American football with greater international popularity

It's taken for granted that as big as the NFL and American football is in the US in many countries it's still a niche sport or only known from seeing it depicted in American media.

I'm wondering how American or Gridiron football could have been at least on the level of basketball or even baseball right-now on an international level of appeal? With other countries aside from the US and Canada having popular leagues.
 

Insider

Banned
The only obstruction I see is that you need distinctive name, while everywhere aside USA "Football" is associated with 22 two guys (or ladies) running after a round ball with intention to kick it. Rugby is getting popular in Poland lately and for a layman eye, it is the same mix of Aztec blood-court ball games and wrestling, as American football.
 
It's taken for granted that as big as the NFL and American football is in the US in many countries it's still a niche sport or only known from seeing it depicted in American media.

I'm wondering how American or Gridiron football could have been at least on the level of basketball or even baseball right-now on an international level of appeal? With other countries aside from the US and Canada having popular leagues.

The problem with American football are that it's a inferior version of football, rugby and Australian football, at least if you wish to play it (no insult). Anyone who wish to play basketball or football can play it on any surface. Playing American football on cement or asphalt without gear risk serious injuries. Rugby and Australian football while not as good as basketball or football, you can still play it with less gear on any grass.

The reason that American football have become as successful as it is, are because it's extremely entertaining to look at and its rules make it perfect for television with ads, it's fundamental modern gladiator battles. The problem are that when TV came around the other sports was so integrated into other culturesaround the world, that they had little interest in American football. Basketballs success was because it was easy sport to adopt, but while many play it around the world, it's mostly in the same league as volleyball in popularity.
 
Basketball is pretty self evident for how it can translate easily, due to like Soccer it having a relatively low entry level for equipment needs. I was thinking though how a sport like Baseball the "American past-time" has very popular leagues as far off in Japan and South Korea.
 
It's taken for granted that as big as the NFL and American football is in the US in many countries it's still a niche sport or only known from seeing it depicted in American media.

I'm wondering how American or Gridiron football could have been at least on the level of basketball or even baseball right-now on an international level of appeal? With other countries aside from the US and Canada having popular leagues.
People already mentioned the equipment cost and oportunity cost, when other local leagues(football-soccer) make people goes for those sport(and the big people goes for combat sports, taekwando, wrestling and boxing are ultra popular in latin america), maybe if other countries got as much colleges and maybe more spread of american college culture might help making american football as the 'college sport'
 
I don't know if it is equipment requirements as much as the game's intricate complexity compared to other codes. I was playing scratch games of AFL when I was 4 and played organised soccer at 8 years old, but can a handful of little kids play American football with the excruciating complexity?
 
I don't know if it is equipment requirements as much as the game's intricate complexity compared to other codes. I was playing scratch games of AFL when I was 4 and played organised soccer at 8 years old, but can a handful of little kids play American football with the excruciating complexity?
Sure they can: just with ad hoc adaptations. Growing up outside Baltimore, MD, we played US football (of course) all the time in the autumn. The games mixed kids ranging in age from 7 or 8 up to 14 or 15. We didn't play tackle; rather, a variation known as two hand touch (laying two hands on the ball carrier stopped the play). We made up our own adaptations to suit the number of kids playing. So: it wasn't rigorously the same game as US colleges or the NFL plays, but we recognized it and had a lot of fun.
 

Bulldoggus

Banned
I don't know if it is equipment requirements as much as the game's intricate complexity compared to other codes. I was playing scratch games of AFL when I was 4 and played organised soccer at 8 years old, but can a handful of little kids play American football with the excruciating complexity?
We played a simpler version. Tackle, no pads, no sacking (except after 5 secs on 3rd down), four downs to get down the field, no punting, 7 pts. for a TD, and throw-off instead of kickoff.
 
Basketball is pretty self evident for how it can translate easily, due to like Soccer it having a relatively low entry level for equipment needs. I was thinking though how a sport like Baseball the "American past-time" has very popular leagues as far off in Japan and South Korea.

A lot of that was established early on. So I guess the way to spread American football (call it "gridiron", or handegg, why not) is to have it be spread early. It reached Samoa in the 1960s, and nowadays, Samoans have a very noticeable presence in the NFL. I think if you could introduce American football pre-WWII to certain places, you might get some decent local play. Especially because older football had less equipment. If the locals enjoy the game, they'll surely adapt to the changing rules of equipment standards.

I think getting it baseball level popular is doable. It would be kinda cool if it became popular in Polynesian and other Pacific nations, going by the amount of Samoans in the sport. Even if competing with rugby in New Zealand is probably a no-go. Maybe in parts of Africa too, since there's a decent amount of ethnic sub-Saharan Africans who play gridiron who either immigrated to the US or have immigrant parents.

Oh, and the biggest thing, someone can actually build a team to defeat the United States national American football team in the "IFAF World Championship", which seems to attract nothing but laughs from the American media by how badly the US decimates all opponents. Seriously, a bunch of college football players who graduated and were undrafted by any league, not even all from Division I schools, destroy everyone, everytime, guaranteed, until they let someone win. If someone can beat that in a serious match, consistently, then maybe there's a hope for international American football. But I suppose with an earlier POD, that won't be necessary and the US might not be forced to play international games with both hands behind their back because there's actually some level of play. Maybe it's like the World Baseball Classic where the US never actually wins anything. Or it ends up like international basketball where the US team is utterly stacked and thus dominates the sport.

I don't know if it is equipment requirements as much as the game's intricate complexity compared to other codes. I was playing scratch games of AFL when I was 4 and played organised soccer at 8 years old, but can a handful of little kids play American football with the excruciating complexity?

When I grew up everyone knew the rules by heart, and organising a simple game was no problem once you cut out the complex parts. After all, touch football and flag football exist for a reason.
 

Asami

Banned
We played a simpler version. Tackle, no pads, no sacking (except after 5 secs on 3rd down), four downs to get down the field, no punting, 7 pts. for a TD, and throw-off instead of kickoff.

The same here, but we permitted punting by throwing.
 
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