MUNICH—Tom Brady, for at least once this autumn, could smile and mean it.
“That was spectacular,” he told me of the NFL’s first regular-season game on German soil. “I mean, that stadium was rocking. The crowd singing ‘Country Roads’ and ‘Sweet Caroline,’ it felt like it was a Red Sox game out there. It was amazing, the whole experience.”
Forget the Tampa 21, Seattle 16 aspect of the day, and even the season-altering 88-, 86- and 87-yard drives by Brady and the formerly offensively somnambulant Bucs. Think of the day this way: This was a good game—not an all-timer. If it’d been played in Tampa as a Bucs’ home game, people would have left the stadium happy that the Bucs were 5-5, but the fans and the quarterback wouldn’t have had a special feeling about the day, and there wouldn’t have been thousands celebrating a regular-season game for five days here—and I mean celebrating.
Instead, after this city and the NFL put on one of the great shows for a regular-season game ever, Brady walked to the postgame podium and said, “This was one of the great football experiences I’ve ever had.”
Seattle coach Pete Carroll said: “The fans were extraordinary. Everything about this whole trip has been great. What a spectacle. This has been an unforgettable occurrence.”
And Carroll lost!
The thing is, the 69,811 at Allianz Arena didn’t leave the stadium. They stayed, singing and cheering the players as they left the field, then just hanging out watching RedZone on the big screens and watching a live postgame show on the field. It’s like the fans were really unhappy the game was played in a tidy 2 hours, 48 minutes. “I stayed for an hour after the game,” said Max Lange, the founder of the German Seahawkers fan club. “No one wanted to leave. No matter who won today, it was such a celebration of football. We lost, but I’m so happy. We showed today we can support the NFL at a very high level.”
What a day. This city, and this country, deserve many more.
So I missed most of Minnesota-Buffalo, but I caught up in time, back at my hotel in Munich, to hear the German voice-over announcer on the FOX telecast scream on my TV, “HOLY MOLEY” when the Bills forced overtime after a thousand momentous things happened before then. So a few things I’ll account for in Football Morning in Germany:
- Justin Jefferson, after the greatest catch of his life (and probably any other receiver’s life), tells me what Kirk Cousins told him leaving the huddle. It’s important.
- The Bills are the AFC’s sixth seed after 10 weeks. That’s surprising enough, but Miami and the New York Jets are both ahead of them in playoff seeding now. Can you imagine this table-smashing horror in western New York if the Bills were to sneak into the playoffs as the six seed?
- Looks pretty solid that, in some order, Philadelphia (8-0 with Washington at home tonight) and Minnesota (8-1) will be the top two NFC seeds come mid-January.
- The Bucs, suddenly, are who we thought they were.
- Last year’s Super Bowl teams, Cincinnati and the Rams, are 8-10 this morning. Colt McCoy beat the Rams at SoFi Sunday, and by the way, after 10 weeks of the season in which they’re trying to repeat as world champions, the Rams are in last place in the NFC West.
- Tennessee, 29-13 in the regular season since opening day 2020, is going to win the AFC South again. This despite the fact that Derrick Henry is the only Titans’ offensive player who scares any defensive coordinator in football, and the fact that the Titans have scored 19, 17, 17 and 17 in the last four weeks. Titans eked out a win over the toothless Broncos and mysterious Russell Wilson.
- Jeff Saturday has the best winning percentage in Colts’ history. He’s had a week to tell the grandchildren about. I gave him every chance to fire back at his detractors, and not only would he not do it, but he understands why they are firing. “I love coaches,” he told me after the 25-20…
Read More: FMIA Week 10: Football Morning in Germany, and Justin Jefferson on the Wildest