The first 40,000 tickets that were made available for the NFL’s second overseas regular-season game on October 26 at Wembley Stadium in London, England between the San Diego Chargers and New Orleans Saints sold today in 90 minutes. The tickets were available to fans who were randomly selected from an overwhelming number of registered ticket requests. Today’s sales at Ticketmaster matched the pace at which tickets were bought for last year’s game between the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants. Because of the demand for tickets, the NFL has released an additional 5,000 tickets to go on sale immediately. There has also been an increase in the number of tickets that will be offered in the second sale of tickets to fans who registered in February when the game was first announced.

Last year’s Wembley game was such a huge success that the NFL has committed to playing at least one game in the UK for each of the next three seasons, beginning with this year’s matchup of teams who have each come within one game of reaching the Super Bowl in the past two seasons. The Saints’ Reggie Bush and the Chargers’ LaDainian Tomlinson are scheduled to make a promotional visit to London next month.

Post from: Every Morning Quarterback

NFL International: 40K Tickets in 90 Minutes

Forgive me for not being more excited about an historic moment for the National Football League today. In a few hours, the Miami Dolphins will “host” the N.Y. Giants in the first-ever regular season NFL game played outside North America. There will be 86,000 fans at Wembley Stadium. The game will be seen in 215 countries and 39 broadcast partners will carry it around the globe in 21 languages. But do international football (not futbol) fans think they’re getting the best the NFL has to offer? The game looks like a stinker. The Dolphins come in at 0-7 without their number one quarterback (Trent Green, injury); number one running back (Ronnie Brown, injury); and number one wide receiver (Chris Chambers, he plays in San Diego now) and are this loss away from “mailing it in” for the 2007 season.

As I look through this weekend’s games, this has to stand out as — ok, I’ll say it — this much-heralded “event” is the worst game on this NFL weekend’s schedule. I mean, Cleveland at St. Louis is a close second, but it’s too bad the NFL can’t give the world its best available product today.

Post from: Every Morning Quarterback

London Calling: N.Y. Giants, Miami Dolphins