Not Bloody Likely

The only thing worse than the arrogance of the NFL in preempting every 1pm game to go “live to London” and watch the national anthems of the US and UK sung and the kickoff, is the questionable European strategy of the NFL.

 

Reportedly, the league and Roger Goodell want to make a single sojourn to a European city for a regular season game an annual occurrence. The question is…why? What good is one game going to do to spread American football to European fans? The world league was such a flop it no longer exists. What good is trying to build on this year’s London experience by playing next year’s game in, say, Frankfurt?

 

One definitely gets the sense that the whole hot issue of “internationalizing” American professional sports – pioneered by David Stern and the NBA – is at the root of the NFL strategy to grow itself (and its revenues). Alas, it overlooks the simple fact that basketball truly is an international sport – along with soccer – while “American futbol” is no such beast. I’m not even sure football “translates” to foreign sensibilities. Indeed, the demise of the world league suggests that the NFL has tried its European experiment…and failed.

 

Holding one game a year in some distant European land isn’t going to change that equation. Worse, it looks desperate. It looks like a cheap novelty and if Sunday’s game was any indication, it looks just as bad on the field.