5 more places we’d like to see the NFL play international games

The NFL is going abroad, and this time its to the dizzying heights of the Mexico’s most densely populated city. The Raiders and Texans will face off in a Monday Night Football matchup that might just be the most important regular season game ever played outside the United States.

Mexico City is a fine location, aside from the soul-draining altitude that will ensure plentiful supplies of bottled oxygen on each sideline. Mexico and England are only two steps in the NFL’s quest for global expansion. There are plenty of football-hungry foreign lands aching to host the Jacksonville Jaguars in their annual quest for five wins.

So what’s next? The NFL has held regular season games North America and Europe in the past decade. Before that, trips to Asia and Australia were part of the league’s exhibition program. Among the college ranks, we’ve seen trips to Dublin, Sydney, the Bahamas, and even Tanzania in the past six years alone.

There’s plenty of room for expansion, and almost no wrong answers (Antarctica, for example, is one).

Scotland

Is Scotland cheating? We’ve already got Great Britain covered, but England and Scotland are very different places, as William Wallace would attest.

Scotland is a land of tremendous people and even better whisky. The locals allegedly speak English, and there’s no shortage of tourist destinations to turn a weekend trip into a vacation. No matter what The Simpsons may have told you, the food is pretty great, too. Haggis is just fine, but Cullen Skink is like eating a happy childhood memory.

Personally, I’d Friday Night Lights it out on the well-peated island of Islay. Throw some lines down in a pasture, lock the sheep away for a spell, sell camping chairs as a collectible part of the ticket price, and let Laphroaig, Lagavulin, Bunnahabhain, and Kilchoman battle for sponsorship rights. It’ll be way better than Bud Light, that’s for sure.

But, if we’re disqualify Scotland for its begrudging acceptance of Queen Elizabeth and driving proximity to London, there’s only one right answer: Munich, Germany. During Oktoberfest.

You want to see a mess of epic proportions and a swell of Americans in Zubaz-striped lederhosen striking multiple items from their bucket list? Munich is the way to go. Imagine the dulcet tones of an Oktoberfest band effortlessly transitioning from Fliegerlied to the Steelers’ song “Here We Go” while a weary Yinzer takes off his boot, drinks an Augustiner from it, and softly whispers “I’m home.”

The NFL has two weeks at the end of September to figure this one out. Allianz Arena can handle some careful planning around Bayern Munich’s home schedule. You could even invite the Buccaneers out and see if they can work out a deal that swaps Roberto Aguayo for Robert Lewandowski. - Christian D’Andrea

Brazil

The sports fans of Rio de Janeiro took a lot of flak for the way they observed the 2016 Summer Olympics. They booed and jeered everybody who wasn’t Brazilian and essentially hurt feelings and broke unwritten rules every chance they could get.

It’s not that Brazilian fans were attempting to be disrespectful, it’s just that the sports-watching population doesn’t really know any other way to watch.

“Booing is kind of part of the football culture, which is that everything is very unilateral: my team or the team against me. Again, it’s part of the education that we need to have to help Brazilians to understand,” Rio 2016 spokesman Mario Andrada told Yahoo Sports in August.

So why give them an NFL game? Because energy is something that international games have lacked and Brazil has proven they don’t lack energy at all.

It wasn’t just soccer that brought a raucous crowd at the Olympics. Even pole vaulters and tennis players dealt with over-the-top crowds, and beach volleyball matches were nothing short of a full-blown party.

Sign me up for some of that rather than the typically subdued crowds we’ve heard at Wembley Stadium in London. - Adam Stites

I think it’s imperative to have the game take place in a country that’s already passionate about their favorite sport. That’s the case in Spain, where FC Barcelona is the center of attention.

The Barcelona fans sing “Barcelonale,” they have flailing-armed inflatables, mosaics, and plenty of other chants.

They also play at Camp Nou, one of the largest stadiums in the world that seats over 99,000 people. Between the passionate fans in the country and the large-capacity stadium, it could make for an exciting atmosphere in what is a beautiful country.

Of course, the NFL would have to ante up and send some good teams over there. The Jaguars and the Rams aren’t going to make for exciting football, and they’re used to excitement in Camp Nou. - Harry Lyles Jr.

China may not seem like a logical choice for a place American football could catch on, but it’s developed a following, and a reasonable next step would be to host an NFL game there.

American football started to get a foothold in China about five years ago, and now there are approximately 5,000 men and women playing American football at some level.

Zach Brown, who used to play for Arizona State, now lives in China for his job. He didn’t speak Chinese, but he had business cards printed up that read something to the effect of, “I play American football. You look like a dude who could play. Contact us here.”

Brown stood on the street, identifying people who simply looked like they were capable of playing football, and he handed out this business card so they could get in touch with him. It worked. Brown and Chris McLaurin, who played at Michigan, generated enough interest with this approach to start the American Football League of China, which boasts about 1,000 players.

Any nation that responds that well to an American guy handing out business cards about playing American football would surely welcome the opportunity to see an actual NFL game. Also, there is a Chinese football team named the Shanghai Skywalkers, and China probably deserves an NFL game for this reason alone. - Jeanna Thomas

No wait, Jamaica.

Oooh, what about ...

Bermuda.

No, Bahamas.

I guess I just want two teams to have a chance to get away from it all. - Sarah Hardy