NFL Games in Germany
- Thread starter cyfanatic
- Start date
Whenever these types of games are announced my first thought is "I hope it isn't the Steelers (my favorite team)".
Hey Germany, have fun with Detroit vs Jacksonville.
At some point, every team will take a turn losing a home game to the "International Series". Although, some think the move to 17 games was to eventually have every team play one international game a year and get back to each conference having the same number of home games.
I feel that the Steelers played in Ireland at some point...but that might have been a preseason game? I would guess you are correct though and it would only be fair if each team had to take a turn going to Europe as a home team.
Funny how NFL Europe was shut down in 2007 despite a league record in average attendance that year, just to show up 15 years later to play football there again.
NFL Europe gave us some great team names too.
NFL Europe gave us some great team names too.
My only take on this is it's always a fun little surprise when midway through the year there is a game on at 9AM
Agree...but for me that game usually becomes background noise for my morning...if it were a game I really wanted to watch I might feel different.
I remember reading somewhere that Germany is actually one of the few countries over there that actually has a pretty good amount of fans that follows NFL football.
And a lot of that has to do with the number of American military bases in Germany. Not saying that Germans haven't picked up an interest in the game, but if they have done so it's because of the number of American soldiers stationed there.
Some were pretty good...
Admirals
Dragons
Centurions
Monarchs
Claymores
Would rather have Washington some of those over "Commanders."
A permanent London franchise would do well as the Monarchs.
Reminds me of the proposed Intercontinental Football League from the 1970s.
Barcelona Almogovares
Berlin Bears
Copenhagen Vikings
Istanbul Conquerers
Milan Centurions
Munich Lions
Paris Lafayettes
Rome Gladiators
Rotterdam Flying Dutchmen
Vienna Lipizzaners
I would much rather have them bring back the NFL Europe teams than sending two teams to play one game. I did get kind of invested in some of those teams at the time, even if the product was ok or just good enough.
And, yes, Washington blew it with the name, just like they blow at everything else.
I wish they'd just expand to 36 or 40 or something...
London
Germany (somewhere, not 100% sure where)
Foothold in the European market. Put two teams in the two most football-friendly markets. Put one in the NFC and the other in the AFC so you're selling those untapped European eyeballs with both packages. Always have at least one of them playing at home on Sunday so you always have an early Sunday morning game in North America, so now you have a consistent four-game television series each Sunday.
Mexico City
St. Louis
San Diego
Austin/San Antonio
STL and SD to give those fanbases new teams
Maybe Toronto and Montreal/Vancouver if you could get away with it.
When I was in Ireland for about a week a couple years ago I had three or four Irish people that sought me out to talk NFL/football as soon as they overheard my American accent. There are definitely people in England, Ireland, Germany, etc. that follow the NFL in a similar way to how some Americans follow the EPL and other European leagues.
I was in the Caribbean years ago on a British island and went to a bar to watch Ravens Steelers MNF and a Scottish couple came in wearing Steelers jerseys, drinking heavily, and having a great time.
Toronto would probably be the most logical pick for an out-of-U.S. market to tap, seeing how other pro teams are doing well there. London would probably do well too. Montreal is a bit of a wild card but would probably do well. I doubt Vancouver, considering how close they are to Seattle. Of course, a significant amount of logistics need to happen before it even gets that far. San Diego will probably wind up with a new team before any international teams happen.
The business case for Canada is obvious put the politics might be dicey --
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Football_Act
Promoting the Argonauts and the Alouettes to the NFL probably kills the CFL.
And Canadians are oddly defensive of unique cultural institutions like that.
If the Bills don't get help with the funding to build a new stadium (it is expected they will) wouldn't surprise me if they ended up in Toronto.
Was talking with a woman from our German office and she told me she loved NFL. When I asked why, she said "I just love seeing big men running so fast into each other." and then asked, "How do all those guys get so big?"