Botanical in Britannia

By this point in the NFL season, remembering your plays isn't the problem. Good thing for the Chargers. The players might have a hard enough time next week just remembering their room numbers, er, botanical growths.

For their first four days in England, the Chargers are taking over a resort in the countryside, a resort so old-school civilized that it doesn't use numerals to identify its guest rooms.

“The different wings of the hotel are (themed in) trees, plants or flowers,” said Jim Steeg, the Chargers' chief operating officer and a longtime veteran of NFL games played overseas. “Instead of being in Room 135 or whatever, you're in the 'Tulip' room or the 'Rose' room or the 'Sycamore' room. Our guys would have to remember what flower or tree their room is.

“We applied room numbers for our people, and you know those will get changed around somehow. And then we'll have people calling room service, saying they're in room 135 and hearing the person on the other end of the phone go, 'Huh?' ”

Just think how much smaller the communication gap is for this trip, though, compared to those previous NFL games played in Germany and Japan.

“As they say,” said Steeg of the difference between the U.S. and Great Britain, “these are two countries separated by a common language.”


