The NFL is committed to having a regular-season game in China by 2018, but not all teams are on board for making the trip around the world to play a meaningful game.
According to Ashley Fox of ESPN, the Green Bay Packers and New York Giants are among the teams that would be unwilling to play a regular-season game in China.
“We would not be in support of that,” Packers president Mark Murphy said last month. “That’s such a long trip. If they do it, it would make sense for West Coast teams — shorter trip for them. But that wouldn’t be something we would want to do.”
Giants owner John Mara agrees.
“I think there’s a feeling that our game could be very attractive over there and generate a lot of interest,” Mara said. “But I’m sure not volunteering to play over there. That’s a tough trip. I don’t know how you do that. You certainly have to give them a week off afterward. And even a week before — it’s a pretty tough trip.”
The NFL has been playing games across the Atlantic Ocean in London since 2007, but putting on a contest in China is far more challenging from a logistics standpoint. A flight from Los Angeles to Beijing can take over 13 hours, and there’s a huge culture difference between a trip to the United Kingdom and China.
Regardless of the issues, the NFL has gone all in for playing a game in China—a mostly untapped market with almost 1.5 billion people. There is huge money to be made by capitalizing on the appetite for American sports overseas. The NFL rarely passes up an opportunity to make more cash, even if the resulting process hurts the product on the field or complicates the professional responsibilities of the players and coaches.
The Los Angeles Rams are expected to be one of the teams participating in a game in China. Commissioner Roger Goodell has said “multiple” other teams have expressed interest, but it sounds like the vocal majority of teams are against making the grueling, taxing trip to play a meaningful game during the season. It’s hard to blame them.
