The Green Bay Packers will hopefully feel the pressure of finally performing on the London stage, that’s the wish of Osi Umenyiora.

In a game that is 15 years in the making, and after 31 other NFL teams have played at least one time in London, the Green Bay Packers will finally make their bow on this side of the Atlantic Ocean when they take on the New York Giants at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium this Sunday.

This will of course be the second time that the New York Giants have taken part in a ‘first’ matchup in London, as they took on the Miami Dolphins at Wembley Stadium in the very first NFL game in London back in 2007, and it’s fair to say that the game has exploded in the UK and beyond since then.

From one game a year, we expanded to two games a year in 2013, then up to three games in 2014 and even going up to as many as four games in some years, having to expand beyond Wembley to include Twickenham Stadium and finally the dual-purpose built Tottenham Hotspur Stadium as well.

But the final frontier is to get all 32 teams over, and that’s exactly what will happen this week when the Packers, along with back-to-back NFL MVP Aaron Rodgers finally make their debut in London.

The games for the most part have stopped being the grand event that they once were, now becoming just a regular part of the NFL season, but a game like this adds a little bit of extra importance given the storied history of the Packers, combined with the wait that it’s been to see them over here.

Are the Green Bay Packers feeling the pressure? 

But does that mean that the Packers will be feeling any extra pressure to perform with such a big buildup to the event? Former New York Giants player and fan Osi Umenyiora, now a pundit on the UK NFL scene, hopes that the Packers are feeling it, but felt that the experience and demeanor of Rodgers means that any pressure will be normal, rather than anything based on where the game is played.

He gave his thoughts during a recent open media session ahead of the game this weekend:

As a matter of fact, being a Giants fan, I would hope so. I hope they feel pressure coming over here. Everybody has been waiting on the Green Bay Packers. They are one of the most, if not the most storied franchises in the NFL, and everybody wanted to see them. And on top of that they have an MVP quarterback. So there's a lot of high hopes, a lot of high expectations, massive fan base for the Packers, and everybody's really excited to see them here. 

Will they be feeling some sort of pressure?  I think maybe after what Aaron Rodgers said last week about how they can't keep winning games the way they are, they're probably feeling even more pressure. But I don't think coming to London is going to add any extra stress to them. For them, they're going to look at this as a business trip and come out here and try to perform accordingly. 

So it might well be a case of the Packers taking on Rodgers’ famous saying from a few years ago, ‘R-E-L-A-X’, and just treat this like any normal game. Although whether the crowd will allow them to do that on the day given the anticipation, we’ll just have to wait and see.