Hold the keys, NFL. Your initiative to rule the world won't get the attention that you have hoped for.
The National Football League is often regarded as the best-run professional sports league in America. The salary cap and revenue sharing policy allow for small-market teams, such as the Green Bay Packers and Buffalo Bills, to remain in competitive balance with large-market teams such as the Dallas Cowboys and the New England Patriots. The NFL has the richest television deal of any professional American sport. Although the league has experienced controversies, such as the positive steroid test for Pro-Bowl linebacker Shawne Merriman, it has done an effective job of combating such issues with strict implementation of its policies. While similar controversies have begun to shatter Major League Baseball, the NFL continues to soar.
Football is primarily an American sport, unlike baseball, hockey and basketball, which draw talent from a myriad of countries. NFL Europe lasted 14 years before finally folding in August. For many years, American football simply had little relevance outside of the United States.
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell and the NFL think differently. Even though the NFL is incredibly successful in America, it wants to become a more global game. All 32 NFL owners voted to explore international markets for games. League officials already have speculated about the possibility of moving the Super Bowl overseas. And already this season we have witnessed the first regular-season game played outside of North America.
On Oct. 28, the Miami Dolphins and the New York Giants faced off in front of a sellout crowd at London's massive Wembley Stadium, with the Giants winning by a score of 13-10. Though the Arizona Cardinals and the San Francisco 49ers played a regular-season game last season in Mexico City, this was the NFL's first regular-season game played in Europe. Forty-thousand tickets were sold in the just 90 minutes of ticket sales, and most of the stadium's 90,000 seats were filled during the game.
Many of the fans who bought tickets for London's game should feel slighted by the boring and sloppy contest. The fans had to watch a winless Miami team play without its starting quarterback and running back. Giants quarterback Eli Manning completed only 8 of 22 passes for a career-low 59 yards. The field conditions were horrible and the game was played in chilly and wet "football weather," probably not the ideal conditions for the NFL to present a game to a foreign audience. The most exciting moment of the game was when a streaker made his way onto the field.
Despite the large attendance at the Giants-Dolphins game, the NFL will never become a widely followed sport in Europe, where soccer is, without question, the dominant sport. Even if a Super Bowl were to be played in Europe, it would never have as much anticipation and hype as the World Cup or the Union of European Football Associations championship. Fans of American Football exist in Europe; many Germans in particular were upset with the folding of NFL Europe, which had five teams in Germany. However, these few fans aside, there is no widespread European passion for the sport, much like how only a small percentage of Americans are diehard soccer fans.
The Giants-Dolphins game had great attendance, but attendance alone cannot measure the success of the London and Mexico City experiments. The NFL's European popularity isn't poised to last. While more games may be played overseas in the future, their success will be determined by the league's ability to create a steady following. Hopefully, for the sake of the NFL, European fans next time will be more educated about the elements of American football.
The games held in Mexico City and in London drew large crowds, yet their lasting impact may prove to be minute. The players and their families had to endure long flights in order to take the field. The NFL consistently captivates millions of Americans and makes millions of dollars, but we still have yet to see the success of taking the game overseas.
Justin Davidson is a contributing columnist. E-mail him at sports@nyunews.com.
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