2 months ago
“Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And they’re getting hoggy.” When Mark Cuban, past proprietor of nan NBA’s Dallas Mavericks, fired that line astatine nan NFL successful 2014, he was partially goading and partially gloating.
It felt directionally true. The NFL looked bloated, arrogant and vulnerable. Decades-long skeletons were tumbling retired of nan closet. Crisis followed crisis: concussions, Colin Kaepernick, sinister owners, cheating scandals and an almost Nixonian effort to institute law and order. Youth information declined. Football felt, if not dying, past astatine slightest dated, creaking nether nan weight of its ain mythology.
The NBA, meanwhile, was ascendant. It was a highlights-driven convention designed for nan TikTok age. And while nan NFL was rooted successful rah-rah Americana, nan NBA had a increasing world footprint. It had a caller breed of owners, who were younger, tech-savvier and internationally inclined. The convention was a earthy export, pinch a little obstruction to introduction and star players from Greece and Cameroon, and soon from Serbia and Slovenia.
Twelve years on, that advantage – if it ever really existed – has evaporated. The NBA has an personality crisis, trapped successful a strategy that rewards losing and lurching from gimmick to gimmick. The NFL, by contrast, has tightened its grip connected everything, commercially, politically, culturally.
Live sports are nan past vestige of nan monoculture. In nan attraction economy, scarcity and arena programming are nan currency. Sports dominate. And nary merchandise commands attraction for illustration nan NFL. It has colonized nan calendar. It owns Sundays, Mondays and Thursdays. Not contented pinch owning Thanksgiving, it came for Christmas, and reportedly now wants a crippled connected Thanksgiving Eve. Last year, 83 of nan 100 most-viewed telecasts successful nan US were NFL games. Regular-season matchups outdrew Game 7 of nan World Series. Even nan secondary programming crushes nan competition. Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl half-time show has much than 125m views connected YouTube. Highlights from past year’s NBA Finals have barely scratched 1m. The NFL has transitioned authorities packages to Netflix and Amazon Prime, turning distant from accepted broadcasters to pursuit a younger, world audience. In sports leagues, astatine least, nan aged money has trounced nan tech bros.
If this is what “hog” behaviour looks for illustration – relentless growth, world ambition, squeezing each disposable driblet of worth retired of nan merchandise – past nan NFL isn’t getting slaughtered. It’s lapped nan section domestically. And now its sights are group connected competing internationally pinch nan Premier League.
“We are superior astir being a world sport,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said past year. In 2026, he’s putting his money and games wherever his rima is.
International description has been a cornerstone of Goodell’s commissionership. What began arsenic a once-a-year novelty successful London astir 20 years agone has evolved into a foundational part of nan schedule. Last year’s slate, nan broadest yet, took games to Brazil, Spain and Ireland alongside nan established games successful nan UK and Germany. Viewership for nan International Series roseate by 32%.
This year, nan NFL is upping nan ante successful nan world contented race. Nine world games are scheduled, stretching from Melbourne to Paris: nan 49ers play nan Rams astatine nan Melbourne Cricket Ground to unfastened nan play and will later spell to Mexico City; nan Cowboys caput to Rio de Janeiro; nan Falcons spell to Madrid; nan Lions to Munich; nan Saints to Paris; nan Commanders and 2 Jaguars games capable retired a three-game London slate. It is nan astir expansive world slate nan convention has attempted.
Goodell has agelong pushed for an 18-game regular play pinch an other bye week. More games create much windows, and much windows create much territory to works nan NFL emblem successful different clip zones. When nan schedule expands, nan convention will astir apt adopt Robert Kraft’s connection to person each squad play astatine slightest 1 crippled successful an world marketplace each year. It shouldn’t spell unnoticed that Netflix receiving $2.8bn to retreat its bid for Warner Bros happens to beryllium nan estimated value for a 16-game world authorities package.
“You tin deliberation of description arsenic nan number of teams, aliases you tin deliberation of description arsenic america playing successful world markets and reaching successful different areas,” Goodell told Westwood One recently. It is simply a revealing distinction. Expansion, successful his framing, isn’t astir lodging a imperishable franchise immoderate much but accordant reach.
It’s a savvy ploy. There are echoes present of nan Premier League’s ill-fated push for a 39th game, an other gameweek pinch each squad playing overseas. That thought collapsed nether taste guidance arsenic overmuch arsenic logistical strain. The NFL doesn’t look that friction. Exporting games is now embedded successful nan culture, and by allocating 1 further crippled per team, section fans will return to a afloat slate of location games. As description goes, it’s astatine slightest a coherent plan.
The NFL’s existent corporate bargaining statement caps world games astatine 10. To scope Goodell’s target, nan convention needs nan NFL Players’ Association to agree. Given caller turmoil successful nan union, nan chances of a CBA hold earlier 2031 person diminished. Landing those other world games is apt six years away.
There is besides nan persistent mobility of subordinate welfare. Players complain astir nan travel and lopsided schedules. “Every subordinate hates it,” Pat McAfee has said. Coaches grumble moreover more. Consider nan Chiefs’ schedule successful 2025: Brazil to unfastened nan season, a Monday nighttime crippled earlier a short week to play Buffalo, past Thanksgiving, past Christmas Day. “You alert 12 hours to Brazil, and past connected gameday you person to thrust 3 hours conscionable to get to nan site,” Chiefs defender Trey Smith said recently. International assignments do not autumn equally. They tilt nan competitory balance, and nan players cognize it.
No magnitude of moaning, however, will slow nan NFL down, surely not pinch a national caught up successful its own inter-personal squabbling. If playing successful Abu Dhabi increases nan wide pie, nan national will astir apt motion off.
The description isn’t stopping there. The 2028 Olympics, group to see emblem shot for nan first time, will connection different on-ramp to nan sport. The convention continues to flirt pinch nan thought of a Super Bowl successful London, and Goodell has teased a European-based franchise aliases division. “I don’t return world description disconnected nan table,” Goodell said astatine this year’s Super Bowl. “I deliberation that’s very imaginable someday.”
In nan short term, a stand-alone franchise remains retired of reach. Goodell has agelong said that a section would beryllium needed for world description to work. It would besides mean negotiating pinch nan union, navigating world taxation rule and hoping players are consenting to relocate.
And what if nan franchise squad stinks? Or free agents opt retired of playing successful Berlin, Mexico City, Riyadh aliases Seoul full-time? Why anchor successful 1 spot erstwhile you tin beryllium everywhere? Better to person a world footprint each week, taking nan play carnival arsenic acold and wide arsenic possible, than pin your hopes connected nan London Jaguars. With a walking roadshow, each marketplace gets a portion of nan spectacle without 1 needing to transportation nan afloat burden.
But nan thought of a early overseas franchise still lingers. The astir consequential improvement location will beryllium technology. During past year’s International Series, squad executives consistently brought up nan imaginable of supersonic travel. The convention agency has been intimately monitoring Boom Supersonic, nan American aerospace startup attempting to build nan first commercialized supersonic craft since nan Concorde retired successful 2003. Boom has surgery nan sound obstruction pinch a prototype and secured pre-orders for 130 commercialized planes, pinch rider flights targeted for 2030. Cut transatlantic formation times astir successful half, and nan astir stubborn obstacle to a imperishable overseas franchise will disappear. At a minimum, it will offset nan union’s concerns astir recreation times for nan early world schedule. The solution isn’t present yet, but it’s coming.
There is an irony successful each of this. In nan America First era, nan astir powerful sports spot successful nan state is aggressively going global. A convention that wraps itself successful nan emblem is taking Niners-Rams, 1 of nan astir consequential games of nan season, to an Australian cricket crushed … connected a Thursday nighttime … pushing nan league’s season opener to a Wednesday. The NFL is expanding its almanac and surface science simultaneously, while trading nan thought backmost location that location is thing amended than waking up pinch football.
Last year, Cuban sold his controlling liking successful nan Mavericks. The NBA he championed is stuck successful a ratings and characteristic quagmire. The NFL he warned astir getting hoggy is scheduling games successful Melbourne and Paris and plotting supersonic description . The hogs, it turns out, are fine.
