The NFL’s ongoing quest for global domination has a pair of third rails for American fans. One, teams based in Europe or elsewhere. Two, a Super Bowl on foreign soil.
One of the NFL’s most influential owners is on board with the latter.
“First of all, I’m for anything that promotes the growth or expands the eyeballs for the NFL,” Jones said Friday on 105.3 The Fan in Dallas. “And that has been really the goal and the practice of the NFL, certainly ever since I’ve been involved. There’s no question that having it out internationally, shouldn’t take away from our fan interests and eyeballs in the United States and should add significantly around the world, outside of the country. So, in general, I’m for that.
“I was pretty strong for years and years that it’s just never gonna be the same, my town against your town, relative to our football. It just can’t be transferred to Europe and other countries and so. . . . But I’ve changed that, and I’ve seen how you can take the ethos of our game and the theory behind the game and it calls on you to do unnatural things relative to physically and it calls you to play in a certain way that other sports don’t require. I think that carries over to the concept of the game, and I think that’s catching on and is very popular outside the United States. So I’m all for it.”
Most American fans won’t be. The idea of sending America’s ultimate sporting event outside of America seems odd. It’s unusual.
But here’s the thing: We can huff and we can puff, but we aren’t going to not watch the Super Bowl. International games look the same on TV as domestic games. And, yes, there have been instances where the footing is less than ideal. But Super Bowl LVII was played in Phoenix, and the field was a nightmarish slip-n-slide that day.
Then there’s the issue of kickoff time. Would they start the game earlier than 6:30 p.m. ET? Or would it kick off at 11:30 p.m. London time, ending after 3:00 a.m.?
They’ll work it out, if it comes to that. Because they see the world beyond our borders as the path to turning a billion-dollar business into a trillion-dollar behemoth.
Always follow the money. Especially when dealing with an organization that always chases the money.
Especially when it knows that any unhappy customers won’t stop being customers.
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