 This is the OTP, presented by FAR Bureau Health Plans. Providing Tennesseans with health care coverage for 76 years, visit FBHP.com to learn about our history in the volunteer state and, to get a quote, that's FBHP.com. I'm Mike Keith, pleased to be joined by Neil Reynolds of Sky Sports, NFL in England. Thank you so much for taking time to join us. My pleasure, Mike. Thanks for having me. We're right in the middle of all these London games now and, yeah, just so exciting to have everybody's attention in the NFL on the UK and on London. It's always a special time of year. Why does October make so much sense for the games to be in the UK? I just think it becomes, it's become part of the sports scene here. I don't think it was by design. I think it just happened and then it happened again and then again and again. And because the NFL has grown and has really laid down foundations in the UK. This has been the month when, you know, the same way you'd have the season kickoff in September, Thanksgiving in November. I think people expect to see international games and London games in October. So no grand design, just a kind of testament to how we've become a part of the NFL landscape now. You've been talking about the NFL since 1991, long before anyone got the idea that there would be games played in London on a regular basis and that it would become part of the fabric of the NFL, which it is now. Why did you get so interested in the NFL so early? So I was a I was just a fan, saw it on Channel 4. There was just there were only four channels in the UK. Then it was one of the channels that was showing highlights of the NFL. There was a curly head rookie by the name of Dan Marino, where everyone was getting excited about. I kind of that piqued my interest and my passion for the NFL began there. So I played for 10 years. I played in the British League as a tight end and then was a journalist by trade. And so put the two together, put my passion and my work together. And yeah, I started writing for various publications and found my way onto BBC Radio and then found myself presenting the NFL on Sky Sports, which has been an absolute dream job. Yeah, you've been there for 12 years. So the run is going well. Did you have to convince media early on that it was worth bringing you in to cover and discuss the National Football League? Yes, I think you know, Sky have been a great broadcaster for the NFL. But early on there was, you know, it was always a battle. You're always trying to as a writer, you're a battling for column inches and battling to get that space in any newspaper. But it's just grown to the point where it's such a sophisticated fan base now. And it wasn't always like that. You know, I covered NFL Europe games. I worked in the NFL Europe League. We would have games at Crystal Palace in South London, where Kurt Warner was trotting onto the field for the Amsterdam Admirals. And there were 2,000 people there, 1,500 people there. And here we are now, you know, selling out games at Wembley Stadium, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium with a purpose built NFL venue. And I couldn't have dreamed of it when I first started covering the league. We are excited to be playing at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. You mentioned that it was a purpose built NFL stadium with the football pitch and the NFL pitch that they can switch in and out. And we've learned about that this week as we've discussed it. How big a step in the development and moving forward was it to have a stadium built with the purpose specifically of not only the fields, but the press box, the locker rooms, everything designed for the first time ever outside the US for an NFL game. Yeah, I'd say there were a few kind of steps along the way to where we are right now. And I think the first one was the games being played in the first place in 2007 when we started then playing multiple games per year in 2013. But the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium is a significant development and a significant step. The Premier League is so powerful in its own right. And each of those teams, like an NFL team, you're so focused on your own business. Tottenham Hotspur could have built that stadium just with Tottenham Hotspur in mind, but they didn't. They wanted the NFL to come to town. They went to New York. They spoke to the commissioner. They spoke to the NFL. What can we do to make you guys come every year? And what it gives us is tremendous flexibility. We know we've always got two games per year at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. Then the Jags can go and negotiate their own deal and play a game at Wembley. You know, the Pittsburgh Steelers could go and play in Ireland. The 49ers might go and play in Leeds. You know, I mean, there's always those extra possibilities for the teams to negotiate their own things. But the NFL knows they've got two games per year through the 2029-2030 season. And yeah, it has been truly incredible. Do you think that is another step towards having a permanent NFL team in the UK? Yeah, I think we're genuinely... All we can do is lay the table and the fan base, you know, the games sell out in minutes. You know, the people that were in the queue for games this year to buy tickets across Europe was more than a million people. We have broadcast deals that are in place. We have government support. We have two world-class stadiums in Wembley and, of course, Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. So everything is set for whenever that happens. You know, a team might get disgruntled here or disgruntled there or just feel that London is an opportunity. All that the UK can do is lay the table, be ready. And I think we are ready. I think there's enough support here. There's enough infrastructure here that if a team wanted to move here and have a franchise, they could do so next season and they would be a success. Neil Reynolds, when did you start to believe that was a real possibility? I think it was when we started to play multiple games and started to sell out game after game. And, you know, with I know that that sometimes will upset or antagonize people in the US, the NFL is very American. It's the most American sports league there is. But they are wanting to be global and we sell out every time we have a game. There's not an empty seat. With respect, you can't always say that about every NFL franchise. So I would argue that geography shouldn't be our barrier. You know, the fans here deserve it. They deserve a game. They deserve games in London as much as they do in LA. So I think once we saw game after game after game and here we are now with three games in the UK, two in Germany in 2023. And there's no sign of it slowing down. There's no no lethargy at all. It's just getting stronger and stronger, the passion for this game. You know, I want to ask you when the team started playing over there in 2007, the kind of chuckle in the United States was that everyone there would cheer the most when the kickers and punters came out. That is obviously no longer the case. When did that start to turn in terms of the sort of the understanding and the fan base really starting to get the game in a much more dramatic way? So I would say. That's a narrative that's been out there that or they cheered for the punts in 2007. They cheered for the punts in 2008. Trust me, that was a sophisticated crowd in 2007. Now, there may have been some ironic cheers or there may have been some people that were new to the game. And look, there are always people that are new coming in to this sport. But I'd say this this for a long, long time has been a really knowledgeable market because for a long time you had to really work to get your NFL coverage. You had to be a real fan to find stuff. Now it's much more much more prevalent. And actually we get we show on Sky Sports. We show Thursday Night Football Live. We have three games on a Sunday night when I'm in the studio for eight or nine hours live. We'll have Monday Night Football Live. All the NFL Network programming is available. Good morning, football, pro football talk. We have it all on British television. Waterwall on the Sky Sports NFL channel. So whether you're in Manchester or Miami, London or Liverpool or Los Angeles, you can watch the same program. So it's I think we've always had a knowledgeable fan base. We've got more with Neil Reynolds coming up from Sky Sports NFL. But first, we'll remind you that Seat Geek is now the official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans. If you haven't heard the name yet, get used to it because you're going to hear a lot more of it. Whether you're buying or selling tickets to Titans Games or any other event in Nashville, Seat Geek is the place to do it. Seat Geek, the new official ticketing partner of the Tennessee Titans, where Titans fans can fan. Neil Reynolds has been called the Rich Eisen of the NFL and of NFL coverage in the UK. That's quite a compliment because Rich is very good and he makes a lot of money. Is your role somewhat like his on Sky Sports NFL? So it's a little bit of Rich Eisen. It's a little bit of Scott Hanson and then it's a little bit of just guiding people through analysis. So we start with a one hour pregame buildup, which is just looking ahead to the games around the league like Game Day Morning on NFL Network. Then we feel, obviously, there's quite a few commercial breaks in US TV coverage. We will fill those. We will fill those with rolling analysis of the game. So the first 30 seconds will be me taking people around the league with red zone updates. So I'm voicing touchdowns here and there. And then I'm with my pundits, my analysts who are in the studio. At the moment, we're working with and Domaking Sue is over for a month with us. And so then my job is to ask them questions about what they've seen in the game. We'll analyze a bit of the action, then we'll go back to the game. So so it's a kind of it's an all encompassing role. I also approach the whole thing as my role is also to grow the sport. And to make the sport as accessible as possible. So we try and make it as easy to digest and easy to understand. We don't dumb it down. You know, we still have our players talk X's and O's and talk about all the ins and outs of the game. But, you know, we want people to to enjoy the superstars of this sport. So we will absolutely show Joe Burrow arriving at the stadium and seeing what suit he's wearing because people want to know that stuff. They want to see we will absolutely show Taylor Swift banging on the glass at our head stadium. It's all part of it. So, yeah, the more people we can get on this NFL journey with us, the better. Isn't that the advantage of your background and everyone there's background in media with the Premier League and the way it is covered that royalty goes, superstars go. They they date the biggest stars. It's everything for those communities. And the NFL is just starting to cover itself that way. Now you already get that, don't you? Yeah, it's a it's a show. It's an entertainment business, you know, and the NFL is the best soap opera there is, you know, from comebacks and upset wins. You never know on a Sunday night when you when that first ball kicks into the air at 6 p.m. UK time. You never know what's going to happen over the next 11 hours or so. And you don't know which celebrities are going to turn up. I mean, week three of this season was the perfect example. There were there were upset wins. There were comebacks. Suddenly we're seeing a clip on the off the internet of a New York Jets fans teeth falling out, where he's so angry with the team. The next thing we're seeing Taylor Swift. You know, so that's the beauty of the NFL. And we do get that. We get that there's enough time in our show because we're on for so long and we feel so many minutes of those games, those nights. There's time for us to be serious and there's also time to just have some fun. The Premier League is taking off over here. How much do you think it relates to the sort of the building with the NFL being over there and the fact that with the internet, we're so much more connected. There's a better understanding of soccer here, your football, and there's a better understanding of the NFL over there. I think what it does is just kind of reemphasizes that every sport can be global now and that it's it's a lot easier. Everything's much more connected. And I tell you where it helps as well with the NFL making some noise over here when JJ Watt is one of the owners of Burnley, you know, things like that. Malcolm Jenkins got involved as well with a little bit of that. You know, I interviewed Bijan Robinson at the draft before he went into the NFL and he wanted to talk about Liverpool. You know, the players of the NFL are more interested in the Premier League. And so then we can drop those little bits of information and it makes media here pay more attention to that. World smaller, no doubt about it. I want to ask you, too, was there a football moment that hit a player, a game, a team, something that happened in London that you you felt the turn dramatically, not just the games being there, but a football moment. Yeah, I think I think the the first game the Jags won. So the Jacksonville Jaguars were the first team to kind of commit to playing in London, year in and year out. And then they've been leading the way in that and have grown their fan base because of it. They lost their first couple of games in London. Then they played the Buffalo Bills 2015. They jumped out to a big lead and the Jags have been struggling coming into London and they jumped out to a big lead and Buffalo chipped away, chipped away. And they they took a late lead. Buffalo led with like four or five minutes left. And then there was a play with about a minute and a half, two minutes left. Blake Bortles threw a pass to a dive in Alan Herne's full stretch at the goal line for the touchdown to give the Jags their first win in London and the place erupted. It was it was sensational. So that's one. The other one that I think is just really special to me was the Falcons and Jets in 2021. So obviously we had no games in London in 2020 because of covid. So the National Anthems finish. It's been 707 days since the NFL has been in London. And then the the F 15 fighter jets fly over the stadium and you just think the NFL is back and the place that the atmosphere was electric. It was it was fantastic. So yeah, there's so many special moments. It's hard to believe it was 16 years ago, the first game. And here we are now with three. And I can't believe you came on a Titans program and said something nice about the Jaguars. I apologize. You are an honest and a brave man to do that. Who's the most popular American football player in the UK? So if you do, I call it the taxi driver test. If you were going to get into a taxi, I think everyone would most likely first of all go to Tom Brady. Now that's cheating because he's now technically retired. I think Patrick Mahomes is going that way in terms of becoming a global star. Odell Beckham transcends sport and couldn't actually couldn't walk down a street in London. I've seen him get mobbed in London in a street. I've seen him get mobbed in Germany. He's just got that kind of cool it factor. He's a genuine, genuine star. But yeah, I think Mahomes Mahomes would be the gold standard now. And well, I say that it's going to be Travis Kelsey surely. Right. Everyone knows he Travis Kelsey. Travis is doing OK right now in a lot of ways. What are the what do fans in the UK think of Derek Henry? So they have I mean, we kind of we've got our own king now, but you've had a king for years. You know, we've only just had in Charles for for, you know, just over 12, 12, 13 months. They they recognize him as one of the true stars. And he's one of those that will again, slightly transcend the sport because he will you will go viral every now and then with, you know, when he sent Josh Norman flying, you know, that those kind of things. So yeah, Derek Derek is undoubtedly one of the but us as we watch among American football fans last five, six, seven years, one of the absolute stars of the league and still somebody who, you know, I've covered a lot of players over a lot of years kind of defies logic. How can you be a defensive end sized running back and run away from everyone? I mean, he is a genuine home run threat to score from anywhere on the field. So yeah, he's right out there, isn't he? What are the thought processes there on the Titans? What do fans in the UK talk about when they discuss Mike Wrabel's team? Toughness, you get, you're always going to get a gritty team. You're going to get a tough team. They're never going to roll over. But I do think at times it's, you know, it's it can be there are highs on offense, but there's not consistency at the moment. But I think it's a team that knows its identity. You know, you always talk about teams that don't quite figure out who they are. The Titans know who they are and they are always going to be tough. They're always going to be well coached. They're going to be ready. It doesn't mean they're going to win every week, but they're going to be ready. And actually, they've done quite a lot of winning because of that approach. OK, so we're the home team Sunday at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. We're playing Baltimore. Please don't tell me Baltimore is more popular than we are. No, no, I wouldn't say that. No, I think it's I think I was probably a tie. Yeah, although they do have Odell Beckham. I just I did just I just you did throw that at there. It's a OBJ in that. No, I think I think the Titans are one of those teams that are, you know, I think have been helped by the the reaching the championship game, having players like Derek Henry being being in that playoff mix, you know, three of Coach Vrabel's first four years. So yeah, they're not they're not the most popular team in the in the UK, but they're certainly growing the numbers and they won't be. They won't be outshouted by by Ravens fans. So yeah, I think it's probably going to be a mixed crowd. And then what happens as well? Of course, you have all those different player fans that come from you know, all across and they're wearing all the different jerseys and they'll randomly pick a side and you don't know what what their mood, what mood it might just be or if it's got the ball. It might be a favorite player of theirs. It's kind of it's been described as a super ball atmosphere. I'm sure you remember it from last time. It's great. It's an absolute coming together of the NFL community. That's what is one of the most special things. All the different jerseys. Everyone sitting there having a good time appreciating the fact that the NFL is in our in our backyard. More with Neil Reynolds from Sky Sports NFL from the UK. But first, a word from our good friends at Duncan. It's always game on with Duncan. So grab a coffee and kick off the action, whether that's drinking a cup of coffee on your way to the game. We're drinking one at home. Duncan is always there to help you get your game on. Just like the pros, we need to be at our best at game time, which is why Duncan is the most important part of your game day ritual because it's always the best call for football. America runs on Duncan. Let's go back to Neil Reynolds from Sky Sports NFL. OK, I want to ask you. I deal with Mike Vrabel multiple times every week. Neil Reynolds has had a chance to deal with Mike Vrabel. What it's like? What is it like for you to deal with the Titans head coach? So I really enjoyed our chat this week. And I tell you what caught me off guard at the start is that we arranged the time for the for the zoom interview. And I was expecting one of the PR guys to come on first and then to say, here's coach. And so I'm sitting there. I'm kind of making some notes. I'm kind of wait, just waiting for the zoom to start. And I kind of look up and there's Coach Vrabel. I was like, OK, and I sat up a little bit straighter. And I thought, here we go. But it was really good. I tell you what was good. It was he talked about the things he learned as a as a player and how much he can then help his players. And so I was writing, I was writing, I edit all the game day magazines for the London games and the Germany games. And so I was writing the story about Coach Vrabel today. And I thought, if you think about him as a player, he was tough, intelligent, reliable, a winner. And I think they are all beacons that guide his coaching career as well. So it's just fascinating to see his journey. And I was very, very impressed with him because I was I got this kind of hard exterior of a coach. And then I think back and then he talked about how much he cares about his players, how much he's put has walked in their shoes. I think back to the the scenes in the tunnel last year with Ben Jones. So you got this he's a bit like a toffee. You have toffees in America. Oh, yeah. Really hard on the outside and then soft and chewy in the middle. Yeah, I don't know that I'm going to call him there to his face, but he really is. He really is some kind of good guy. I don't think he always wants people to know it, but he really is that good. How do you think this time around is going to be different for him to play in the UK than when he coached in his first year in 2018? I think I think any time you come over, you get more comfortable with you have that uncertainty of the travel. I know that's still a big thing in the minds of coaches. When do we come? When don't we come? Do we come early? Do we come late? There's been no correlation to arrival time to wins and losses. It's when the ball goes into the air, it's it's football and it's whoever the best team is who makes the least mistakes. So I think that I think he seemed very fired up about playing at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. He'd seen the he'd seen the the stadium. He enjoyed the British fans. So I think they're probably just being more of a comfort level. He said he enjoyed everything about the experience, apart from the two point conversion. So if they put that bit right, then they can have a good trip. Yes, and Derek Henry certainly playing a lot better this time than he was when they came last time. All right, speaking of that, a lot of Titans fans are coming over. They are so excited to be part of this whole adventure. If they've got to do one thing in London outside of the obvious, what does Neil Reynolds recommend? Well, I would say I think I really enjoy even I do this for my family sometimes either two things. You can either get on the boat and go up the River Thames and you'll see a lot of the sights there. This is so touristy, but I actually still do. We still do we live 45 minutes from London. We'll do it every now and then you get on the open top bus and you do the whole city tour because I just it's just you do it in a couple of hours. You can hop on and hop off and London is even we when we do it as a family and we live, like I say, 45 minutes and we go into London and you see parts of the city. You know, you go from the huge skyscrapers in the financial district to tiny little lanes and little streets. And it is a wonderful city. That's the way to see all of it, you know. And yeah, stop off in a pub or two. We're going to do that. I mean, hey, we're from Tennessee. Come on, we've got that in common. We're not afraid. Thank you so much for doing this. Neil Reddles, look forward to seeing you as the Titans head to London to take on the Baltimore Ravens at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. We appreciate your time. Thank you, Mike. Neil, it has been a pleasure. Look forward to seeing you this weekend. That's Neil Reddles from Sky Sports NFL, joining us on this edition of the O.T.