Cheers

I promise this is the last post about the Giants victory over the Dolphins Sunday in London. (That is unless I come up with something really interesting.) I'd be remiss if I didn't mention that the players were not the only ones affected by the rain and soggy field conditions. The Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders had to perform their well-choreographed routines while wearing short-shorts, boots that I sure were super slippery and far less protective clothing and gear than the players and fans at Wembley. The cheerleaders had no helmets, as did the players. They had no blankets, as did some of the spectators. Still, those girls were troopers and are worthy of our salutes. (I don't even know what that means.)

Field Report

Speaking of the rain and mud in jolly old England Sunday (See below), Paul Schwartz of the New York Post has a sidebar column today about the playing conditions during the Giants/Dolphins game at Wembley Stadium. You can read it here. An excerpt from Schwartz' column is below, and yes, I did fabricate this post simply to put up another pic from the game. Oh, and the N.Y. Post has an uber cool photo gallery from the contest here. Cheerio!

The sun did not shine even once during the Giants' four-day stay here and a steady and at times heavy rain began early yesterday and didn't stop all night. That turned an already-suspect field into a completely-inadequate field and made it a detrimental factor in the Giants' 13-10 victory over the Dolphins.

Any British fans expecting speed and agility instead saw trudging and immobility. The conditions were the same for both sides, of course, but the Giants have far more skilled players on offense and Eli Manning's passing attack was reduced to a soggy wing and no prayer.

Pigskins and Mudders

Brandon Jacobs could have been one of the mudders trotting through on a sloppy track at the Breeders' Cup over the weekend prior to helping the New York American Football Giants score a 13-10 win over the Dolphins Sunday on a mud-caked mess of a pitch at London's Wembley Stadium.

Jacobs took 23 handoffs from quarterback Eli Manning and ran for 131 yards, averaging nearly six yards per carry. A persistent rain fell throughout the game, which was perfect for the G-Men to crank up the running attack. Manning even ran for a TD, while passing for only, get this, 59 yards.

It appeared on TV that many of the fans endured the rain and stuck around through most of the match, wearing jerseys from numerous NFL teams. I even saw a Jets jersey near the end of the game.

Oh, and a lot of media folks are complaining today about the sloppy field conditions and the low scoring, saying the Londoners didn't get a true representation of American football. Just remember fellas, this game was played in England where they love soccer and are used to low scoring affairs.

Adding to that, here's an interesting fact for you to chew on over lunch: The Giants scored 13 points in the game; that's more points than seven English Premier League teams have scored all season. Stick that in your Arsenal.

Bloody Bad Weather Compared With Miami

I can’t believe I’m up late on a Friday night/early Saturday morning writing blog stuff, but I just had to bring to your attention the projected weather conditions for the NFL’s junket across the pond. The Rainout Blog World Headquarters reside in Virginia, but we’re pretty big in England. Anyway, the 0-7 Dolphins play the New York American Football Giants Sunday at London’s Wembley Stadium in what will be the first regular season game in the long history of the NFL to be played outside of North America. The game is listed on the schedule as a Dolphins home game, but the weather at Wembley will not remind anyone of Miami. Plus, and I’m assuming here, there will be no baseball diamond dirt in the middle of the pitch. Kickoff is set for 6 p.m., London time and the forecast calls for a 90 percent chance of light rain throughout the day and evening with low temperatures dipping to about 52 degrees Fahrenheit. Plus winds will be blowing up to 25 mph. The Giants play their home games in a stadium where winds swirl like crazy at times, so conditions in London may work to their advantage.

In this photo we see the best thing about the Dolphins: Cheerleaders. Here the cheer team poses Wednesday outside the Houses of Parliament in London. (AP Photo/Sang Tan)