Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Anyway, the early start gave me considerable time to get ready for the game and I arrived at Wembley Stadium around 11:30am - more than enough time for a contest not scheduled to kick off until just after 5:00pm.

My first official duty of the day was to appear at a corporate shindig and interview the , who originally hailed from Denmark.

I arrived at the VIP marquee to be greeted by dozens of eager VIP's, including a healthy Danish contingent, and a stack of questions from the audience to fire at one of the greatest players in NFL history.

There was only one problem. Morten was missing!

He was scheduled to arrive at Wembley Stadium by train and be escorted to the VIP event by an NFL staff member. But being a free spirit, Morten made his own way to the stadium, ended up in the wrong area and missed our scheduled interview time.

As I headed back into the stadium I should have seen that as a sign of things to come.

Back in the press box, I hooked up with the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 5 live team and was greeted with the very surreal sight of Arlo White being trailed by his own crew, who were shooting for an Inside the NFL feature to air this week.

The fantastic Wembley atmosphere helped ensure that the NFL will return to the UK

Just after 3:00pm I did a 10-minute stint on hopefully bringing some colour from Wembley Stadium to their afternoon sports show. And then it was back out to the VIP area to do another piece for one of the NFL's sponsors, who shall remain nameless to protect their reputation.

This particular VIP area was filled with rugby players from the Premiership and it was my job to stand on stage and speak for 10 minutes about the teams and players to watch in Sunday's game.

I had barely said hello before the microphone died on me. As 200 faces stared back at me straining to hear my every word, I decided to give up on the mic, tossed it to the floor and took the old-fashioned approach of having a good old shout!

Of course, feeling the need to preserve at least some of my voice for the 5Live broadcast, I shortened my speech to two minutes but did receive a pat on the back from Geordan Murphy for comparing his Leicester Tigers to the New England Patriots.

I returned to the press box to find Arlo with a concerned look on his face and a host of producers scurrying to and fro and making a series of frantic phone calls. There were technical problems which meant we could commentate from Wembley but what we were broadcasting was not being received at the Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ.

I don't know the technical ins and outs but we unfortunately missed the start of the game and New England's opening touchdown. eventually came to our rescue by giving up their line into Television Centre but we could only go on air with Arlo and Greg Brady because our new position was rather short on space.

NFL Managing Director . Then it was my job to join the guys at half-time, fill some air time to give Arlo and Greg a breather and then the three of us would work into the second half.

Considering I had barely eaten all day, half-time was a considerable challenge. First, Arlo stepped out and myself and Greg filled the break. Then Arlo returned with a and Greg stepped out. Five minutes later, Greg returned with a hot dog the size of a baseball bat and the pair munched away without a second's remorse for forgetting their dear colleague.

They did offer me a couple of bits of dry bread but I decided to pass on that.

Midway through the fourth period I headed down to the locker rooms and definitely drew the short straw as I was assigned Tampa Bay, who were hammered 35-7 by the Patriots.

After grabbing quotes, catching up with Buccaneers cornerback Ronde Barber (we worked together over the summer for a couple of days) and attending press conferences, it was back into the press box for an interview on 5 live with John Pienaar.

My work day ended around 10:45pm when I finally trudged out of Wembley Stadium tired but happy. I got home just after midnight, my head still filled with the wonderful images of more than 84,000 NFL fans waving a sea of red and white flags just before the kick-off. That gave me goose-bumps.

The atmosphere was simply amazing, the British fans did themselves proud and while it was not a great game - it was too one-sided to be called that - it was another sensational event.

Not everything went right, but it was a day that will burn in my memory for a long time.