NFL reportedly moving London games back to 1 p.m., which is quite boring

NFL regular-season games in London have virtually no benefit for fans in the United States who have turned the league into a $13 billion-a-year business. Since it takes a home game away from the regular fan base, London games are actually nothing but a negative for U.S. fans.

The early start for the games changed that. With 9:30 a.m. Eastern time starts in London, fans who wanted to could catch an extra football game on a Sunday. That was a pretty fun benefit.

So much for that.

Joe Flint of the Wall Street Journal said the London games will be played at the normal 1 p.m. ET time again starting next season, according to a source with knowledge of the matter. So not only do home fans get a game taken from them, and their team has to play an unbalanced schedule with only seven true home games, NFL fans here don’t have even one reason to get the least bit excited about games in London.

But there’s money to (supposedly) be made by shipping out regular-season games to other countries as the NFL tries to reach its arbitrary $25 billion a year revenue goal. So the International Series isn’t ending. Now the London games will just blend in with the other seven or eight 1 p.m. starts on a few Sundays a season. There is nothing special about the London games anymore.

The NFL might be worried about over-saturation, causing the shift of the London games, but they’re ignoring a more easily fixable issue. “Thursday Night Football” has been widely panned, but the NFL said recently they’re fully committed to Thursday night games.

So it seems like we’ll keep getting Thursday night games, but no more early starts on Sunday from London. Oh well. Was fun while it lasted.

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Frank Schwab is the editor of Shutdown Corner on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at shutdown.corner@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!
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