Could The End Of NFL Europe Be The Start Of The NFL In Europe?

Posted by Jeff Sack under NFL

During my childhood, there was one man who was above all others in my mind as the embodiment of the NFL, Pete Rozelle. Rozelle was the first NFL Czar that I remember, his predecessor Bert Bell was the NFL Commissioner until I was three years old, but if I told you I have any recollection of his time in office, I would be lying. I had NFL heroes, Vince Lombardi, Bart Starr, Jim Brown, but to me nobody else was truly the face of the league during his tenure, Rozelle was the Man. Rozelle was an innovator, look at the symbiotic relationship he made with the television networks. Let’s remember, during the 1940’s and 1950’s MLB was truly “The National Pastime” it was not just a corny saying. Baseball was not only first among equals, it dwarfed it’s competition. Baseball was the top tier, the other three majors were at least one step below. The NFL was not the juggernaut and the goldmine, that it is in 2007, but Rozelle turned that around.

Pete Rozelle was a visionary, he saw very quickly that the relatively new medium, T.V. could be much more advantageous to his sport that to baseball. Baseball was made to listen to on the radio, even now with the MLB Package that I subscribe to, my favorite way to experience a baseball game is with a good broadcast team calling a game on the radio. Best scenario is to be at the park, with the AM radio on listening to the play by play of the game as you are up close and personal. That is the way I experienced every game in the Jacobs Field press box in Cleveland. although we had the choice of going with the television audio feed or the radio, I always chose the latter. To me baseball and radio go together like ice cream and hot fudge, made for each other.

The NFL however was made for the television era, with all the action, and the violence, and the pure athleticism football was made for a visual medium. Even more so during the years of the rivalry between the NFL, and the old AFL and kept going as the AFL became part of the more established league. The AFL was not the old “Black and Blue” division, scratching and clawing for every yard. The AFL became an aerial game and one that relied more on speed and agility, rather than pure brute strength. Rozelle saw that and his first real mark on the culture was getting his league to become a fixture on broadcast television. Before the merger, NFL games were on CBS, AFL games were on NBC. Once the merger took place, NFC games were broadcast on CBS, and AFC games were broadcast on NBC. If the game was between teams from two different Conferences it was usually the home team’s network that would air the games. In 1970 ABC joined the party with Monday Night Football introducing Howard Cosell to folks who were not boxing fans(Cosell first made his reputation in the 1960’s calling Muhammad Ali fights, and especially the cat and dog interviews they would have after the match.)

Rozelle’s successor Paul Tagliabue, was really the antithesis of Rozelle. Rozelle was gregarious, telegenic, affable, charismatic. Tagliabue was none of those things, he came across on television and in person as a patrician banker. Very dry, and certainly not the guy that Rozelle seemed to be. It was said that a room brightened up when Rozelle entered it by his sheer magnetism and persona. With Tagliabue, it was said he could brighten a room by leaving it. I got the chance to be part of a group interview with Tagliabue in 2000, it was not a memorable day. Rozelle was a manager,Tagliabue was a shopkeeper. Rozelle was an innovator, Tagliabue a caretaker.

Roger Goodell, who is now the NFL head honcho, reminds me a lot more of Rozelle than Tagliabue. I have not yet had the opportunity to interview the new Commissioner, but from what I have seen in televised sessions, in print and from talking with fellow reporters who have met him, this man’s tenure will most probably be very pro-active quite like Rozelle was. And that is why I believe, that the demise of NFL Europa, formerly the WLAF or we laugh is just the first of a series of moves that could eventually put at least one if not more NFL Franchises in Europe.

Goodell strikes me as somebody who feels most comfortable going forward not backward, that’s why I believe this retreat from the European Market is only a temporary one. And I believe that he already has visions of a Phoenix risng from the ashes, of what was really always a second class operation. Let’s face it, NFL Europa was on par with Arena League Football, a minor league inferior product to the parent league. That is why it came down to a handful of teams playing in Germany, making up the League, Europeans were no more willing to settle for a weak imitation than we in the USA.

Just a few weeks back, Goodell made overtures about a Super Bowl being held in a non US city. In that same press conference, he alluded to someday eventually having a franchise based in a non US city. To me this was the first step in making that a reality. Other than Los Angeles, which does not seem hot to trot to get back their own team, where in the US can you expand to. the only large market that quickly comes to mind is Vegas, and we all know that can never happen because of all the Sports Books located there. So in order to find new markets, there is a real possibility that you will have to travel at least out of the country (say Toronto, or Mexico City) or even off the continent.

Will there be obstacles to conquer? Yes but they can easily be overcome. Let’s say the NFL puts two teams in Europe, London and Berlin, for East Coast teams the air travel really would not be that different from flying to the West Coast. And for other teams you just make sure their trip to Europe would be before a By week, or possibly schedule the two European teams on consecutive weeks, and have the visitors do their training in Europe in the week between games. As for the time difference, it is five hours earlier in London than in New York, if you schedule the game for 6:00pm there it would be 1:00pm on the East Coast.

This situation makes sense, you explore an untapped market and bring it a quality product, fans will come. Even while there own teams are going through the growing pains that every expansion franchise does, they can still see Reggie Bush, L.T. and Peyton up close and personal. As the voice said in the movie “Field Of Dreams” “Build it and they will come.

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One Response to “Could The End Of NFL Europe Be The Start Of The NFL In Europe?”

Bye NFL Europa, Welcome NFL In Europe-Football Forums-GoTeamsGo Sports Fan Forum on July 1st, 2007 2:31 pm

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