Sports and their Influence on Different Countries: The NFL

Sports and their Influence on Different Countries

Jon Eichenbaum, Guojon Bjarkason, Julius Halldorsson, Suk Jae Yoon

The NFL and its Influence on the United States

Overview:
Like soccer(to avoid further confusion in this post I will be using the word soccer instead of football moving forward) is a religion for most countries around the world, the United States has a similar religion. It is that of football. It is not uncommon to hear the quote "the NFL owns a day of the week", and this is not untrue. On any given Sunday in the United States you would be hard pressed to find a store, restaurant, or household that was not playing at least one of the football games that is on. In the United States football has a very significant socioeconomic influence and impact and that is why I have chosen to discuss this topic.

Brief History:
American Football's origins can be traced back to the late 1850's and early 1860's. It was originally a game that was intended to be something of a mix between rugby and soccer. Walter Camp, a Yale University man, is widely regarded as "the father of American football". This is because he established many of the primary rules that are still used now. In its infancy, football was primarily a college game. So much so that the first official game was actually played between two colleges, Rutgers and Princeton in 1869. The first "professional" game of football was played in 1892 when William Heffelfinger was contracted $500 to play for the Allegheny Athletic Association. Professional football became more prominent after 1892 and an American Professional Football League was established. Some highlights include the introduction of the NFL draft in 1936 and the first televised game in 1939. It is widely regarded that the birth of modern football was in 1965. This happened when the National Football League and the American Football League merged. This lead to the creation of the Super Bowl. The Super Bowl is the conclusion of the NFL season and has now become one of the most watched annual sporting events in the world. There is currently speculation of the NFL going international. There has been a recent push to move an NFL team to Europe, most likely in London.

Social Impact:
While many sports may claim to be "America's Sport", ratings prove that football reigns supreme. In 2017 the average NFL game had a viewership of about 16.5 million people. To compare, the most watched World Series(baseball) averaged about 18 million viewers. Those are the biggest baseball games of the year and the viewership barely beats a Monday night football game. Another mind boggling stat is that the Green Bay Packers have sold out every single game at Lambeau Field since November of 1959. For those of you who are not geography buffs, Green Bay is a city in Northern Wisconsin where temperatures often go sub-zero and Lambeau Field is not inside. It is fairly difficult to argue the passion of soccer fans, but I believe football fans give them a run for their money. The average Super Bowl ticket goes for around 2700 euro.
Due to the exposure that NFL players are subjected to, they often use that platform to impose messages to the public. The most recent and most controversial instance what the one that Colin Kaepernick started on September 1st 2016. Originally this controversy manifested as a protest against police brutality in the United States. Kaepernick displayed his ideas by kneeling in solidarity during the National Anthem. Many other NFL players of color decided that they agreed with this message and began to kneel during the National Anthem as well. Long story short this caused outrage and polarity in the United States. The protest became more convoluted over time and the NFL intervened. The rule the NFL imposed was that players either had to stand for the National Anthem or stay in the locker room.
This is not where the controversy ended though, in December of 2017 Kaepernick filed a collusion case against the NFL. The basis of his case was that NFL owners colluded to keep Kaepernick out of the league. This case has merit because Kaepernick was an above average quarterback between the years 2012 and 2016 and after this protest he was dropped from his team and never picked up by other teams. On top of that, many inferior quarterbacks were picked up by teams. In the summer of 2018 Nike made Colin Kaepernick the face of their new advertising campaign with the slogan, "Stand for something even when it means sacrificing everything." This caused international pushback and is still currently a controversial topic.

Economic Impact:
The NFL is a $13 billion industry and climbing. The current NFL commissioner Roger Goodell aims for the NFL to be making $25 billion in revenue by 2027. This revenue is generated by the different teams in the league. For example, the Dallas Cowboys, are worth almost $5 dollars and are the richest sports club in the world. After investigating that list I found that the NFL makes up 4 of the top 10 spots on that list with the New England Patriots at 6, the New York Giants at 8, and the Washington Redskins in a tie for the number 10 spot. In 2017 NFL teams made up almost 50% of the top 20 richest sports clubs list. The average NFL team is worth $2.5 billion. The league receives around $7 billion a year from its TV deals and makes billions more in advertisements, ticket sales, and merchandise. A 30-second advertisement will run a company about $5 million and around $700,000 in a regular season game.

Other Controversies: 
Due to its size and the competitive nature of the NFL and American Football in general controversy will likely follow. I am only going to highlight the notable topics. The first and currently most prominent is player safety. According to the NFL player safety is at an all time and this is due to many rule changes. Most notably that players can now be disqualified for head to head contact. This is due to the fact that the NFL as an organization is an avid opponent against a disease called CTE. This disease stems from head trauma. The reason the NFL opposed this disease so heavily is because if people thought that playing football could literally kill them people would not play anymore or watch.
Another debate that is currently going on is whether or not the NFL should become an international organization. There are many proponents for moving an NFL team to Europe, most likely London. NFL games have been played in Wembley Stadium since 2007 and now in 2018 there are three games scheduled. There are many proponents for moving an NFL team abroad, but many have also pointed out the logistical difficulties that would follow.

-Jon Eichenbaum