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NFL Goes Global (again)

You’ve probably already heard that the NFL will hold a regular season game in a foreign country next year. (That’s not a first, but the league wants to make it a permanent part of the schedule.) This feels like a big story-for all I know, it led off SportsCenter, which I almost never watch.

(For some reason everyone assumes I love ESPN. I guess that makes sense-I do run a sports blog-but still. I guess I just don’t like NASCAR highlights as much as you’d think I do. Or how they always pull that, “Coming up next…” crap when they have an interesting story that won’t air for another forty minutes. A few months back a friend of mine tried to invite herself over to watch some non-World Cup soccer game, because of course I get the Ocho and would have it on. No dice. I’m curious-do any of you guys watch SportsCenter regularly?)

Anyway, I don’t much care for the idea, though it wouldn’t have much impact on any one team.
The plan would be set up so that teams would rotate over a 16-year period, with each team playing outside the country twice over that span, once as a visitor, the other as a home team. That means a team would lose one game team during that span.

"Obviously the league's going to work out the economics and if we lose a home game, we'll get compensated," said Pat Bowlen, owner of the Denver Broncos. "We're comfortable with it. Obviously we'd like to play in Mexico or Canada and not have to travel to Europe and that's probably the way it would be set up because of our location. But as far as the league's concerned, I think it's a great idea."
Right now I’m supposed to say insightful like, “Oh, I guess this is all about the money”-but instead I’ll settle for having no clue what this “one game team” is that everyone's losing.

Sure, if the Broncos play in Germany in 2012 and then in Mexico in 2020, I’ll live. Not a huge disruption, especially if the league time-zones it properly for TV here, which they certainly will. I thought other countries didn't like football, but obviously the league thinks they’ll come around. I don’t really care whether other countries start liking football, but whatever. (Is the Champions League coming to Miami anytime soon?)

What happens when there’s a Broncos-Raiders game in the United Kingdom? You’re right-that will probably never happen. I'd guess that teams won’t play division or even conference rivals overseas. Some year, though, a couple of teams will exceed preseason expectations, and the biggest game of the year will be in Canada. (I can’t think of any good examples this year because no one’s really gone from awful to good, but last year you could have had, say, an incredible Bears-Bengals game outside the U.S.) Is that going to be a big deal to you?

Comments

Anonymous said…
Why is the NFL trying to globalize? Does it fear that it is loosing popularity to sports like baseball or hockey. I will say its a good idea though, all the New Zealanders and Philipinos here don't understand the game at all; so, they just complain about MNF-It's obnoxious
1:42 AM
Mike said…
I'm confused, do your friends from New Zealand like the NHL?
11:06 AM
Mike said…
Well, I agree, except I think the best game of the season or at least very good games usually are quirky, because there are usually a few really surprising teams. I wouldn't expect Colts-Patriots to be overseas for at least two retirements from now, but there could always be a team like the 99 Rams, as an extreme example, playing out of the States.

But it's not like I was going to go to that big of a game anyway, right?

And I disagree with the guy who said I can make all that money in my spare time. I don't really see it being that easy. Plus, not to be that guy, but he (or she! Women can spam just as well as a man) seemed a little off-topic, too.
4:05 PM
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