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Yahoo Sport’s Nick Metcalfe has the remote control in his hand as he looks back and forward to the best of sport on television. This week, the BBC’s coverage of the big NFL match at Twickenham is in the spotlight, as we also look ahead to another big Premier League weekend and a host of other televised treats.

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The NFL continues to grow in popularity in the UK, and the BBC were live from Twickenham for four hours on Sunday afternoon for the regular season clash between the Los Angeles Rams and New York Giants.

Although we’ve seen plenty of games at Wembley in recent years, this felt historic in a different way. Twickenham had never hosted any sport other than rugby union since it opened for business in 1909.

Presenter Nat Coombs welcomed viewers to the show: “Today the home of rugby hosts the NFL for the very first time. But much like our special relationship with our American friends, there’s a lot more that connects the two sports than divides them.”

As with most coverage of NFL in Britain over the years, there’s a balance to be struck between not bamboozling viewers that are new to the sport, while at the same time not alienating longtime fans by being too simplistic. It’s a line the BBC treaded pretty effectively.

Their panel was made up of Osi Umenyiora and Jason Bell, who have built up quite a double act on the BBC’s weekly highlights programmes, along with Mike Carlson. He was introduced as a “broadcasting veteran”, which felt about right for a man that we’ve associated with NFL on British TV for nearly 20 years now. Carlson certainly brings a sense of gravitas to proceedings, and overall I liked the balance between former stars and a journalist.

The BBC took their match coverage from CBS, who must have quickly puzzled viewers on both sides of the Atlantic by regularly flashing up the ‘Thursday Night Special’ graphic.

While those on the other side of the pond enjoyed pizza adverts (not just a cliche - I’ve been to America a lot lately) we had regular touchline interviews with Caroline Barker. Former Giants offensive linesman David Diehl spoke glowingly of how times had changed since he played for the Giants against Miami Dolphins at Wembley in 2007, the first competitive match ever played outside the Americas.

“It’s like night and day from that experience to this one, seeing the fans now and how much more knowledge they have of the game,” Diehl said. “This is going to be a home base for an NFL team, no doubt.”

The irony of the broadcast wasn’t lost on some British viewers. It’s been nearly a quarter of a century since we saw a live match on free TV from English football’s top flight. But here we were enjoying a leisurely Sunday afternoon with the NFL for company.

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Mind you, our national game, or more like obsession, is rarely totally absent from proceedings. Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew spoke to Barker from pitchside. Our Alan could hardly have more enthusiastic. “It’s a fantastic experience being here,” he said. “This is an avenue the Premier League perhaps should look at. The NFL is all about packaging and marketing, they do a really good job.”

And then Pardew hit us with a rather glorious line: “I’m trying to watch from the sidelines, it’s so different, it’s almost like a foreign sport.” Fair point, it almost does feel like it comes from another country at times.

Coverage switched back to the studio from time to time too. I was pleased to see Coombs address queries from viewers on that Thursday night matter. “It’s a curious quirk of the rights package, you don’t have to adjust your clocks,” he told us, rather reassuringly.

I don’t know which time zone the Giants were stuck in, but they were sloppy early on and fell 10-0 behind. Perhaps their arrival in London a few days after the Rams was costing them. “It seems like they’re sleepwalking,” Bell said in the BBC box.

But former star Umenyiora had some words of wisdom. “It’s morning in New York, they haven’t had their breakfast or coffee yet. As the game goes on, I think you’re going to see them get better and better.”

Give that man a job as a pundit. The Giants awoke from their slumber, and by half-time were level at 10-10, largely thanks to a thrilling touchdown from Landon Collins. “This is a return for the ages,” enthused CBS co-commentator Dan Fouts.

Another touchdown came in the fourth quarter from Rashad Jennings and the team from New York had completed a fine comeback and edged to a 17-10 win.

If I have one complaint, the BBC didn’t exactly hang about for long after the game, with only a few minutes for analysis. We did hear from star performer Collins, but I would have like to have listened to more considered views from the panel.

Still, the NFL roadshow in Britain gathers pace. And with two weekly programmes and the matches in London live - along with the Super Bowl - the BBC have put together a half decent package now.


United finally off the telly as Arsenal and Liverpool face Saturday trips

It probably seems a bit unusual to start a preview section about sport on television by referring to a match not being screened. But I’ve checked the rules and I’m not breaking any.

Here we are at the end of October, with the clocks set to turn back an hour, and for the first time this season Manchester United won’t be shown live on television when they take on Burnley. This weekend’s game at Old Trafford, United’s 16th fixture of the season, is also their only Saturday 3pm match before Christmas. Who says TV rules football?

That clash is one of seven games to be shown on Match of the Day (BBC1, Saturday 10.20pm). Meanwhile, the two live TV matches that day are both intriguing, with rock bottom Sunderland entertaining Arsenal (Sky Sports 1, Saturday 11.30am) and Crystal Palace playing Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool, who are arguably playing the best football in the country right at this moment (Saturday, BT Sport 1, 5pm).

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On Sunday, Everton take on West Ham (Sunday, Sky Sports 1 12.30pm), while we could be in for a cracker on the south coast when Southampton play Chelsea (Sunday, Sky Sports 1 3.30pm). A decent selection of matches all round there, but it’s fair to say the best has very much not been saved until last, with Stoke hosting Swansea (Monday, Sky Sports 1 3.30pm).

The next few weekends on BBC1 will feel a little like days long gone by, with rugby league a staple part of their Saturday afternoons. England’s Four Nations Opener against New Zealand in Huddersfield should be an entertaining watch (BBC1, Saturday, 1.15pm).

The first Test between Bangladesh and England was a genuine thriller, and their second meeting in Dhaka has a lot to live up to (Sky Sports 2, starting Friday 4.30am). Free to air highlights of the Test are available every evening on ITV4.

There’s a fabulous golfing cast on show in Shanghai for the WGC-HSBC Champions event, including Open champion Henrik Stenson, US Open winner Dustin Johnson and Rory McIlroy (Sky Sports 4, starting Thursday 4am).

And the NFL is back in London once again this weekend, with Wembley the host this time for a clash between the Washington Redskins and Cincinnaati Bengals (BBC Red Button, Sunday, 1.20pm).