone, London’s mayor, and Wayne Huizenga, the Dolphins’ owner.
On the way to global dreams of overseas franchises, the league wants to play two games outside the United States next season. Owners are expected to choose those cities this winter. But much of the next step depends on how well Sunday’s game is received.
“Monday morning, everyone will try to get a sense of what this meant,” Tisch said.
After practice, most players grabbed a sack lunch and boarded the buses for the trip back to the hotel. A few of the better-known names stayed on the field for interviews and were quickly surrounded by reporters. A Giants banner was hung on the temporary goal post, and a box was placed on the grass below. Coughlin stood on it and gamely answered questions. All of the Giants, tired and loose, stated their happy willingness to be part ambassador, part pioneer.
Shockey, who has a weakening reputation for carousing, said he had traveled extensively to Central and South America, but never to London. He wanted to see the sights, he said.
“No curfew tonight,” Shockey said, smiling.
Nearby, Strahan entertained reporters drawn by his recognizable name and his broad, gap-toothed smile. He was asked about the effect of jet lag, and he said that the key was to stay awake until bedtime. He did not say what time that would be.
“So if you see me out, just act like you don’t know me,” he said.
He smiled. The cameras clicked.
LINK
