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Sports Desk The second regular season NFL game to be played at London's showpiece stadium Wembley saw thousands of Americans traveling to the capital to watch the tie between the New Orleans Saints who beat the San Diego Chargers 37-32.
As a sign of the growing appeal of American football both BBC and Sky Sports broadcast the game live which was attended by a near capacity crowd despite the wet weather.
One fan of the San Diego Chargers Dan Martinez who traveled to London spoke to The London Daily News after the game:
"Despite my team losing I have enjoyed London and look forward to coming back to watch the NFL".
The NFL has attempted in the past to break into Europe and beyond with limited success, the idea according to the FT of having a London franchise is "a distant prospect" with little progress in the planned creation of an NFL academy at Bath University.
Despite this the NFL in the capital has a strong following continuing the work by the London Monarchs in the 1990's when the NFL tried to setup leagues across Europe, but failed. "Incremental progress" is the key according to Roger Goodell the NFL Commissioner for the game to succeed in the UK and Europe.
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