NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell’s plans for world domination took a hit in the Pacific theater over the weekend, as the league announced that it was postponing its 2008 exhibition game in China. That game will be pushed out to 2009, by which time the cheap labor n Beijing will have cleaned up from the 2008 Olympics. Clearly, Goodell didn’t want to anger the union by making them inhale sawdust and other construction particles.
If Goodell really wants to conquer China, though, he may need to find some actual Chinese players. According to the NY Times, though, he’s trying really hard to do just that. That’s Shen Yalei pictured here, working on his placekicking skills in an attempt to become the first Chinese NFL player. Of course, because kicking has been marginalized all to hell in American football, he’ll never be as big as Yao Ming, but if it’ll get half a billion Chinese interested in watching a gridiron for three hours, Goodell will take it.
I’m actually surprised Goodell isn’t making more inroads in Japan, where LaDainian Tomlinson-inspired anime has an audience, or South Korea, where Hines Ward could get free drinks for life. All in good time, I guess. World domination doesn’t happen overnight…
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1 China » Blog Archive » China Isn t Ready for the NFL Yet // Apr 3, 2007 at 4:17 am
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