American football is called ‘American’ for a reason: it is the dominant sport in the United States. Meanwhile, the rest of the world plays predominantly football, or soccer, as it’s also widely known. But, American football is spreading and with the expansion of the yearly NFL International Series, there is no sign of slowing. Truth be told, I am all for it. Here’s why:
The NFL has been trying to break into the international world for decades. In 1974 they announced their plans to launch the Intercontinental Football League (IFL). While the league never materialized, popularity in Europe was increasing. The NFL capitalized by holding an annual ‘American Bowl’ during the preseason in the 1980s. Later they formed the World League of American Football (WLAF), which started play in 1991. After a few years, the league folded, but returned in 1995, changing its name to NFL Europe League. This league ran until 2007, but failed again due to declining profit and player development. As a result the NFL decided to shift its focus to holding regular season NFL games in Europe.
The league began to host games in Europe starting with the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants in London. They have since expanded to several other countries in and outside of Europe, including: England, Spain, Germany, Ireland, Australia, Mexico and Brazil. Additionally, the NFL has granted marketing rights to teams for 21 nations and has seen expansion into other nations in the future, as fans have pushed and campaigned for it for a while. However, based on past expansion into Europe with the WLAF, it isn’t very feasible that they launch expansion into European or South American nations. At least not just yet.
Most recently, we’ve seen influxes of international talent in the NBA and MLB, and we could see a similar tale with the NFL if the sport keeps growing outside of America. Basketball has tended to bring players from Southeastern Europe such as Nikola Jokic, Vlade Divac and Luka Doncic, international popularity has been a thing since the 1992 Barcelona Olympics. Meanwhile, the MLB has seen a very recent surge in international talent with stars like Shohei Ohtani, Ronald Acuna Jr and Vladimir Guerrero Jr. becoming three of the icons of the league. One can only wonder what that would look like in the NFL.
I am personally all for it, because of the intrigue I have for it. In the MLB, Aaron Judge is arguably the most recognizable American star in the league, he constantly puts up monster stats and is continuously ranking at the top of the leaderboard for homeruns, though he continually gets overshadowed by Shohei “Yakyū shōnen” Ohtani. It would be fascinating to me to see the same thing in the NFL. Imagine a guy like Josh Allen and his impressive stat being overshadowed by a guy from Europe, Asia or South America who can stuff the stat sheet even more than the best players in the current league.
International players bring a new type of swagger to any sports league they play in and it’s fun and genuinely enjoyable to watch. It’s just in due time. International football players are here but a majority are just not on the same level of the MLB or NBA, hopefully that will change soon. Overall, if American football continues on the path it’s on. We could eventually see an influx of international football players come to the NFL. Despite its past failures to expand, the NFL is making itself present on the international stage, and that is something to look out for in the future.
