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The Los Angeles Rams played in Detroit Sunday vs. the Detroit Lions and left right from there to go to London for this Sunday’s game against the New York Giants. Taking a different approach, the Giants won’t leave New Jersey until after Thursday’s practice.
Rams coach Jeff Fisher explained the team’s reasoning for leaving from Michigan.
“What would your preference be, to fly to Detroit then go back to LA, then fly 11 hours back to London?,” Fisher said. “I hope that explains it for you. We're almost halfway there. Our operations department has done a great job. We're here and we just finished up a really solid practice. Players are acclimated. It wasn't easy going upstairs and sitting around and clearing customs and having a meal getting on the aircraft. The guys handled it very well. I like where we are right now, guys are bouncing back. By midday tomorrow (Thursday), I think they'll be acclimated to the time change and we'll be good to go.”
Here is Giants coach Ben McAdoo on why the team chose to stay in New Jersey.
“We wanted to get our heavy lifting done early. Get on a normal week at the beginning of the week. Get plenty of rest in and give them an opportunity to get ahead of the game as far as that goes and then battle through our fresh Friday over there,” he said.
Wide receiver Victor Cruz was in London during the summer to promote the sport.
“Oh man, it took me about two days to really get acclimated and adjusted to the time. Mainly because that six hours is a lot of time to make up. Twelve midnight and you are wide awake or it is 12 in the afternoon and you are sleepy, so it is definitely something that is different for us and it will be different for us. But hopefully by the time that settles in, we will have already won the game on Sunday and be on the plane back,” Cruz said.
“I think the plane is important. I think that going to sleep on that plane is going to be one of the biggest things for us because when we land it is going to essentially be 8:30 in the morning. So you want to land and feel like you are just waking up from going to bed the night before and then hopefully you can kind of play not a lot of catch up, but play catch up from there, which is easier to do than landing at 4 p.m. or something weird like that and trying to play it that way.”
Have the Giants made a mistake waiting until later in the week to travel? Personally, I can’t say because it is a trip I have never made. It is, however, an interesting aspect of the buildup to Sunday morning.
Cheers for punts?
Cruz was asked Wednesday if fans in England understand American football.
“That is still up for debate,” he said. “Some of them understand the game, some of them understand what is happening and what is going on. But you might hear a random cheer when Brad Wing kicks a punt or something like that, so you just have to be ready for the random cheers when you see certain things and you look on the field wondering what is happening and it is just a punt. It will be interesting.”