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Peter King of SI.com reports that the NFL will cancel the 2007 China Bowl preseason game, the spectacularly meaningless game between the Seahawks and the Patriots, which was slated for August 8.
Quoth King:
The NFL is devoting tremendous manpower to the first regular-season game ever played outside North America -- Miami and the New York Giants will play Oct. 28 in London -- and the league doesn't want to risk cutting corners on either of the massive projects in order to stage both games 11 weeks apart. And though the Chinese would have put on a fine show this summer, doing it with more preparation time two years later -- particularly in a stadium that critics are already saying will be the finest outdoor sports venue in the world -- fits more into the NFL's vision of what its China debut should be.
This does have some important bearing on your summer vacation plans: The Seahawks were slated to practice in Kirkland this summer, rather than Cheney, because of the added travel time incurred in a trip to Beijing. With the cancellation of the China Bowl, does this mean they'll have one more round in the city of destiny? I suppose we'll find out soon. So your dreams of spending one more mid-summer in the cool, tropical sophistication of Eastern Washington may yet still manifest.
The game was going to be one of two 2007 preseason games between the Seahawks and Patriots, based on the NFL's premise that one hour after the China Bowl ended, fans would have wanted another one.