Is there a greater sporting family than the Murray’s?

A fantastic week at the ATP World Tour Finals saw Andy Murray end the year as the Men’s Singles World Number One tennis player, and older brother Jamie end as part of the World Number One doubles pair. Can the Murray’s be considered the greatest sporting family ever?

Andy and Jamie Murray

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Andy, 29, is a double Olympic Champion and has won 45 career titles including two Wimbledon Singles crowns and a US Open title. He has also reached five Australian Open finals and a French Open final.

Jamie, 30, has won 16 career doubles titles including the Australian Open, US Open, and Wimbledon Mixed Doubles titles. In addition, he is a Wimbledon men’s double finalist and US Open mixed doubles finalist.

The brothers along with Kyle Edmund, James Ward, Dan Evans and Dominic Inglot won the Davis Cup in 2015.

Gary, Phil and Tracey Neville

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Gary, 41, is arguably one of Britain’s greatest ever footballers; who spent his whole playing career at Manchester United. During these 19 years he won 20 trophies including eight Premier League’s and two Champions League titles. Gary is also the most capped right back in England history, playing 85 times and being the first choice for that position for over ten years at three European Championships and two World Cups.

Phil, 39, played at Manchester United for ten years, mainly as full back. During this time he won 14 trophies including six Premier League’s and one Champions League title, before moving to Everton where he ended his playing career. Phil received 59 caps playing for England, which included involvement at three European Championships.

Tracey, 39, played netball for Leeds Met Carnegie in the British Netball Superleague and at international level. She represented England at two Commonwealth Games winning bronze in 1998.

Archie, Peyton and Eli Manning

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Archie, 67, played at quarterback most notably for the New Orleans Saints, being awarded NFC offensive player of the year in 1978 and is a two time Pro Bowler.

Peyton, 40, is arguably one of the greatest quarterbacks in NFL history, winning two Super Bowls, 14 Pro Bowl appearances, two time NFL offensive player of the year and holds the records for most passing yards in a season, most passing yards in a career and most passing touchdowns in a season and in a career.

Eli, 35, is still playing as quarterback for the New York Giants having won two Super Bowls and is a four time Pro Bowler.

Venus and Serena Williams

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Venus, 36, is a former Women’s Singles World Number One. In her career she won 49 career titles including five Wimbledon Championships and two US Open Championships. She has also won the Australian Open and the French Open in mixed doubles. In addition, Venus is an Olympic Singles Champion and won silver in the mixed doubles.

Serena, 35, is one of the greatest female tennis players of all time, having been the World Number One for a collective of 309 weeks. She has won 71 career titles including six Australian Open Championships, three French Open Championships, seven Wimbledon Championships, six US Open Championships and an Olympic title. Serena has also won Wimbledon and the US Open in mixed doubles.

Venus and Serena were also the Women’s Doubles World Number One winning the Australian Open four times, French Open twice, Wimbledon six times, the US Open twice and are three times Olympic Doubles Champions.

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Is now the right time for a NFL London franchise?

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The NFL roller coaster in London is over for another year with all three games captivating spectators with plenty of drama with each play.

As we settle back down to stay up late, and watch the games from afar again, we can look forward to next year’s brief visit.

New Orleans Saints are set to return after nine years to play the Miami Dolphins, with the Jacksonville Jaguars and Los Angeles Rams set to be the home sides for the other games but where will they play? And what if London had a franchise?

Tottenham Hotspur’s stadium is not due to be completed until the start of the 2018/19 season, so the likely choice is Wembley Stadium or, after a reasonably successful first game, at Twickenham.

Spurs have designed a retractable pitch to be able to host NFL in the future but with a packed schedule is that really realistic?

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An NFL side has eight home games with the possibility of two further home games if the team makes the playoffs and there are four preseason games, running from August until January.

If London does get a franchise, having a regular home stadium is unrealistic as there isn’t one in London to cater an NFL team’s needs. More importantly all the extra aspects that go alongside the games require more room and detail than a football team.

Spurs are likely to have the same problems Twickenham had and the social media responses from the fans who attended the Giants v Rams on the 23rd October.

One of the biggest questions over Spurs hosting is whether the local transport system can cope with around 58,000 people needing to travel back to different parts of the country.

Also, when the attendance at Wembley and Twickenham has been in the 80,000s and 70,000s respectively, would a NFL team want to go to a smaller stadium when the popularity of the NFL is so high?

Another question is whether the area around the Spurs Stadium is able to host the tailgate parties that the NFL put on, Twickenham just managed it but not on the scale the fans had become accustomed – hence the social media response.

This is all immaterial. The main problem is not the location of the games when they are here, but if a team would ever want to be based in London.

The away games are not just a quick car trip but in fact a long haul plane journey across the Atlantic Ocean.

Of course, it is ultimately down to the owner of the team to decide whether a franchise comes to London or not.

With Fulham owner Shahid Khan already the owner of the Jacksonville Jaguars and with interest growing for NFL here in the UK, it may not be long until we have a London franchise!

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Who Could Win the BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2016 Award?

There were some incredible British performances at the Olympics Games in Rio where Team GB became the first ever nation to have a better medal haul after they had hosted the games four years previously.

It has been a fantastic year for not only British Olympic sport but British sport in general.

This month, the British public have a tough choice to make. For the first time the audience will choose from 16 rather than ten finalists for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award.

The overwhelming favourite is, of course, Andy Murray.

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Murray has just achieved what no other British tennis player has. He is the Men’s Singles World Number One. After a fantastic summer, which saw him win his second Wimbledon title and another first; Murray became the first player to become a double Olympic Singles Tennis Champion at Rio.

Alistair Brownlee had been the bookies favourite to win before Murray became World Number One.

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Brownlee had also become the first athlete to become double Olympic Triathlon Champion in Rio. If that achievement was not enough to cement him into the hearts of the British public, watching him carry his brother Jonny to the finish line at the final World Triathlon Series race in Cozumel, Mexico certainly did.

Most likely the award will go to either Murray or Brownlee, but there are other strong contenders.

The fairy tale could continue for Jamie Vardy.

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Vardy has played his way up through the Football Leagues to the top of the Premier League with Leicester City, gaining a place in the England team to boot and now a Ballon d’Or nominee. With Leicester City comfortably into the knockout stages of the Champions League, Vardy is having a fantastic year.

Or perhaps the award could go to Britain’s greatest track and field athlete, Mo Farah.

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Farah became only the second ever athlete, to retain the Olympic titles in both the 5,000m and 10,000m. Farah now has four Olympic gold medals and five World Championships titles.

Or could one of the golden couple win; Jason and Laura Kenny have both become accustomed to winning.

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Laura Kenny became the first British female athlete to win a fourth Olympic gold medal. Whilst Jason has equalled Sir Chris Hoy’s medals haul of six gold and one silver. They both are aiming to be at the next Olympics in Tokyo 2020 and hopefully that will not be their last.

Possibly the surprise achievement in Rio came from gymnast Max Whitlock and a long shot to win this award.

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Whitlock became Britain’s most successful gymnast, becoming the first ever-British athlete to win gold in artistic gymnastics. He then followed that record making achievement by winning his second gold and becoming a double Olympic Champion. Whitlock adds these gold medals to the three bronze medals at London 2012 and the World Championship title on Pommel Horse from Glasgow 2015.

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Should men’s tennis be only best of 3 sets?

In the men’s game the only matches played over best of five sets are during the four grand slams and the Davis Cup tournaments.

This continually leads to a clear divide between the top and bottom of the men’s game.

At the top, the players can afford to train harder to gain the fitness and endurance needed to master the consistently over best of five sets.

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Due to best of five sets having the possibility of lasting for five plus hours, endurance and mentality can in the end be more important than tennis ability.

Whilst at times there can be an upset and a much lower ranked player can beat one of the top, but these are few and far between, with the likelihood of them playing as well in the next round extremely slim.

There has been criticism of women’s tennis being inferior due to them only playing best of three sets during the slams whilst their male counterparts play best of five.

But with a study suggesting that everyone’s attention span has reduced perhaps it is time the men play less or risk spectators losing interest.

This would not be an easy change for the traditionalist, but can anyone honestly say they have watched a whole match without looking at your phone, or needing to get up and walk around.

We have been blessed when the top ranked players have played five sets matches, but of the number that have gone to five sets, how many have been great tennis all the way through?

It is extremely rare that a five set match comes down to quality tennis, instead it boils down to endurance, with only a hand full that have actually been worth watching for the whole match.

Watching a player struggle to move at the end of a match, barely able to hit the ball over the net, is not really the way a good match ends.

Novak Djokovic once suggested that if he could stay with Andy Murray at the beginning he would win because he believed his fitness was superior.

At the time Djokovic was the top ranked tennis player so surely he should believe in his tennis ability rather than putting his fitness above all else.

Ben Rothenberg a writer for the New York Times is possibly the biggest voice for change.

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Does the Six Nations points change go far enough?

A stir was caused amongst Six Nations rugby fans, when it was announced there would be a new point system, due to be trialled in February.

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So what is this new system causing such a wave?

Well, it isn’t really that new. At club level they already operate under a similar system.

Basically, four points are awarded to the winning team, a draw earns the teams two points and an unbeaten team will be awarded a further three points. Bonus points will be awarded if a team scores four or more tries, and if a team lose within seven points.

So a winning team could receive five points and the losing team could obtain two points under this new system.

The reason for this, quite simply is, an effort to encourage and reward try scoring and attacking play.

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The worry is that the beauty of the final Saturday, when the majority of the championships have been decided, will be ruined.

But will this really encourage teams to go for more tries?

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In the 2015/16 season, World Rugby trialled a different point system in the Principality Premiership in Wales. Here the change involved the scoring system rather than the points awarded on the conclusion of the game.

A try changed from five points to six, the conversion stayed at two points. A penalty kick and drop-goal changed from three points to two, and a straight eight points was given if a penalty try was awarded, meaning no conversion was needed.

If the Chiefs behind the Six Nations really want teams to focus on attacking rugby, surely a change in scoring will do this more than what they have proposed.

The trail in the Principality Premiership had the desired impact with there being 177 more tries in the 2015/16 season than in the season before.

So instead of possibly messing with the climax of the Six Nations tournament with the change in the points awarded. Perhaps a change in the scoring system would have the desired affect, without taking away the suspense of Super Saturday.