The NFL Looks to Europe - Will Europe Look Back?

On Sunday the 28th of October, the National Football League’s New York Giants and Miami Dolphins will play their regular season contest in Wembley Stadium, in London, England. The NFL refers to this game as their most recent experiment with growing the popularity of their league, but will the English care? Earlier this year when NFL Europe collapsed, it was clear that European sport fans didn’t want to see development league players, and now the NFL is bringing over some of the league's better talent for a game that affects the standings. Is the NFL failing to accept that the rest of the world sees American Football as a game with overly complicated rules, and too many interruptions? Or could the NFL simply not understand the cultural differences between the American Football fan and the European audience they are trying to reach? American audiences complained that Soccer lacks structure, strategy, has players diving for calls, and can end in a 0-0 tie. The National Hockey League understood the demand for more goals and changed their rules accordingly. American audiences consume Football in ways that can be social gatherings of family and friends, and the way the game is broken up lends itself to interact more with the other people that the viewer is with, “Wow, What a Play. Check out the replay!” American Football’s values don’t mix with Soccer and vice versa; I am referring to diving for calls for one thing. Injuries in American Football are seen as an acceptable risk to the sport and part of the game's culture. A Football player wouldn’t gain anything by faking an injury during the game and doesn’t do it. Whereas in Soccer, diving is also a part of the game, but Americans view it as unsportsmanlike. The two sports represent their followers' views of injuries because of the way their sport treats them. Will Soccer fans embrace American Football? Is the NFL just looking for incremental revenue gains, or are they still trying to assimilate their game into European sport culture? What would it take for Europeans to become fans of the NFL?