2013 NFL Draft Party was fun!

It feels like an eternity since we saw some real live NFL action. The 2013 NFL schedule was announced last week, which got me very excited for some potential road trips, and now with the draft it is all about the strengthening the teams.

Dani, the American football loving promoter of Latino Heat Entertainment decided to throw the only London based NFL Draft Bash, which was held at the No 1 Sports Bar in Moorgate, East London. 

2013 Ultimate NFL Road trip schedule.

Since my fantastic NFL Roadtrip in 2008 I have always put together a similar road trip route, for other would be trippers. As of 2012, Roger Goodell has installed Thursday Night games from week 1 to week 16, which really opens up the possibilities for NFL road tripping fans.

I have put in a few rules for the season long trip. The road tripper has to go to every NFL stadium, which includes games in London and Toronto. They have to see each team play at home once and on the whole they should drive, it's the Tailgater way.

Below I have created a great looking 17 week schedule including 41 games. Some teams you will see twice, and there is a fair bit of flexibility with this year’s schedule. Although this year allows for up to 6 Sundays where a fan can see 2 NFL teams on one day, I have not used these games in this schedule, but you can see them here.

6 magic Sundays: You can see 2 NFL games in 1 day!

The 2013 NFL Schedule has thrown up a wonderful 6 amazing NFL Sundays where a fan with a car can see not just one but TWO NFL games on the same day!

When I did my NFL road trip back in 2008 I was hopping for such luck, but the schedule never worked out like that.

Below are the 6 Magic NFL Sundays.

Come to the NFL Draft Party in London...April 25!

After the success of other NFL based events, Dani the promoter of Latino Heat Entertainment, and one of the best dressed non sports players in the country is putting together a fun night for NFL fans in London on the NFL draft night.

Not only is the night completely free, but it will be filled with lots of interactive games and fun prizes to be had, and to top it off I will be hosting the night. To be honest I am a little nervous because the glamorous Skysports cameras will be present. 

The Draft Party will be at the No1 Sports bar in Moorgate, London and doors open at 10pm. For those that haven’t been, it is a great fun venue. We will also be doing a mock draft competition, so you have plenty of time to study before the big night on April 25!

For more info about the night go click here 

Hope to see y’all there!

Superbowl bash and my final signing of the season

When the San Francisco 49ers and Baltimore Ravens lock horns this Sunday night for Superbowl 43, it will not only mark the end of a wonderful football season, but the end of my Tailgate To Heaven, book tour for this season.

The book tour has been incredibly fun and I have not only met many wonderful fans, but it has been a truly unique experience to be able to promote my book in fun environments such as sports bars and tailgate parties.


For this last hoorah of the year, I will be at the No 1 Sports Bar in London, which is my new favourite place to watch the NFL. Not only does it have lots of T.Vs, including a rather large projector screen, snazzy booths downstairs, decent food, but the round shape of the place makes it very easy to socialise in while watching the game.

My friend and promoter extraordinaire, Dani, is putting on the night, while my friends over at Tuesday Morning Podcast (@TMFootballuk) are hosting. They have the best American football podcast in the country!

We will be making the whole event as much fun as possible, with some goodies to be won, including a signed copy of my book, beer pong will be played and other fun tailgating style activities will be enjoyed by all before we all kick back and watch the grand finale of the season...I hope to see y'all there!

Championship games and party!

I am really excited about tonight's two monster Championship games. The 49ers go to Atlanta in the battle of the NFC and then the Ravens go to the Patriots in the AFC, a re-match of last year's AFC championship game.

I will be watching this affair at the Championship Bash party, at the No 1 Sports Bar in Moorgate, London, alongside the legend that is Mike Carlson, the fab trio that make up the Tuesday Morning Football podcast and the delightful duo from the North London 40 podcast.

BTB 21: My speech at PFUFA Enshrinement 2012

It was our last day at the Hall of Fame, and it was another early start. We headed over to the Pro Football Hall of Fame for the PFUFA breakfast. This is the last piece of the PFUFA re-union puzzle, where all of the potential veterans that had made it into PFUFA this weekend were to make a speech. 

Our Hall of Fame parking pass was only good for Friday and Saturday. This was a Sunday and early so I thought free parking would be easy, but the car parks were fairly filled up and costly even though the 1st pre-season game of the season was twelve hours away, which was going to be played at the adjacent stadium, Fawcett Stadium.

We were running late and the rain was pouring down. We found a car park that was pretty far from the hall, but the nice man in the lot, let us park for free as we were only going to be at the hall for a few hours. 

Cindy “The Purple Dame” had phoned me a couple of times en-route asking about our whereabouts, and with all this bad planning, I had not even thought about what I was going to say in my speech, other than a hearty, “Go Bears!”

NFL coaching turntable

"Black Monday" (the Monday after the last day of the regular season) saw a host of NFL coaches and GMs fired from their clubs. Most notably, Lovie Smith from the Bears and Andy Reid of the Philadelphia Eagles were canned. Rather surprisingly Jet's, head coach, Rex Ryan was oddly not fired after his team did not make the playoffs.

Even stranger, it has been noted that Rex Ryan has a rather fetching tattoo on his arm of his wife wearing a Jets top with the no 6, and whose number is that? None other Jet's under performing QB, Mark Sanchez. 

BTB 20: I made it into PFUFA and celebrated with a Philly Cheese Steak!

We left the Hall of fame on a complete high. To be honest I didn't want to leave. I wanted to hide behind the jerseys and see if any one would pick up my book, which was next to Tim Tebow's.  Like a newbie tailgater who wants people to try his new dip, I just wanted to see people's reactions to my book. 

Steph had enough of my self indulgence and we rushed back to the hotel for some tailgating. When we got to the garden, the PFUFA crew were grilling, but the tone was very much more relaxed than the night before, this felt more like an after-after party. Maybe everyone was all puffed out from the 6am start this morning and the 2.5 mile walk and the charity tent. 

BTB 19: My book is next to Tebow's at the Hall of Fame!!

Just as were packing up our things from the end of the signing at the Hall of Fame, Michelle, the manager of the shop asked me if the hall could buy several signed copies off me. Well I was gobsmacked. She told me that she hard to create an SKU code to put it on the system and that may take a while. She told us to go and explore the hall some more and come back in an hour or so.

Steph had another good long look at all the diamond encrusted Superbowl rings, before taking some snaps of us by the Lombardi trophy (Tebow Style) and the Gatorade dump. We (or rather I) spent a looong time in the shop, and rather smartly Steph took my credit card so I couldn’t spend my money…usually it is the other way round.