Franchise talks and Super Bowl demolition as Neil Reynolds looks back on the NFL in 2014

In his final Pick Six column of 2014, Neil Reynolds look back on what has been another remarkable and headline-making year for the NFL on both sides of the Atlantic.

These are six stories that stick in my mind as we head to the turn of the year. And before any of you wonder why I’m not pausing for extended conversation on stars such as Adrian Peterson, Ray Rice and Greg Hardy, who shamed the NFL this season, I want to end the year on a positive note and that particular trio doesn’t deserve any more attention than absolutely necessary.

Seahawks win New York Super Bowl

And my last memory of the New York Super Bowl? Riding in a taxi across Times Square in a blizzard and seeing a Broncos fan on a street corner playing his guitar.

The year began with the Seattle Seahawks taking on the Denver Broncos in an eagerly-awaited New York Super Bowl, where the pre-match conversation was as much about the freezing weather as it was the game itself.

But as gameday rolled around, it was surprisingly mild and the skies were clear. I recall standing on the field during the pre-game warm-ups and actually not even needing a coat when recording a hit on Sky Sports News. Earlier in the week, the weather had been positively Baltic but it warmed up for the big day.

As for the game, which featured Seattle’s top-ranked defence and Denver’s top-ranked offence, it was a demolition from the first to final snap with the Seahawks producing an old-school Super Bowl beatdown, eventually winning 43-8.

As I walked out of MetLife Stadium that night, a light sleet began to fall from the sky. The deal the NFL had made with Mother Nature apparently had expired. As I woke the next morning and looked out of the window of my New York hotel, I was greeted with a total white-out. There was a fierce blizzard and more than six inches of snow already on the ground.

The NFL got away with a weather calamity, but only just. And my last memory of the New York Super Bowl? Riding in a taxi across Times Square in a blizzard and seeing a Broncos fan on a street corner playing his guitar. Nothing strange or special about that, you might say – but this particular fan was wearing nothing but his boxer shorts, cowboy boots and a cowboy hat. Chilly!

A Wembley hat-trick

It was another special year for NFL games at Wembley stadium as we broke new ground with three regular season contests in London.

And for the first time ever, Sky Sports broadcast from the sidelines for the Miami-Oakland, Atlanta-Detroit and Jacksonville-Dallas games. That was a lot of fun and it was great to be in among three sold-out crowds at our national stadium.

For me personally, it was a real treat to host fan events on behalf of the NFL around all three games because it offered up the chance to meet so many of the NFL supporters who have helped to grow the sport on these shores with their passion.

The pick of the games was the Atlanta-Detroit contest because it served up a thrilling finish in which the Lions kicked a game-winning field goal as time ran out. It was also notable because it was the first ever lunchtime kick-off in London, which was great for fans with young families.

With those three games in the history books, we have three more on offer in 2015 and fans are already snapping up their season tickets at quite a rate. Another three sell-outs beckon.

Franchise talk moves on

Every year around the Wembley games there is talk of a London franchise and those conversations were stepped up another notch or three in 2014.

Ahead of the Atlanta-Detroit game, news broke on the front page of the Evening Standard that Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne was fully behind a London franchise and that the government would do whatever it could to help make that dream a reality.

A study by Deloitte’s also showed how much of an impact a London franchise could make on the British economy, further adding to the possibility of a permanent NFL team in the UK in the not-too-distant future.

For the record, I do maintain that we will have our very own NFL franchise in London within the next six or seven years.

A fantastic five!

Ahead of the Miami-Oakland game in September, Sky Sports and the NFL announced a new five-year television deal that will kick in at the start of the 2015 season.

The new agreement – as if it wasn’t before – makes Sky Sports the official home of American football action in the UK. In the new deal, British NFL fans can watch the Thursday night game, two Sunday evening games and Monday Night Football all exclusively live on Sky Sports.

In addition, there will be a host of other NFL programming, as well as coverage of the playoffs and the Super Bowl and other key off-season events such as the NFL Draft.

I’m sure there are going to be exciting times ahead as we continue to extend and improve our coverage of the NFL in the coming months and years.

A season of twists and turns

The 2014 season – as has thankfully become the norm in the NFL – has been full of twists, turns and surprises. A team that looks like a potential Super Bowl champion one week can look anything but just a few days later.

The performances of two leading teams – the Seahawks in the NFC and the New England Patriots in the AFC – pretty much sum up the unpredictable nature of the entire league.

The Seahawks opened the year with three wins and three losses. By the time they lost to Kansas City in mid-November, Seattle were 6-4 and three games behind the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC West. Then came a storming run that saw the Seahawks book another berth in the playoffs and confirm their status as genuine Super Bowl contenders.

The Patriots opened the season with two wins and two defeats and you would have thought the world was ending for New England given the media reaction after their 41-14 loss to Kansas City in Week 4. There was even ridiculous talk that superstar quarterback Tom Brady washed up.

Then the Patriots went on a seven-game winning streak and now enter the playoffs as the top-ranked team in the AFC.

There are plenty of other clubs who have endured changes in fortune during the course of the season and it is fair to say that the race to Super Bowl 49 in Arizona is wide open.

Menelik does the NFL proud

Having not wanted to dwell on stars who have shamed the NFL this year, I will finish by highlighting the recent good deed of one player and I make no apology for it.

In what has been a busy season with many headlines, this story could have been overlooked. So we should all take a moment to pay homage to Oakland Raiders British offensive tackle Menelik Watson.

We are all rightly proud of Menelik anyway as one of the few Brits in the NFL, but he really did himself, his team and the NFL proud on the weekend before Christmas.

Menelik recently met a four-year-old Raiders fan suffering from a heart condition – a little girl by the name of Ava Urrea – and donated his entire pay cheque for Week 16 (approximately $36,000) to Ava and her family. If you have met Menelik, you already know he is a good person – well, now the rest of the NFL fraternity knows that as well.

He is a credit to the league and to the United Kingdom. Good on you, Menelik!