The NFL in Germany? Ja!

I'd put Josie Wales in a solid 3rd place. But have a soft spot for Magnificent 7 as well. So many great ones, so little time to watch them all. I'm now living up at the base of the Sierra Nevadas not far from where a good 80% of all westerns were filmed in total or part. Wonderful setting.

PS - they filmed Tremors here as well but that's only a Western in Burt's mind eye. LOL.

 

Solid 3rd???
IMO. Number 1.

 

I didn't want to rain on Watt or Ray's parade but I can see why you bumped it up to #1 - admit it STD, ya got a hankerin' for Granny.......................

 

Ok. I'll have 2 agree with you....because you just named some I forgot that I Love.

 

LoL. Now it forsure is my #1

 

I'm ok with teams in Europe as long as it's a revisited NFL Europe acting as a DLeague. The NFL is really lacking in the development of QBs as well as O Lines. You can just look at the number of busts throughout the NFL at the QB position alone. There's nearly 5 teams that draft QBs once every three years, or even less. I'd imagine that in the past ten years there's been more busts than every Sunday starters. Could also give a few current coordinators a chance to be a HC, and show what they can do. The NFL likely won't go this route. Nor do I think they'll have a European division.

However, if there's a country that actually gained any traction of interest in American football, it's actually Germany and not England. Games should've been across Germany well before games in London and Manchester, although I do understand why. There's quite a few semi pro leagues propping up across Germany and Austria. And I could only imagine it getting more fans eyeballs if the NFL pushes several regular season games here. Don't be surprised if Germany starts developing an occasional homegrown talent that's a 1st or 2nd round talent with several in the mid rounds. England started college football within the past ten years. It gets about roughly the same fanfare as college soccer does here. Maybe it'll grow more, maybe it won't. France is decades behind England.

 

For a country where football is likely their 3rd or 4th favorite, that's a quality crowd.

 

Before the world shut down, I’d go to Brazil 2-3 times/yr for week or two at a time. Did this for 20 yrs. I, too, was shocked by the number of people who followed the NFL. They usually showed the Sun night or Mon night games, and these were more popular than you’d think.
I watched the first half of the Pitt/Cle tie game in a sidewalk bar in a small city in Minas Gerais. But they switched to soccer around halftime, São Paulo FC vs Corinthians took precedence.

 

I don't mind the foreign games. It's nice to spread the game around, get more of the world involved. I suspect that was part of the motivation behind the 17th game.

A lot of Americans live in Germany, and Germany reportedly has the largest NFL fanbase in Europe. It makes sense for it to be the next Euro country to get a game.

Brazil I believe also has a large NFL fanbase. Maybe a game in Rio will eventually happen.

I don't think it's so much about tapping into potential sources for scouting. Something like that can take a couple generations just to get off the ground, and there's no indication the NFL is interested in developing minor leagues. I think it's purely about the spectacle and growing the league's fanbase...or $$$.