The Los Angeles Rams and Arizona Cardinals will play in the United Kingdom this season. Is that anyway to schedule an NFC West rival?

Los Angeles Rams fans will miss out, again, on a home game in 2017. Worse, is that it’s a game against an NFC West opponent, Arizona Cardinals.

If there is one team desperate to cultivate a fanbase, it’s the Rams. The idea that taking a game away from fans in Los Angeles is smart football is a remarkably stupid concept. But in the quest for globalization, the NFL has staked a claim to an idea that has won over few fans.

But the whole idea of NFL regular seasons games on foreign soil is not going away.

Ideally, it would only affect preseason, where interest is different than in the the regular season. What is most discouraging about the Rams second year trip in a row in Twickenham, is that this year it’s against a division foe. I have a hard time believing that outside of Stan Kroenke or Kevin Demoff , that the organization on down thinks playing the Cards away from home is a smart or good idea.

Because it isn’t.

The NFC West may not be winnable for Los Angeles this season. Frankly, it’s not even close. But the games against the Cardinals are. Arizona is trending down, and as I wrote a few weeks ago, the Cards are a team I believe the Rams can sweep. Playing them 5,433 miles away is a factor that doesn’t help either team, especially LA.

Scheduling teams to play regular season games away from the United States is one thing. It’s an awful way to treat the local fanbase. But making it a game within the division is just bad business.

Unfortunately, that is something Kroenke and company have been known to dabble in.