What a pleasant Friday morning reading, thank you Michael.
As a Brazilian sports fan who has delved into the world of NFL over the past seven years, I’m curious: What’s the prevailing sentiment among diehard NFL fans regarding those international games? Is it love or hate?
I'll cop to this being only a somewhat informed guess, but among the true diehards, I'd say it's closer to hate than love, but not by a ton. It's more of a shrug. I don't think they mind in principle that the games are happening, but they'd probably prefer that their teams aren't playing in them, for reasons both real and imagined.
The only thing that bothers me about international games is when the league doesn’t enforce the same standards for the fields. It was miserable to be a Packers fan the other night and worry about players slipping and that affecting the outcome/potentially leading to injuries.
It’s actually similar to the issues international soccer teams have when they play in the US, as we also roll out new grass for those games that doesn’t meet standards, and then in European club preseasons or tournaments like Copa America the quality is worse, potential for injury is higher, and fan experience suffers.
What a pleasant Friday morning reading, thank you Michael.
As a Brazilian sports fan who has delved into the world of NFL over the past seven years, I’m curious: What’s the prevailing sentiment among diehard NFL fans regarding those international games? Is it love or hate?
Hey Murilo! Thanks for reading.
I'll cop to this being only a somewhat informed guess, but among the true diehards, I'd say it's closer to hate than love, but not by a ton. It's more of a shrug. I don't think they mind in principle that the games are happening, but they'd probably prefer that their teams aren't playing in them, for reasons both real and imagined.
The only thing that bothers me about international games is when the league doesn’t enforce the same standards for the fields. It was miserable to be a Packers fan the other night and worry about players slipping and that affecting the outcome/potentially leading to injuries.
It’s actually similar to the issues international soccer teams have when they play in the US, as we also roll out new grass for those games that doesn’t meet standards, and then in European club preseasons or tournaments like Copa America the quality is worse, potential for injury is higher, and fan experience suffers.