The Increasingly International Future of the NFL

For a sport that reputedly has in excess of five million fans in the United Kingdom, American Football doesn’t often receive the attention it deserves. Once a year, the die-hards are treated to, at most, a quarter-page article recounting little more than the participants and score line of the Super Bowl. Despite the pathetic level of coverage given to America’s favourite game this side of the pond fans anticipate those token snippets the way a kid does Christmas. Fortunately, though, things are changing. For the past five seasons the National Football League (NFL) has been staging one regular season game at Wembley Stadium. The decision, which initially rankled a portion of the NFL’s domestic fans, to schedule a meaningful contest abroad is the jewel in Commissioner Roger Goodell’s crown. Goodell is passionate about expanding the league’s international profile and, with the announcement that the St. Louis Rams have magnanimously signed-up to play in London as the designated home team for the next three seasons, the annual ‘Blighty Bowl’ is not only certain to continue, but may possibly result in what a few short seasons ago would have been unimaginable: a London-based franchise. Britain has dabbled in pro-football before: the London Monarchs were champions of the World League of American Football at the end of the inaugural season that kicked-off in 1991, before the league was re-branded as NFL Europe in 1998 (and later NFL Europa in 2007), dropping the non-European teams – like the defunct Sacramento Surge and Orlando Thunder, the two teams that contested the second World Bowl. The franchise was eventually replaced in 1999 by the Berlin Thunder, meaning the Scottish Claymores, World Bowl IV champions, were the sole representatives of the British Isles until they too folded in 2004. The late eighties and early nineties, during the glory days of the San Francisco 49ers and Dallas Cowboys, Channel 4’s coverage brought the NFL to a British audience for the first time. Given the visibility of the sport, the London monarchs maintained a decent fan base. But interest waned when C4 ceased airing the games. Fans forgot; the Monarchs’ days were numbered. Now, though, things are different. With the advent of the internet and the more affordable presence of satellite TV, fans can control who in-touch they stay with the sport. No longer are we marooned on an island thousands of miles away from the nearest endzone, totally at the mercy of Channel 4 bigwigs. With the Wembley International Series game selling out yearly, there’s every reason to expect interest will continue to grow. Whether interest will reach a level that requires the NFL to seriously look at the possibility of setting-up a franchise in the English capital remains to be seen. It would be a huge move – a game-changer – if Goodell sanctioned such an expansion. America’s game would be shared and the call for more foreign franchises would have to be heeded. A logical expansion would be to Canada, although the CFL would likely veto the coalescence of the leagues in the same way the SPL avoids the suggestion of aligning with the Premiership like the plague. But then this whole discussion isn’t about more teams for the sake of competition – it’s barely about football. This is about money. And so for that reason it has to make good business sense. Does it? In all honesty, the answer is probably no. It is a risky move and a massive commitment for the league to make. The whole idea is riddled with logistical issues – long haul flights, a huge time difference, poor infrastructure and grass roots system – and there will be outcry from the purists should a London team be seriously considered for admission to a very American league. The idea is nice, but the reality could result in a perceived bastardisation of an institution the Americans are very fond of. The Commissioner should increase the amount of games played at Wembley and maybe, one day, the World Championship game might come to town. Now that would be Super. By R. Jay Nudds Former Corner Back for the Sheffield Sabres and England U19s