I saw this on cbssports.com. There are a lot of challenges with this endeavor, not the least being how it waters down the talent of an already talent bereft league. Imagine some team starting one of the next four QBs in a league where there are barely enough starter-quality signal callers as it is. Player safety rules, especially for QBs, are going to get stupid. NFL expansion: League looks to create international division in coming years, per report The NFL is set to further its expansion efforts By Jeff Kerr If the NFL is considering expansion and adding more franchises, the league is going to look outside the United States for it's next venture. The league is looking to create an international division in the coming years, an anonymous NFL owner told Front Office Sports. The anonymous owner said the league doesn't know if the international division will start within two years or five years, not providing a timetable for the division to take place. The league will tie a record five international games in 2003, three in London and two in Germany. The NFL had five international games last season, three in London, one in Germany, and one in Mexico. An expansion of more than two teams would be a first in league history. The last expansion team was the Houston Texans in 2002 and the last time the league expansion was two teams with the Carolina Panthers and Jacksonville Jaguars in 1995. While the league hasn't added an expansion team in 21 years, the NFL added four expansion teams from 1995 to 2002 to get to the current 32-team format. Reports have appeared over the years of the Jacksonville Jaguars potentially moving to London, but the Jaguars continue to play one game a season at Wembley Stadium. The league has played an international game nearly every season since the NFL International Series began in 2007 (sans the 2020 season where the games were canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic). The league added a game in Germany last season and added two for 2023. While the German cities the league will play in this year have not been announced, the NFL played their first game in Germany in Munich last season. The league has played International Series games in London, Munich, and Mexico City thus far -- those cities would appear to be prime candidates for expansion teams in the future. If the NFL chooses to have a division in Europe, cities that haven't hosted NFL International Series games would be on the table. https://www.cbssports.com/nfl/news/...-add-star-qb-from-the-ravens-not-the-packers/
Honestly though, I think that the more they expand the game, it starts to water down the product. It's like they never heard the story of the goose that laid the golden egg.
Mexico might work, but any team in Europe is going to create serious headaches w.r.t. time differences. There's already a noticeable effect on win% of East cost teams traveling West, and vice versa. That's just a 3 hour difference. What about a 5-9 hour difference?? Either way, these stories have appeared for over a decade, and nothing seems to come of it, so I presume this is still a long ways away. The more likely next move is to play more games in Europe to slowly increase interest. But actually putting a team there? Not anytime soon.
Can you imagine being told you're being traded from San Francisco to Berlin? Or vice versa? How about being undrafted and having the choice to sign with Pittsburgh with a $10,000 signing bonus or London with a $20,000 bonus? That's not even enough loot to get you set up and there's a ~95%+ chance that you're not even going to make the team.
This would be nothing more than pure greed by the league. Like resnor mentioned earlier this will lead to watering down the product. We better win a super bowl soon because it's only going to get harder if this happens. I just want to see Miami win a super bowl before I die. After that I won't give two ****s what they do.
Doesn’t have to be create an NFL Europe league. Field like 8 teams and let them play the same rules just for Europeans. Maybe once a year have a title game between their best and ours after the superbowl. Make it a more global event
They already had the NFL Europe League and it didn’t last very long. I don’t like the NFL expanding franchises outside of the US, especially over in Europe. The travel back and forth to Europe is brutal. I know! I can’t imagine players having to make numerous trips overseas during the season. If the NFL wants to re-establish the NFL Europe League…and have their champion team play our super bowl champion, then fine, but that in itself would be an utter disaster for the European league. It would take decades for the teams to be viable contenders…much like the US still sucking at soccer on the international level.
Maybe if they made the travel after a Thursday game. And then the traveling team gets the bye the next week. IT would be rough on the European team and they would most likely have to play 2 or 3 weeks without going home.
Start with 2 teams in Mexico (or anywhere S America), two in Canada. Keep it in this continent. Or, go a completely different route. 16 teams in Europe. Let them have their own playoffs, then have the winner play our super bowl winner for a world championship after the teams are well established over there. Maybe they merge later or, maybe not. But start them separate.
One concern that I have about overseas teams is that I really do wonder if they will be able to work the back of the roster like the American teams. There are a lot of bottom of the roster guys in the league that really do play a significant role in team construction. Think about how many guys are like Malcolm Perry or Lynne Bowden Jr. They were on the back of our roster, got cut, landed somewhere else, may get cut again, could wind up on practice squads, active rosters, and be free agents over the course of the year. If I were one of these guys, I would do everything within my power to NOT sign overseas. Suppose Bowden gets cut by the Patriots on the final cuts, and Waddle tweaks his hammy and will be out a game maybe two. Miami could easily snag him thinking, "He is somewhat familiar with the system and the QB. We can get him in and caught up fairly quickly. He can be on a flight and in Miami within a day." We keep him for a week. He gets cut and is looking for another team in the same position... Welcome to the NFL. This happens all the time. But now imagine if he is in London. That is a long flight. He is gonna be worn out and jet lagged from the time change in London. How many worthwhile practice sessions do you honestly think he could get in before a game? I honestly think most teams would think, "We'd be better off just signing someone else who is in America." I think that players would be pretty quick to realize this and would understand that it probably is in their interests to not go overseas unless they really think they are sticking to a roster for a year.