Football Colonization has begun...

Super Bowl week-end has easily become one of the great holidays of our era--all the hoopla, all the food, all the drinking, all the laughs, all the people calling out sick tomorrow...

I'm visiting friends this year, and on top of beer and other drinks, we have a veritable feast of deep fried selections: jalapeño poppers, fries (normal and seasoned curly fries), mozzarella sticks, snickers bars, ice cream, chicken wings (have oven baked as well), onion rings, chicken tenders, and I'm sure a couple surprises. Deep fried flam? Deep fried oysters? Frog legs? Who knows, Super Bowl weekend brings out the spontaneity in everyone's palette. All this in addition to cheese steaks, hamburgers, chips and salsa, chili, pigs in a blanket, and a tray of veggies for good measure. And even worse, I'm sure I'm forgetting something big, and it's not a three or six foot hoagie, which is not happening this year. What is happening, however, is another go around at a quite interesting social, and decidedly American, phenomenon.

You have commercials, and parties, and events at the local bar. It's one of those days most Americans do not want to be alone for, including people who have no idea what a forward lateral is or who any of the players are, gathering as the rest of the world watches us--much like we watch them during the World Cup. And, ultimately, it's this, the rest of the world watching, this is going to be the major development for all of pro sports, with the NFL and NBA in the vanguard of imperial sports colonization.

You already see the effects, the global search to find NBA superstars. The NBA is easily the most wide-spread American sport--hell, we can't even get gold in the Olympics anymore. NBA scouts are traveling to the most backwater places, not to find diamonds, oil, or other precious resources for big business, but to find athletes of unnatural ability, or size, or anything. Having a superstar like Yao Ming sure does a lot to sell the NBA, and all its products, to all the billion+ people living in China...quite the market indeed.

And now the NFL wants in. NFL Europe is a joke, more or less, unsupported by the NFL. The talent and the games are not only lackluster, but lacklusterly attended. Meanwhile, soccer (futbol) is marching along in its rightful place as the top sport of the world--a sport largely sneered at in America. Even here at the Positioning Group, we never wager on soccer matches outside of the World Cup (though we are beginning to look that way, huge source of earning potential, facts are facts). We just don't know it well enough. It's strange . It's not our sport, so screw the rest of the world, who needs it--except we need it, or, not need, but want it.

So returning to the NFL Europe, put on any of the newer versions of Madden NFL and look at the ratings for these teams: terrible, terrible, terrible. Sure there are exceptions to the rule, players who can make the switch to the American stage, but they are far from the norm. This will be changing soon, however. More and more players who are "just not good enough" for the NFL, will find their way easily to Europe, and as more and more "just not good enough" players begin to play in earnest, the sport will gain popularity--especially since the NFL is making a conscientious effort to expand. Already pre-season games have been played in Japan, regular season games in Mexico, and now next year brings the first regular season game to be played in Europe--in London. How fitting that the NFL is reaching to the city most famous for it's colonial empire and expansion...

Now, it is not to say that the NFL Europe is ignored, that is not true, and there are die-hard fans of these teams--especially in Germany. Germany will be a huge market for the NFL. However, die-hard fans are not a viable option, the NFL requires mainstream attention, and by bringing the natural focus extended to the league by the media to Europe, they are planting seeds that will sprout--one day resulting in an international league. Any doubt in this developing should quickly be abolished. Look at owners, at any owner, and what drives them? Money. The American market is saturated, new ground must be explored.

This is what drove the great powers to seek resources in Asia, Africa, and the Americas back when England, France, Portugal, Spain and Russia were the super powers of the globe. Enormous amounts of capital were exported to non-European territories, all to bring even more money to the hands of the few owners. These same principles are relevant in the NFL's quest to take over the world. Expect to see European football player salaries to rise, expect the stadiums to become more modern, expect to see increasing coverage of European football--not just on ESPN--but especially on the NFL network. The owners control the media, control the league, the players, and now they want to control the world.

Roger Goodell, this will be your legacy: success, or failure.

Is this a bad thing? I don't know. I love football, and I can't think of a better Super Bowl than having the New York Jets play against the Parisian Puff-Puffs, or the Cleveland Browns VS the Bangkok Bangers. In 20 years, when all the world joins America to see who the World Champion of the International Football League will be, just know that the NFL has successfully colonized the world, and made it its oyster.

And that Power Position Betting will be giving you all the rundown on the games.