For art, they could have gone to the British Museum. For something grand, Big Ben and Buckingham Palace were a train ride away.
Instead, what the fans got on this history-making Sunday in London was old-fashioned, muck-it-up football -- not very entertaining and not pretty at all, unless you ask the New York Giants, who came out with a 13-10 victory over the still-winless Miami Dolphins.
"We won, so obviously it was worth it," said Giants defensive lineman Osi Umenyiora, who was born in London.
Eli Manning threw for only 59 yards, but ran for New York's lone touchdown to lift the Giants to their sixth straight victory, a mud-caked slog through the unfriendly pitch at torn-up Wembley Stadium in this, the first regular-season NFL game played outside North America.
The Giants (6-2) had more riding on this game, and were in no mood to take a 3,500-mile trip to help the league expand its international presence. But Brandon Jacobs helped make the journey a success, running for 131 yards, the second straight week he's hit a career high.
And helped in part by a steady rain that made offense nearly impossible, the New York defense allowed only 254 yards and held the Dolphins (0-8) out of the end zone for the first 58 minutes.
"I'll be glad to give my opinion to the commissioner with the issues that came up," Giants coach Tom Coughlin said when asked if the trip was worth it.
Most issues had to do with jet lag, transportation and the general inconvenience of coming this far to play a game. Whether that or the sloppy conditions had more to do with the less-than-scintillating game is up for debate.
The idea behind this game was to offer Londoners a firsthand look at the real thing after they'd suffered through decades of meaningless exhibitions and NFL Europa. And while the mud made for good television and some fun slips and slides, this was hardly a clinic of American football at its best.
The teams combined for a grand total of 492 yards, only 187 passing -- numbers single teams often put up by themselves in a single game.
They combined for seven fumbles, two missed field goals and 14 penalties, including four by the Giants on one late drive that had Coughlin annoyingly yelling at his team to "stay calm" as they tried to salt this one away.
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