But they already have a football.
That was my quick dumb guy take on the NFL playing another game in Rio de Janeiro, this time featuring America’s team. It was good entertainment though. The shaky turf didn’t kill anybody, as many feared in the lead-up. The Dallas Cowboys lost in heartbreaking fashion, as is their custom, to a Ravens team that also often infamously suffers the same sort of fate. It was a true showcase of football Americana for a nation largely unfamiliar with futebol americano.
And yet I have to ask, with a record nine international games to be played this season…where is the NFL going with all this? Twenty years into the international NFL experiment, a gambit that now apparently necessitates removing Dallas Cowboys games from Texas, is the juice worth the squeeze? I suspect not. I believe the Netflix numbers from the 49ers-Rams season opener in Australia to be instructive here.