Friday, August 3, 2012

American Football in the Olympics?

Today, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell was quoted as supporting the notion of adding American Football as a future Olympic Sport.  With all due respect to Goodell (and those like me whose favorite sport is football) that is just crazy talk on many, many levels. 

To become an Olympic sport, the activity must be one engaged in by at least 64 nations.  Just how many nations actually have credible competition in American style football?  Well, there is the United States, and I guess Canada, and I read a John Grisham novel that spoke of a professional league in Italy that primarily used home grown Italian talent (the book was fiction, but I don't know if the league was real) but where else would the competitors come from? 

Even assuming you found 64 countries willing to field a team to compete in American football, the Olympics compresses all of the events into a tight 14 days time period.  Just how would you narrow a field of 64 teams down to three medalists in 14 days?  A single elimination tournament for 64 teams takes 6 rounds of competition to complete (and that doesn't include figuring out which of the teams that lose should get a silver or bronze).  At least two teams are going to play 6 football games in 14 days?  I don't think so. 

But assume that is how it is planned.  Who will play for the Americans?  Will the NFL be willing to send 45 or so of its best players to some foreign land (or even to somewhere in the United States) to train for several weeks in July and then to compete for 14 days in August when NFL training camps are in session?  How about the SEC, the Big 10, the PAC 10 or the other power college teams?  Will they agree to allow their scholarship athletes to miss out on summer practice leading into the college football season?  I doubt it. 

There is also the injury factor.  How do you think an NFL team will feel about having its NFL most valuable player quarterback (or a college feel about its Heisman trophy candidate running back) playing 6 games in 14 days against competitors who don't really know the rules all that well.  This isn't badminton and these players could get seriously hurt. 

Finally, how much honor or prestige really would accrue to an American team winning a gold medal in American Football.  Come on.  Is that a medal one could be proud of?  It is a dumb idea.