The NFL at Wembley Stadium

Last night I went to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers/Chicago Bears NFL game played at Wembley Stadium in London.  A few notes:

• I lived in Tampa, FL from 1995 - 2005, and for eight of those years had season tickets for the Bucs.  Though I since moved to Philadelphia, I will always have a fondness for the Buccaneers.  I wore an old Buccaneers jersey #47, John Lynch.
• I went with my friend Mark, who is a Brit who spent a few years in Tampa, and Mark and I went to Bucs games together in Tampa, so don't tell me there's no such thing as karma.
• Wembley Stadium is terrific.  It's full capacity is something like 90,000, though there were 'only' 78,000 at the game last night.  It's spacious and clean, hardly any queueing necessary (except for the cash machine).
• At most British sporting events you are not permitted to eat or drink at your seat (seriously).  This rule is suspended for NFL games.
• Brits and Americans show up at the game wearing the jersey of their favorite NFL teams, not just those playing.  I've never seen such a variety of jerseys, hats, and t-shirts.  Most popular?  Definitely the New England Patriots.
• Some UK folks are quite devoted NFL fans.  On the subway ride home from the game, I chatted with a young Irish fellow who had been a serious Bucs fan for much longer than I ever was.
• Trying to explain American football to someone who is not famliar with it (Mark's son Josh was with us) reminds you how amusingly arbitrary the rules of most sports are. "So if the kickoff goes out of bounds, why don't they put the ball where it went out of bounds?" "Because they put it 30 yards from where it was kicked." "Why?" "Beats me."
• Sharpest observation from Josh: "I can't believe how many players run on and off the field every two minutes."
• Before the game, both "The Star Spangled Banner" and "God Save the Queen" were played.  One difference between American and British sporting events is that they don't normally play the national anthem (any national anthem) before the game starts.  Another difference:  when "God Save the Queen" is played, everyone sings.  78,000 people singing it together is memorable.
• There was a squirrel on the field for much of the first quarter.  No one on the field paid any attention to it (luckily, it was far from the action).  This prompted chants rooting for the squirrel ("first down, squirrel!")
• The people sitting behind us were speaking mostly in German (I think).  So for much of the game I heard "blah blah blah holding....blah blah blah linebacker...blah blah blah why do you throw for four yards when it's third and 15?"
• 70,000 people exiting a game and heading to one subway station sounds like a bad idea.  Given the Brits' skill at crowd control, and their general passivity for queueing, this was no problem at all.
• Earlier in the day, we watched on TV as Manchester City beat Manchester United 6 - 1 at Man. U's home stadium.  Not exactly David beating Goliath, but close to it.  The last time City beat United by that much was 1926.  As Mark is a passionate City fan, this was a historic win for him.  (Footnote:  the Glazer family, who own the Buccaneers, also own Man. United).
• The Bucs need to be more consistent on defense!  They lost after a fierce 4th-quarter rally.