Oakland Raiders coach Jon Gruden compared his nomadic team to The Rolling Stones as they look to bury their London demons in the first NFL game at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this weekend.
The Raiders face the Chicago Bears in the first of four regular season games to be held in London over the next month, with two taking place at Wembley and two at Spurs’ new home.
Gruden’s side put in a woeful display on their last trip to London 12 months ago, when they were hammered 27-3 by the Seattle Seahawks.
On that occasion, they only arrived in the UK on the Friday before the game, preferring to do the bulk of their preparations at home in California.
This year, however, the franchise has taken a completely different approach, making the flight across the Atlantic directly after last weekend’s game against the Colts in Indianapolis, and Gruden believes they will reap the benefits.
“I learned a valuable lesson, and we need a bit more time to get acclimated,” Gruden said. “It was my first time last year coming to London to play football. I made a mistake, and tried to correct it this year. Hopefully, we see that on the field.
“We did everything that we were advised to do. Last year when we came, they did everything that I advised them to do and it didn’t work out. So now we’re actually listening to people who know what they’re doing.”
Even by NFL standards, the Oakland franchise have been hit with a daunting travel schedule in the early part of the season.
With this Sunday’s fixture designated as a ‘home’ game, the Raiders are in the middle of a run of five successive games away from the RingCentral Coliseum, while they also played one of their two ‘home’ preseason games on the road, in Canada.
“We’re really excited to be here and play again in London,” Gruden said. “We like playing on the road. We played in Canada. We’re going to get two chances to play ‘home’ games in foreign countries before October.
“We’re kind of like The Rolling Stones.”
