In the trailer for the film Concussion (I assume it's in the actual film as well, I didn't see it), Mel Brooks's character warns protagonist: "You're going to war with a corporation that owns a day of the week."
In the 20-odd years since the events of that film, the National Football League has expanded its dominion beyond one-seventh of the calendar.
The NFL has since taken Christmas from the NBA and has its eyes on All-Star Weekend as well. But during Super Bowl week in New Orleans, various figures from across the league have laid out the next steps in the NFL's blueprint to becoming the most popular (and profitable) sports league in the world: continuing its reach across the globe, and extending its brand beyond 11-man tackle football.
In fact, this week has seen movement on three fronts.
International Expansion
The NFL has played games in London annually since 2007, with the obvious next step of having a team based permanently in Europe, most likely London. In an appearance on The Varsity podcast, Don Van Natta, Jr., one of ESPN's leading reporters on the business side of the NFL, moved the timeline from the NFL having a European-based team from the distant future to the foreseeable future.
Here, Van Natta summarizes NFL commissioner Roger Goodell's answer when asked at his annual State of the League press conference on when the league will play an international Super Bowl.
"He said yes, he can foresee there would be one when there is a franchise overseas," Van Natta said. "We know the Jaguars play every London, I wouldn't be surprised if that's the team that ends up there and I think the reward for that will be a Super Bowl in London. I think you can book it in the next five to seven years."
Domestic Expansion
The appeal of tackle football is that it's a game almost exclusively played by boys and young men. This is also its drawback.
Flag football has exploded in recent years, as the game -- or, a version of the game -- has been opened to demographics that aren't primarily males in their teens and twenties. Flag football will be played at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, and by all accounts the NFL plans to do with flag football in 2028 what the NBA did with basketball in Barcelona in 1992.
But that's still three-plus years away. In the present, Kansas City Chiefs owner Clark Hunt said this week the NFL is looking to place its own branding on a professionalized version of flag football.
From Sports Business Journal:
“I do believe it's an incredible growth opportunity for the NFL,” Hunt said, citing the potential among women and in international markets. He did not say whether the league would sell franchises as a business model, but invited fans to consider a future where teams called the Chiefs and Eagles might face off in flag.
“You could certainly envision on both the men's and women's side, if you wanted to sort of think into the future, every NFL team has their own men and women's flag team that perhaps plays in the offseason and uses some of the branding of the parent team,” said Hunt, who chairs the league’s powerful finance committee.
Why spend March and April watching the UFL, college basketball or -- God forbid -- the NBA when you could watch the Panthers and the Ravens play in flag football... in between checking the latest free agency news and reading the latest mock drafts?
International Expansion, Part 2
On Wednesday, the NFL announced the Los Angeles Rams will "host" a to-be-determined opponent in the league's first game played in Australia, to take place at Melbourne Cricket Ground some time in 2026.
Melbourne is 16 hours ahead of New York and 19 hours ahead of Los Angeles, so a 7:30 p.m. telecast on a Sunday on the East Coast would necessitate an 11:30 a.m. Monday kickoff in Melbourne. Turns out, when you've conquered the calendar, the clock is merely an inconvenience.
“When we first identified Australia as one of our global markets, it was not only because of our passionate fans who reside there, but also because of the important role Los Angeles plays in serving as a gateway to Australia and many countries across the Pacific,” Rams owner Stan Kroenke said in a statement.
Why Australia, and why now?
Ah, there it is. For those unaware, Brisbane is in Australia.
Getting flag football played in an Olympics on US soil is one thing. But to have a stripped-down version of your national sport -- a sport that is almost exclusively played by your country and your country alone -- played in an Olympics half the world away? That would be a major step toward complete world domination.