When the Detroit Lions announced they\u2019ll be playing in Germany this season, there were plenty of fans excited, but others not so much.<\/p>\n
Here are some word-for-word responses to a Facebook post I made about the announcement:<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s called the National football league. Not worldwide. More money grabbing for the no fun league.<\/p>\n
\u201cSeason ticket holders get jacked. Same price – less games. Not to mention all the lost revenue for Detroit. This only benefits the franchise owners.\u201d<\/p>\n
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell understands these complaints, but said since they began hosting international games, sentiments have changed quite a bit.<\/p>\n
\u201cInitial reaction when we started this series was the fans looked at this as \u2014 you\u2019re taking a game away from our fans here … I think it\u2019s changed a lot. I think there\u2019s a pride factor that you\u2019re playing on the international stage, that you\u2019re representing your community,\u201d he said on the St. Brown Podcast this week.<\/p>\n
Goodell said there\u2019s also another factor at play \u2014 international relations.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt actually is a diplomatic tool in some ways because it gives people a chance to understand about one another\u2019s culture … and how we can work together in a positive way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The NFL commissioner said the league is playing nine international games this season, but he hopes to get to 16. He also said there\u2019s a possibility of one day having an NFL team or two outside U.S.<\/p>\n
\u201cI say that because of the fans\u2019 reactions and the partners\u2019 reactions, but there\u2019s still a lot to determine in that case,\u201d he said, especially when it comes to scheduling.<\/p>\n
While fanbases are large in international cities close to the U.S., like Mexico City and Toronto, and that may be an easier option at first, Goodell said England and Germany could be options, especially as they evaluate stadium sizes.<\/p>\n
\u201cCould you put two teams in each of those markets? I think you probably could. So you could have a four-team division, but there may be other markets you want to go to. So I think we just have a lot to learn and to build on, but I do think that day will come,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
You can watch the full interview below.<\/p>\n
And onto the rest of your notes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When the Detroit Lions announced they\u2019ll be playing in Germany this season, there were plenty of fans excited,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":782567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2071],"tags":[146,113,153,4391,2506,7,147,6],"class_list":{"0":"post-782566","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-detroit-lions","8":"tag-detroit","9":"tag-detroit-lions","10":"tag-detroit-lions-news","11":"tag-detroit-lions-notes","12":"tag-detroitlions","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-lions","15":"tag-nfl"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/116149275052435884","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=782566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/782566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/782567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=782566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=782566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=782566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}