NFL Europa is no longer. It's really surprising that the venture wasn't more successful. They took players who weren't any good, put them in a place that doesn't like Americans or American sports, and expected the people there to pay attention to the crap version of a complicated sport at the same time as qualifying for Euro 2008 (note- that's a soccer competition).
In theory, Pro Space Football was supposed to be a sort of minor league operation for developing potentially talented young players. Denver sent over Teyo Johnson this year- a guy who has failed in three years with the Raiders and the Cardinals. Dr. Z from Sports Illustrated has his own take, and as usual, he's probably right:
I really don't understand why the NFL feels the need to expand overseas. In my opinion, the NFL is so popular because 99% of the players are Americans, whom we've been following since high school. Nothing in the world is more boring than the second round of the NBA draft, when everyone drafted is from Estonia and has a name like an eye chart. Or they're DJ Strawberry.
The thing I love about the NFL is that it's only one day week I have to devote. With other sports, it's every day of the week. Baseball ruins me:
"Hey, what are you doing today?"
Me: "Dodger game, Brad Penny vs. Jake Peavy."
"Tomorrow?"
Me: "um, I think Chad Billingsley goes tomorrow. "
I'm damn useless. But football is like a holiday, once a week. My friends come over and we watch the Broncos and set up another TV for Sunday Ticket. But now the NFL is on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. College goes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday... It's dilution. There's Football for Retards (Arena League) during the offseason, and now Mark Cuban is thinking of starting a new league. You know what I watched yesterday? Canadian football. It's kind of cool- they get 12 players, and seemingly no motion rules, and the fields are big, and you only get 3 downs. But I still only watched it during the commercials of the Dodger game. It's saturation.
There's baseball and Copa America, and the U-20 World Cup in soccer. We don't need more football. We need a break, and this is coming from a football blogger who bitches about no Bronco news. I love football, but the only way I'm watching another league is if there's a team with Mike Pritchard, Brandon Drumm, JJ Billingsley, Bobby Pesavento, and Bobby Purify on the team. Well, at least the Alaskan Assassin.
The NFL does not need a minor league- they already have it. It's called NCAA Football. At least that's a minor league featuring an organization from which I hold a degree.
This is really just a rant at this point. Pro Space Football was dumb. I tried to pay attention but couldn't. Fuck it- there's a Sunset Tan marathon on, and John From Cincinnati, Entourage, and Flight of the Conchords are on later.
*note: while typing this, I just heard a Pogues song used in a commercial for a Cadillac SUV. Unacceptable
In theory, Pro Space Football was supposed to be a sort of minor league operation for developing potentially talented young players. Denver sent over Teyo Johnson this year- a guy who has failed in three years with the Raiders and the Cardinals. Dr. Z from Sports Illustrated has his own take, and as usual, he's probably right:
Promoting football in Europe? It was minimal at best. A training ground? Maybe it had a little of that since they did get experience. But what it really accomplished was that it locked up a number of players for the NFL. Kept them from looking elsewhere. Kept them away from some David Dixon type who is always looking for investors ready to start a new, rival league. In other words, kept the competition, if it really did exist, at bay. But I guess they didn't feel it was worth the effort or the expense.It also allowed teams to keep extra roster spots longer into training camp, by the by. When talking about success stories from NFL Europa, I read where a spokesman cited Nick Ferguson. Um, yeah.
I really don't understand why the NFL feels the need to expand overseas. In my opinion, the NFL is so popular because 99% of the players are Americans, whom we've been following since high school. Nothing in the world is more boring than the second round of the NBA draft, when everyone drafted is from Estonia and has a name like an eye chart. Or they're DJ Strawberry.
The thing I love about the NFL is that it's only one day week I have to devote. With other sports, it's every day of the week. Baseball ruins me:
"Hey, what are you doing today?"
Me: "Dodger game, Brad Penny vs. Jake Peavy."
"Tomorrow?"
Me: "um, I think Chad Billingsley goes tomorrow. "
I'm damn useless. But football is like a holiday, once a week. My friends come over and we watch the Broncos and set up another TV for Sunday Ticket. But now the NFL is on Thursday, Saturday, Sunday, and Monday. College goes Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Saturday... It's dilution. There's Football for Retards (Arena League) during the offseason, and now Mark Cuban is thinking of starting a new league. You know what I watched yesterday? Canadian football. It's kind of cool- they get 12 players, and seemingly no motion rules, and the fields are big, and you only get 3 downs. But I still only watched it during the commercials of the Dodger game. It's saturation.
There's baseball and Copa America, and the U-20 World Cup in soccer. We don't need more football. We need a break, and this is coming from a football blogger who bitches about no Bronco news. I love football, but the only way I'm watching another league is if there's a team with Mike Pritchard, Brandon Drumm, JJ Billingsley, Bobby Pesavento, and Bobby Purify on the team. Well, at least the Alaskan Assassin.
The NFL does not need a minor league- they already have it. It's called NCAA Football. At least that's a minor league featuring an organization from which I hold a degree.
This is really just a rant at this point. Pro Space Football was dumb. I tried to pay attention but couldn't. Fuck it- there's a Sunset Tan marathon on, and John From Cincinnati, Entourage, and Flight of the Conchords are on later.
2 comments:
Thanks for blogging about something I told you to blog about. Now that I know you'll do this, I will tell you to blog about a lot more things. Like, why I'm sans lady friend, or why I went 16 months in college without a drink, or if you think Santa will ever give our generation a will to live.
my friend JL was drunk as piss one night and he ordered a Barcelona Dragons jersey off QTV. Perhaps he's wearing it in mourning today.
If you want to see JJ Billingsley, he's on something called the Colorado Ice.
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