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CINCINNATI -- Tyler Eifert shrugged and smiled when he was asked if his sore back could withstand a seven-hour flight to London this week when the Cincinnati Bengals travel overseas to play the Washington Redskins. "I don't know if my experience will earn me a lay-down bed, but hopefully my back will," the tight end said, laughing. "I'm kinda hoping for that." Too bad it's not up to him. Which players get one of the 40 coveted lay-down beds is just one of the logistical puzzles the Bengals have been working on ever since they found out, two years ago, they might be a candidate to play a game in London. Bengals business manager Bill Connelly, who has been working for the team for more than 40 years, is the man in charge of team travel. He's essentially seen it all, but London has been a new and unique challenge simply because of the sheer volume of details that go into planning such a trip. "Marvin's comment to me when we first started talking about this trip was, 'Bill, I want to go in such a fashion that we win the game. That's what's important,'" Connelly said, referring to coach Marvin Lewis. Every team approaches London in a different way, ranging from staying a week to leaving as late as possible. The Bengals felt that leaving Thursday afternoon worked best, so they could stay on their normal routine for as long as possible. What's a short weekend trip for the players took months of preparation for Connelly and his staff. The process started in mid-2014, when the NFL informed the Bengals they could be a candidate to host a home game in London. Only certain teams can play a "home" game in London, owing to how their stadium leases are written. Those teams have to start the process several years in advance, while the away teams are not informed until much later. Theoretically, the Bengals could play in London in back-to-back years, as a home and away team. "It's quite conceivable that we could be an away team next year," Connelly said. "Obviously we don't know what's going to happen, but it could be that a team we're going to play next year has the ability to play a home game away from their home city." As the home team this year, the Bengals got first pick of the hotels and practice facilities. The Bengals chose to stay close to Wembley Stadium -- so close, in fact, they'll walk to practice on Saturday. "We're literally 120 yards from the front door of the stadium," Connelly said. That location helps with another logistical problem. In the United States, the Bengals travel to games with a police escort. In London, that's not possible. They'll just have to brave the traffic like everyone else. "Over there, unless the Queen is on the bus, which we tried ... there are no police escorts, so we're just at the mercy of traffic," Connelly said, noting that the staff members who are already in London have informed him that London's traffic "makes L.A. look like it's easy." Connelly, who is retiring after this season, joked that his job was a young man's job, and it's easy to see why when breaking down everything that went into getting the team to London. First, the Bengals had to make sure every player had a valid passport, a process that started back in mini-camp. That was easier said than done. The final passport didn't come through until last week because the player had trouble locating an original copy of his birth certificate. Then there was the seating issue. The Bengals are flying on an A340-600 plane, which holds more than 300 people, but the Bengals are taking 170 people. Although the Bengals do many things by seniority (for example, only the most veteran members of the team have an assigned parking spot at the stadium), this wasn't the case when it came to the plane. The Bengals are taking 65 players, so 25 won't get a bed. Connelly and Lewis decided which players would get the lay-down beds by seniority, size and other factors. The rest of the players either get the four seats in the middle of the plane so they can lay down and sleep, or, in the case of everyone else on the plane, they'll get two seats to themselves. There has been a host of other things -- mountains of paperwork and equipment that had to be shipped via an ocean freighter several months ago. The Bengals haven't left anything to chance; every person traveling with the team will be given an electronic converter so they won't have any mishaps trying to use the different plugs in London. At this point, there isn't anything Connelly has not considered at least once. So with the game finally here, what's he looking forward to after all these months? "Monday," he said laughing.
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