Last fall, we told you about the China Bowl — the NFL preseason (American) football game between the New England Patriots and the Seattle Seahawks scheduled for early August in Beijing. In February, we told you about all the China Bowl plugs we saw during the international broadcast of the Super Bowl. And just one month ago, we told you about the three Chinese kickers (one named "Rambo") the NFL was training with the hopes that at least one of them could suit up for the China Bowl. We even had one reader email us to see if we could confirm the date (we had heard anywhere between August 7 and 9) — because he had already booked plane tickets for his brother-in-law, a huge Pats fan, to come to Beijing, but was worried he had him schedule to fly back before the game even started. more ›

Beijing will play host to an NFL preseason game next year, the professional American football league announced today (it had been rumored for a while). The New England Patriots will take on the Seattle Seahawks at 8:30 pm on August 8, 2007 in Workers Stadium. The game will be televised live in both the United States (NBC) and China (CCTV). (The Associated Press story, linked to above, said the game "will be shown live on NBC at 8:30 a.m. ET on Aug. 9. The dateline was "FOXBORO, Mass." -- forgive them if they don't quite understand how the time difference works up in New England.) more ›