Chris Thompson   Chris Thompson on the internet

Today has been a wonderful day. It was NFL at Wembley for the third year running, and my second in a row. When you are watching the Patriots, you know it is going to be a fantastic display of football, but they were also playing the Buccaneers, who, quite frankly, are terrible. So I was quite surprised to feel so excited, heading to the game.

It might have been seeing all the different jerseys and shirts on display, dotted about the various stations, and flooding onto the train. All sorts of colours, all sorts of teams, as people showed their support of the sport itself rather than a specific team. Perhaps it was the energy of an excited kid on the seat to my right rubbing off on me. He was bouncing up and down, and calling out every team he saw with tremendous glee. It was his first game, and he was loving every minute of it.

On the other hand, perhaps it was the fact that I had the opportunity to watch Tom Brady and Randy Moss play. I knew that if Moss caught one touchdown, he would move to second place on the all time receiver list behind Jerry Rice. I knew that Tom Brady is already being considered one of the best ever, and so long as he stays healthy, he still has a long career ahead of him.

Whatever it was, I was excited. And I had an absolute blast. It was great seeing old friends, and drinking together, and chucking a ball around together before heading in. It was wonderful to watch the pre-game warm-ups, seeing the players catching balls, and the quarterbacks demonstrating perfect spirals. It was brilliant, all of it.

I’m looking forward to next year already.

When you’re woken up abruptly and loudly by a dog barking in the morning, the smell of fresh coffee and sizzling bacon in the morning does a lot to remedy the situation. It certainly put a bit of spring in my step as I rolled out of bed.

The news, it seemed, was of the depressing and dark sort – as usual – so I did my best to ignore it, and looked up some news of the NFL variety. There are some gloomy stories there, of course – drugs, and arrests, and all sorts – but then there are some wonderful pieces as well.

Over recent weeks, they have been doing a feature called “Best in the Biz” – a feature that looks at various aspects of the game, and counts down a top 5 list of the best players at that position, or the best coaches, and that sort of thing. And now they have put together a list of the top 5 players currently playing the game.

Of course, the continuous debate between Peyton Manning and Tom Brady makes an appearance. How can it not? We’ve got the privilege of watching two sure hall of famer’s. It’s as much of a pleasure to debate as it is to watch – well, almost – and it really brings home the fact that this is a wonderful era for sports.