Osborne Ink » NFL http://www.osborneink.com News that's fairly liberal, but never unbalanced Thu, 09 Feb 2012 22:20:20 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.4 Globalizing Football http://www.osborneink.com/2010/02/globalizing-football-2.html http://www.osborneink.com/2010/02/globalizing-football-2.html#comments Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:00:18 +0000 Matt Osborne http://www.osborneink.com/?p=1867 Continue reading →]]> Remember what I said a while back about the NFL’s (really rather clever) efforts to bring the game to China?

The National Football League has tried and failed to build international audiences, but now they’ve set their sights on China with a new strategy: a reality show starring a Chinese rock band. WaPo buried the money quote on page two:

It was obvious after watching one taping that the reality show will not have the usual sheen of an NFL Films production. But then, it doesn’t have to. The intent is to produce a campy, lighthearted program that will convince Chinese children that if they want to learn the essence of America they must come to understand American football. (Emphasis mine)

They might have a point: George Will once described football as “a combination of the two worst elements of American life. Violence and committee meetings.”

Turns out the NFL’s strategy has as much to do with Sun Tzu as rock’n'roll:

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