The NFL is an American sport. It always will be. Nothing in entertainment is a bigger, safer bet to succeed than NFL football games. They draw big, both in person and on TV. Naturally, Roger Goodell's league wants to expand its footprint internationally. There's growing interest for NFL games in ...
There is no risk of this. NFL is more popular than ever and only gets more popular each year.
My personal opinion as a fan is that I love when football is on at 9 am so I can truly watch football all day. I understand it’s a hassle for the teams and that some players and coaches don’t like it. But that’s an issue for their union to take up. For me, as a fan, it doesn’t hurt the product at all to have games in other countries.
Year before last I drank a beer while walking to a bar before 5am. I don’t know if that’s an argument for or against, but it was noteworthy.
I could even get behind the one game per team per year. It would even mean an easy return to 8H/8A every year while in the US. Selfishly, as a Jags fan it would also mean no more god-damn road-shows spending multiple weeks in England and fucking up the rhythms of the season.
Beyond that, the NFL needs to understand that it will never displace soccer in most of the world and at best it will be playing on the edges, and that it’s important to be seen as a product that is premium (to its potential audience) because of its rarity and American-ness. You start thinking that there’s enough fan interest in every place every week, and then you hurt the quality of play and become less of an event. THAT’S when you have a real problem. American football is an odd beast that is just not set up for truly global mass appeal.