With 20,000lbs of equipment and 180 travelling staff, the mechanics of moving each NFL team between American cities are mind-boggling.
So how about the Jacksonville Jaguars’ 10-day international trip? Encompassing two games in different stadiums, plus travel to and from two hotels — each with meeting rooms, training equipment and purpose-built locker rooms?
You need to speak to Hamzah Ahmad, the go-to guy in sport logistics. As the Jaguars’ director of football operations, he has been organising trips to London since 2013.
‘When I first started with the Jaguars this was my first project, to come out to the UK and find a hotel and practice site,’ says the unflappable Ahmad.
‘We worked with other teams that had been out here before — but now that we’ve done it every year, I’ve become the resource for everyone else,’ he laughs.
NFL giants Jacksonville Jaguars have recently embarked on a 10-day international trip
The team, pictured during training in the UK, have quickly accustomed to their surroundings
Hamzah Ahmad, the team’s director of football operations, has organised all of Jacksonville’s ten trips to London
‘We’ve done it in different ways. We’ve done a week-long stay. In 2014, we played the Bengals and came straight from a domestic city, Cincinnati, to the UK.
‘And then we started doing the short model — departing Jacksonville on Thursday, arriving Friday, playing the game Sunday and departing afterwards. And now all the other teams have kind of copied that model depending on who they are playing.’
That model has been ripped up this year. Jacksonville are the first team to play back-to-back games in London, and the extended trip is just another logistical puzzle for Ahmad to solve.
Before last Sunday’s win over the Atlanta Falcons at Wembley, they stayed at The Grove in Watford. After it, they embarked at Hanbury Manor in Ware, their new base ahead of Sunday’s game against the Buffalo Bills at Tottenham.
‘So we moved during the game, essentially. We closed the curtain and changed hotels behind the scenes. Open the curtain and players jumped on buses after the game and we showed up to the new hotel. They didn’t see anything behind the scenes, which is the goal.
‘This is a new venture for us, doing two games back-to-back. But it’s no different than going to the west coast and playing Seattle and staying and playing the Rams and then coming back to Jacksonville,’ says Ahmad, for whom moving parts and parcel is just a way of life.
‘It takes us about 60-75 minutes to load the buses leaving games,’ he adds. ‘We use six total buses, with about 180 passengers. 53 players, 17 practice squad players. Then you’ve got 36 coaches and multiple support staff. You’ve got equipment, video, trainers, PR, broadcast… yeah, it’s a full operation.
‘This trip is very similar to the domestic side. We are used to loading up all that equipment. The challenge is to be able to do that internationally. We use a private FBO (fixed based operator) so a private aviation area for our plane out of Stansted. We use the same carrier, same aeroplane. The main difference is passports and clearing customs once you arrive.’
Did the lengthier stay mean considerably more equipment?
‘Not that much more,’ he says. ‘We brought in probably anywhere between 15,000-18,000lbs of equipment last year and this year we brought into the neighbourhood of 20,000-21,000lbs (almost 10 tonnes).
Jaguars staff prepare to leave Wembley following their win over Atlanta last Sunday
Jacksonville pack up at Wembley ahead of Sunday’s game at Tottenham against the Bills
‘The main thing we added this year was checked bags. Last year it was only a three-night stay. So this year for nine nights, everyone had checked bags.’
Ahmad, who makes regular trips to the UK, begins thinking about the trip each March and block books hotels before the NFL’s schedule release in May.
‘Our goal is to provide them with a home away while they’re travelling, so we take over the whole hotel. What I look for primarily is being able to have enough meeting space for all of our players, the guest rooms and having a pitch on-site is the biggest factor when I pick a hotel.’
The Jaguars hire a company to assemble weight rooms, a locker room and equipment rooms on site. Both the team and the NFL store heavier items in England.
‘We work hand in hand with the NFL,’ Ahmad says.
‘We still bring 20,000lbs of equipment with us. All the kit they are wearing, and all the helmets and shoulder pads comes with us on the plane.’
Aside from condiments that are shipped in — Frank’s Red Hot Sauce, American ketchup and barbecue sauce — the team works with hotels to provide food.
And what of any potential pitfalls? Unsurprisingly, the man who has to think of everything has already thought of that.
‘If a player doesn’t have a passport, there’s no work around. So we set up a passport day in the middle of mini-camp and we do a whole process with young guys coming in and the guys that don’t have passports.
‘So we’ve got a full system for that as well,’ he says.
The Jaguars will take on the Buffalo Bills at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on Sunday
BILLS WATCHING BRIEF
The Buffalo Bills look exactly like the team they were expected to be last season. Continuity, decent drafting and bringing in hungry free agents have made a machine.
They average over 33 points a game and are only the sixth team to score 135 points and allow fewer than 60 points in the first four games of a season. The previous five all played in the Super Bowl.
Perhaps they like playing with a chip on their shoulder. It looked that way on Sunday when they outmuscled the Miami Dolphins — who scored 70 points against Denver the week before — in a 48-20 win.
Quarterback Josh Allen threw more touchdown passes than incompletions (four to three) against Miami as his understanding with superstar receiver Stefon Diggs continues to scale new heights.
The Buffalo Bills have looked exactly like the team they were expected to be last season
‘Fun to watch,’ head coach Sean McDermott said of the Diggs-Allen duo. McDermott will be equally delighted with his defence. They lead the NFL in sacks (16) and takeaways (eight) and are second in points allowed. ‘We’re just trying to wake everybody up and make people talk,’ defensive tackle Ed Oliver said.
On Sunday, Buffalo (3-1) face an AFC rival — the already acclimated Jaguars (2-2), following their Wembley win over Atlanta last Sunday.
‘We’re just focused now on the challenge of going to London with a team who’s waiting for us, basically,’ McDermott said.
It could be a great leveller as London takes a first look at a genuine Super Bowl contender.
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