The NFL jetted another regular-season game across the Atlantic Sunday, and for the 19th straight year, the league expects American fans to pretend that exporting their sport to a country that doesn't care about it is somehow good for them. The Colts beat the Commanders 30-13 in London, a game that belonged in Indianapolis or Washington — not in a soccer stadium 3,500 miles from either fan base.
This isn't exhibition season. These are real games with real standings implications, and the league keeps shipping them overseas to chase a global audience that hasn't materialized in nearly two decades. Former running back turned stadium hype man Ronde Barber called London the NFL's "home away from home" before kickoff — a telling phrase that reveals where the league's loyalties actually sit.
The game itself was a rout compounded by bad luck. Washington was already without starting quarterback Jayden Daniels, who's recovering from a dislocated elbow, according to the New York Post. Then backup Marcus Mariota — fresh off leading a surprise win over the reigning Super Bowl-champion Seahawks last week — left with a knee injury in the first quarter after getting hit by the Colts' Adetomiwa Adebawore and Laiatu Latu. That left the Commanders in the hands of seventh-round rookie Athan Kaliakmanis out of Rutgers, a 23-year-old making his first professional appearance.
Kaliakmanis showed flashes — a 47-yard touchdown strike to Treylon Burks cut the deficit to 17-13 in the third quarter, and an 87-yard touchdown to Antonio Williams was wiped out by an illegal shift penalty, according to The Guardian. But a rookie third-stringer forced into action thousands of miles from home is no recipe for competitive football.
Jonathan Taylor did the heavy lifting for Indianapolis, running for two touchdowns and 95 yards while Colts quarterback Daniel Jones put up a dismal stat line: 19-for-34, 143 yards, no touchdowns, one interception, and a lost fumble. NBC Sports noted that questions remain about Jones, who "was not impressive throwing the ball." The Colts improved to 2-2; the Commanders fell to 1-3 with no clarity on who starts under center next week against the Giants.
Commanders wide receiver Jaylin Lane was also carted off with an ankle injury on a kickoff return and ruled out — the kind of attrition that stings more when your team is playing a home game on another continent.
The Guardian framed the London game with cheerful boosterism — "the NFL's home away from home" — while NBC Sports and the Post focused on the injury carnage. None of the three outlets bothered to ask the obvious question: why is a league built by American fans on American soil treating regular-season games like export goods?
Nineteen years of this experiment, and the NFL still can't point to a British fan base that rivals a mid-market American city. But the globalist push continues — because the people calling the shots don't answer to the stands, they answer to the boardroom.
