Custom toilet seats, the Taylor Swift effect and more, Head of NFL London reveals why EU games are lower-scoring

The advanced game line is 43.5 points over/under, with the Colts favoured by 2. However, with two perennially low-scoring teams heading into Germany for Week 10 all signs point to an under 35-point game.

The reason behind these low scoring EU games? Could it be a strange new field, first-time passports, weird plugs, no Popeye’s Chicken, and possibly even… smaller toilets? Well, wonder no more as the Head of NFL London, Wade McElwain, has revealed some of the main reasons ahead of Sunday’s game to Sportsboom.

Over the past 6 seasons the average game point score in the NFL is 47.5 points a game. However, the London games in this same period have yielded only an average point score of 40.5 points, and Germany 32 points in their two games. In the three 2023 London games, they averaged only 38 points per game, with many points coming off punts.

There will always be the question of player fatigue and unfamiliarity that will affect the bottom line, but there are a lot more reasons (and some bizzare ones too) behind poor performance than just fatigue.

The NFL games in Europe have been consistently delivering lower scores than US games, and yet prognosticators and pundits haven’t been picking up on this trend. The full list can be found on the Sportboom site here or you can keep reading for more saucy NFL secrets.

So why are NFL Europe games so low-scoring? McElwain of Sportsboom answers that question below.

Young Men Travelling

With the average age of an NFL player being 26, that doesn’t give many of these young men much life travel experience when their whole life up to this point has been football. So, getting a passport, getting on a plane to a different country, with different customs, rules, sizes and food can be a bit of culture shock.

Not to mention these guys also have to tell their cell phone and credit card companies that they are going, and suddenly a fun trip abroad turns into a slug fest. Oh and the time change.All of these things affect a players mojo, and their ability to get into training routine and ready for the game.

Toilet Talk

One thing many North Americans notice about Europe is the difference in the commode. It’s not as big, with flimsy lids, and thin little toilet paper.

NFL teams who travel here have noticed this, and have resorted to bringing up to 500 rolls per week in anticipation of a heavy workload. Given the girth and plunge of many of these large lads, some team supply managers even have to head to Home Depot before the flight to snag some heavy duty toilet seats. It sounds silly, but imagine having to pull bits of broken toilet seat from a 300 pound man.

Dirty Laundry

North Americans take their laundry seriously, and having the right settings, temperatures and starches are key to making a uniform looking crisp. What, you didn’t know that NFL teams have very strict laundry protocols? It’s not keeping the uniforms crisp with starch, they also need to be able to fix holes, sew buttons, and alter jerseys to the strict specifications of each player.

Sadly, the UK doesn’t have this, and team equipment managers must source a cleaner prior to their arrival with explicit instructions, and these managers are responsible if the gear comes back in ball in a large sack.

Game Day Injuries

It’s NFL game day in Europe…in a soccer stadium. Sure, they made it look like an NFL stadium, but it still screams ‘soccer’ from locker room to the fans wearing soccer jerseys. Oh, and most of the fans don’t wear your uniform, they wear everyone’s uniforms. Doesn’t feel so much as a home game, as it does a Comic-Con.

If the increased levels of humidity and proximity to a snapping cold they have never felt before doesn’t affect them, the turf will. That’s right, NFL soccer stadiums in Europe use the dreaded turf, something players don’t play as hard on, as they know it causes severe injuries. So when a team has to play a regular season game in a stadium they have never been to, with a turf they have never played on, and they get to fly home an hour after the game…why go hard?

The Taylor Effect

“What if Taylor Swift is at the game? Sounds silly, but over a 4-week period, she was able to essentially DOUBLE the receiving stats of her BF, Travis Kelce. Travis sure could have used Taylor in Frankfurt, where he put up a lowly 14 yards, in one of the worst outings this season