AHC: Make American Football An Olympic Sport

Just as the tin says, make American football, as in the NFL, a regular sport in the Olympics. Extra points if you get this to happen post-1970 NFL-AFL merger.
 
It needs to be a sport on all five continents, not just in one country, so it's ASB. Sorry hand egg brain injury is not getting in.
 
It needs to be a sport on all five continents, not just in one country, so it's ASB. Sorry hand egg brain injury is not getting in.

Then, if it’s necessary, find a way to get it international. These is the question as to how the end can be accomplished, I’m asking about the means.
 
A sizable majority of the world who enjoy watching and playing football (soccer) would need to start watching and playing american football, which is difficult to achieve.

There might be the possibility of the NFL investing heavily in american football internationally but that still faces the issue of countering the popularity of football. The issue is that a game of football can be as simple as having a ball (or something that can be used as a ball), some people willing to play, and objects that can be used to represent goal posts (like coats on the ground in a pile or buckets, etc.) Compared to football, american football requires more equipment that isn't cheap as well as a sizable playing field. American football would struggle to gain popularity in Africa and parts of Asia when compared to football.

For some countries, why would you want to play american football when you could play rugby instead. Simular enough for people to experience yet doesn't require the shoulder pads, helmet, etc that american football requires.

I don't think making American Football an olympic sport is possible to be honest. Too many issues, not enough advantages.
 
orry hand egg brain injury is not getting in
British, reminder the original football was techically proto football rugby and is called football not because using your foot, but playing on foot(rather polo, we don't call polo horseball)
 
How long are the Olympics going to last? How many teams?

NFL plays 1 game a week. Olympics is about 2 weeks. So you could squeeze in 3 rounds with 8 teams or you have to get creative.
 
a sport needs to be played in at least 75 countries, so the easiest way I can see is for the 50 states to all become independent
 
Have it be closer to a rugby variant and have soldiers pick it up big time during and after WWII. As it’s played today, you need too much equipment. Soccer, basketball and baseball can go worldwide because they require a bare minimum of equipment to be playable - American football (“tackle” would be a good shorthand) requires big, bulky shoulder pads.

If it sticks closer to rugby, it could theoretically go international with the likes of Germany and Japan as well as the odd country in Africa and South America going for it.
 
the best chance is as an exhebition sport in 1984 los angeles or 1996 atlanta.

Otherwise i dont think it has a big chance. Maybe a variant with fewer players like the 7man rugby thats now olympic. Or flag football.

Also you get around 2 1/2 weeks as play time so you can max play 4 groups of 4 and the two best advance into knockout with a game every third day.
 
How long are the Olympics going to last? How many teams?

NFL plays 1 game a week. Olympics is about 2 weeks. So you could squeeze in 3 rounds with 8 teams or you have to get creative.

This. Rugby in the Olympics has to be the sevens variety where you can hold a competition in two or three days. Also how big is an American Football squad? Fifty or so? The accommodation needs would be massive.
 
Takes too many people to a team, with a set-piece fixed position nature making playing short handed much more of an exercise in futility. Then there's the fact that it's only popular in U.S., Canada, and Japan; look at the way the World League/NFL Europa crashed and burned. Even baseball was also popular in Latin America, the Pacific Rim, and the Middle East, and look what happen to it in the Olympics.

Possibly if Arena Football had developed ten years early and was made an experimental event in 1984 at Los Angeles, does that count?
 
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