Baker Geist

Sports Columnist

 

 

For those of you watching the Olympics and secretly wishing football were still on TV you may soon be in luck. According to an opinion column by Mike Floyco on nbcsports.com, the International Federation of American Football is pushing to get the sport in the summer games.

The President of the IFAF Tommy Wiking is quoted in the column as saying, “One of the key objectives of IFAF is to achieve International Olympic Committee recognition and we plan to make a formal application to the IOC in 2011.”

There hasn’t been a worse idea since the XFL.

Bringing American Style football to the Olympics would be bad for the sport, bad for the Olympic Games and bad for the fans. There are simply too many obstacles hindering the game’s inclusion.

The first of many questions would be, who would play in the league and which countries would participate. It’s not hard to see that the United States would have the most talent on the gridiron. Getting that talent to participate is another story.

It would be hard to believe that any stars from the NFL such as Peyton Manning, Reggie Bush, or Chad Ochocinco would participate.  These players aren’t going to be willing to risk large contracts and Hall of Fame careers to play in games that are meaningless. I don’t blame them.

Now, relax I’m not calling the Olympic Games meaningless. But considering the Super Bowl 44 was watched by 106.5 million viewers, its safe to say that the best football talent is in America. What’s the point of proving it in games when you show it in arguably the most popular sports league in the country?

Don’t be fooled thinking that blue-chip college recruits would want to participate either. Draft day is in May and college players aren’t going to want to do anything that may hurt their position on the draft board. There may be some who think playing could actually improve a player’s draft spot, but looking good against Hungary isn’t the same as competing in the NFL.

Competition is another thing. No one in any other country can match-up talent wise with football players in America. That’s why, outside of the Canadian Football League, there are no well-marketed leagues besides the NFL.

But let’s say I’m wrong and some professional players do play in the Olympics.  The word juggernaut comes to mind. Seeing Peyton Manning or Adrian Peterson crush France would be entertaining for five minutes, but in the end the lack of competition would make for bad viewing. People don’t even watch the Pro Bowl, why would they watch this?

Floyco’s article also discusses the possibility of not allowing NFL players to participate in the Olympics. Yep, that’s going to make viewership skyrocket.

American Style football should stay in the NFL and the United Football League. That way, fans get to see the top players in the game, and the best upcoming talent.

Until competition from other countries can be guaranteed, and NFL players have incentive to participate, the Olympics should remain football free. Watching the US crush North Korea just doesn’t sound exciting from a football perspective … although it would be fun to stick it to Kim Jong Il.

 

bgeist@mesastate.edu