Would an international NFL expansion fail… or is it already here and thriving?

Roger Goodell wants to create an international division within the next five seasons. That’s the worst possible idea… if it’s not already here.

The NFL has one of the largest pools of teams already boasting 32 franchises all across the United States. That might be about to change with the league considering expansion in both its number of teams… and its horizons, not least!

There is no specific timeline for the launch of the “international division” yet. However, even though an anonymous owner told Front Office Sports the NFL doesn’t know if this overseas division will start “within two years or five years,” it feels like a fait accompli.

In recent years, the NFL has held several international games. Just last season, the National Football League staged three games in London, one in Germany, and another one south of the American border in Mexico.

We’re tired of hearing about the Jacksonville Jaguars moving to London, but the poor cats have indeed been forced to play in Great Britain at least once for years on end now so it might make sense.

Is this something the NFL can truly turn into a reality, let alone something feasible in practice?

Looks to me like the answer is a clear no.

The NFL might create an International Division. It is hard to see it working… unless it is already working?

First of all, creating a new international division would entail birthing at least four new franchises under the current structure of the league. Just for context, the NFL has never expanded by more than two franchises at once (in 1995) before adding their latest member in 2002.

It took no time for another anonymous owner, quoted in the same report filed by Front Office Sports, to mention how “having just one team in London could be problematic.”

These problems are nothing new and have been identified for a long while, most recently last October when the idea of a Euro Divison popped up for the last time.

Speaking back then, NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said that “there’s no question that London could support, not just one franchise, I think two franchises.”

The main problem is, obviously, the ridiculous traveling schedule such a team (or teams) would endure. An entire international division would solve that riddle, partially. They could play inter-continental games between them (say, 11 or 12 of the full 17-game schedule), and only travel abroad five or six times per season, or fewer if overseas games (for them) are packed into USA-based runs of two or three games each.

The scenario presented above near rules out the possibility of a full four-team division getting built overseas, filled with your London Knights and your Munich Bavarians.

The NFL might have already put the “international division” in play… without anybody noticing

An alternative, you might think, could be to just fabricate a “virtual” international division of sorts. Teams would play games overseas through the season, but not quite establish themselves abroad. That, my dear friends, could already be happening.

Why did the NFL expand the schedule from 16 to 17 games? What about that odd game feeling like a weird addition? Well, enter overseas play!

More than two years ago, Ben Fischer of Sports Business Journal already reported on this. “The NFL is expected to launch a formal rotation requiring every team to play a home game outside the U.S. at least once every eight years,” wrote Fischer back then.

Check the data.

Since 2005, when the Arizona Cardinals played the San Francisco 49ers in Mexico, there have been 47 regular-season international games. All NFL franchises have played at least one international game since then, with the Green Bay Packers the last team to do so when they faced the Giants in London last October.

It doesn’t take a genius to see what is going on here, does it?

The eight-year rotation might already be in place with nobody (perhaps other than Jaguars fans) noticing.

What if there is no real “international division”? Book a trip to London, play a game every other year, and we’d be happy with it!

What if there is nothing set in stone in the official NFL docs, but there is a subterfuge plan of action pact between commissioner Roger Goodell and all 32 members of the league? Avoid expanding the league, lowering the shared revenues, and all of that while keeping everybody entertained!

Call me a conspiracist, but with the first and second waves of free agency over and nearly another month of wait till the draft comes our way… I just have too much free time on my hands these days to come up with wild theories about the NFL.