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The Football Diner Big Interview:
Nat Coombs
interviewed by Brian Davis
12/1/2010
Nat’s back! He enjoyed the waffles so much last time that he just had to drop by the Diner again. And whilst he tucked in he shared his thoughts on the past 2009 regular season, gave us his predictions for the playoffs, discussed pro football in the UK, spoke out on the CBA and possibility of an uncapped year, and gave us his impressions on adding a 17th and 18th game to the schedule…
 How would you rank the 2009/10 NFL season in line with other recent seasons?
Well, it’s always hard to call prior to the post season and Super Bowl of course, but in terms of regular season, one of the best, no doubt. Mid way through the season there was a lot of guff about the NFL losing parity, given the 4 or 5 truly bad teams in the league. This paid no attention to how tight it was at the top, and as the playoffs came into range, and you saw so many teams with a genuine shot, it made a mockery. Ditto the late wins for the Browns and Bucs which saved Mangini and Morris respectively.
And coming into the playoffs, at least half a dozen teams could genuinely win and I can’t think of one rank outsider. A cap less 2010 may make things different, but right now, it’s as exciting as it’s ever been.
Who was your biggest surprise of the regular season, team or player?
I remember I gave them a nod in our pre-season chat, but the Bengals have truly surprised me. And just how bad the Rams have been. And the Hawks.
How Favre has played has been interesting. In most cases, it’s completely different to how he’s played for the rest of his career. I wonder if he’ll be able to resist changing the plays too much in the playoffs. If they win the SB though, that’d be a terrific story.
Who was your biggest disappointment of the regular season, team or player?
Although they posted a winning season, I think the Falcons will have to be disappointed and it’ll be interesting to see how Matt Ryan does in Year 3.
Jay Cutler probably wins the player’s prize though to be fair to him, Matt Forte just disappearing heaped huge pressure on the offense. And he’s got no serious receiving threat.
Who are your best and worst 8-8 teams and why?
Best has to be the Titans, and the worst, probably the Broncos. Why? I think the former underperformed and the latter over-performed in the 1st half of the season, thus giving them misleading records. Lots of people will say the Giants, but there’s no way they’re as bad as made out.
The best team with a losing record is:
I genuinely think its Miami, but that’s not saying a whole host as the competition is pretty weak!
The worst team with a winning record is:
Tough question. If you’d shown me 3 weeks ago the final standings and asked that I would have said the Jets, hands down. But the way they’ve played against the Bengals. Wow. I genuinely don’t think there’s a worst I’d put the Texans and Falcons, Steelers and Jets at around the same level.
The AFC Championship game will be:
Chargers vs Colts
The NFC Championship game will be:
Cowboys vs Saints.
The Super Bowl and Super Bowl winner will be:
Colts vs Cowboys with the Colts winning.
As a Dolphins fan, how do you rate last/this season, with a brutal schedule and what are your Off-season hopes?
 I thought we’d go 8-8 at best so 7-9 is pretty fair, particularly after Ronnie Brown went down. I’m excited about next season though we must sort out our issues at receiver. I would have liked us to look at Torry Holt last year and maybe look at taking a big name veteran this time around as opposed to drafting which is always high risk at receiver.
With the First pick of the 2010 draft, the St Louis Rams select:
They should take Suh, but I suspect they’ll take Clausen.
With two games scheduled for the UK this year and less coverage of the sport on TV, no MNF in 2009 on any channel, Potentially No SNF on FIVE in 2010? Can you fill us in fully on that in particular? No Total Access or Game-day due to advertising laws. The paying public appear to have been a little poorly treated by advertising rules and laws and seemingly television companies on both sides of the Atlantic and the NFL, how do we move forward with TV to maintain that interest here, could no live terrestrial coverage and lack of daily programmes, potentially damage the interest here?
I can understand the fan’s frustration with the deal this year but there is so much that goes on behind the scenes that people aren’t aware of. All in all, I think the current level of NFL footage on television and radio is excellent. Seriously 3 live games a week including 1 on free-to-air, a highlights/magazine show, live games on digital radio, playoff highlights and the SB also all on free-to-air.
Sure, we all miss MNF not many more than me (!) and the red button options + the NFL network shows were great to have of course, but I think the bar was set very high last year.
Given that we’re getting two International Series games in 2010, it’s so important that the core fan base gets behind everything and is supportive. I don’t mean that you can’t criticise something if you don’t think it’s any good, or right. But people should think a little bit about how far the game has come coverage wise in this country, not to mention the opportunity to see our favourite stars up close and personal. The more unified we are as a fan base, the better it will be for the game’s progression in the UK. And conversely, the more disparate and critical we are, it can only be a bad thing in the long term.
How do you feel about a possible franchise being based here in the UK? 3 years of selling out Wembley would suggest the interest is still here, but can it seriously work? Or like above, do we need to prioritize other avenues first?
I think it would work commercially speaking, but there are obvious problems with it logistically. I’d like to think of the whole league in terms of owners/front office buying into it, but I suspect West Coast teams may have problems.
Also, would it be a team that moves, or would London be an expansion franchise? If the latter, it’ll be weak for a good few years and will that affect the fan base?
I definitely think it’s a serious possibility though, and I personally think it would be very good for the game overall.
I’m a big fan of having a 17th fixture introduced (eventually 18) to have an international week series for every team, therefore, every 2nd year, a team loses a home game, regardless of status in the league (12th man, new stadium (Jerry land) etc) Do you think this is the way for the NFL to go with these series’ to avoid teams losing out on home-field advantages like we experienced last year at Wembley?
Am on the fence here. I think it will happen (a 17th/18th game) but as we’ve seen more and more, players are getting burnt into the ground so quickly and this would only make things worse.
An uncapped year approached and no CBA is currently sorted, how do you see that panning out?
Good question. I think it’ll hurt certain players who will get hit with an extended (restricted) free agency. Also the ban on best 4 teams taking on new players (unless they’re replaced) and the next 4 teams having reasonably difficult restrictions isn’t very fair. Dan Snyder must be licking his lips though. If there is no CBA, put your money on the Skins making the playoffs.
Now that the football season is over, what does Nat Coombs have planned for 2010?
Sleep mainly! I’m busy through the playoffs with our Saturday show NFL UK (10.00AM every week on FIVE) and once that’s done, I’m onto my next project. I write and produce a lot of comedy, am a partner in a creative agency and do a bunch of other work on TV & Radio, so there’s never a dull moment. But with the Draft looming, I have to keep my eyes on the NFL at all times!
Good job, thanks for popping in Nat and we look forward to speaking with you again soon. Enjoy the rest of the year until the new season.
Cheers!
You can read Nat’s blog at natcoombs.tumblr.com and follow him on twitter.com/natcoombs
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