By John Garces/sports editor
NFL commissioner Roger Goodell has an ambitious plan to make his league a worldwide entity.
It involves all 32 NFL franchises giving up at least one home game a year to play in such football-crazed locales as London, Berlin and Paris.
That’s football, as in the American version, not to be confused with soccer or rugby, often referred to as football in those European cities.
NFL expansion may not seem like a bad idea, but the focus shouldn’t be on taking the game abroad when the image of the league is taking a hit at home.
Goodell’s plan, which ultimately would include the first Super Bowl to be played on foreign soil, was put into action Oct. 28 when the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins played each other at London’s Wembley Stadium in a “home” game for the Dolphins.
American football has never been a huge hit in Europe, with the NFL unsuccessfully launching two different European football leagues in the past.
In the 1980s, the World League of American Football was formed, which included teams from both Europe and North America.
After an unsuccessful stint with that league, the NFL opened a second European football league, this time with teams based exclusively in Europe.
The league, most recently known as NFL Europe, folded prior to the beginning of this year’s regular season.
Yet Goodell and his administration seem to be blinded by the ill-conceived notion of international expansion equating instant revenue for the league.
While it’s true that Londoners sold out the New York-Miami game, I can’t see the allure of the NFL drawing sell-outs 17 times a season, let alone 34, should they attempt to play two games per season overseas.
Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, who often took his team on globe-trotting exhibitions during the pre-season in the early years of his ownership, says he will not partake in such a venture now unless mandated by a league-wide rule.
What a coincidence, then, that Goodell intends to do just that.
Close your eyes for just a second.
It’s five years in the future, and it’s everybody’s favorite football holiday, Super Bowl Sunday, once again.
You see the pomp … the pageantry. You sing the “Star-Spangled Banner.” Things are great until you hear “God Save The Queen” before the kickoff of America’s biggest sporting event.
That, with all apologies to our friends in Britain, is positively un-American.
