It’s rather unusual to see that the National Football League, which ranks as America’s most popular league in terms of T.V. ratings, is playing catch-up with one of the country’s least popular leagues, at least on the small screen, the National Hockey League. But making the kinds of inroads the NHL has made in the global arena is just what NFL owners will address at the spring meetings in Nashville on May 21–23.

Although the 32 owners will not vote on adding a 17th regular-season game, to be played abroad beginning in 2008 or 2009, the NFL, is in hurry-up-offense mode. The league lags far behind the NHL, the National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball, as well as soccer and cricket, on the world stage. Thus the NFL has yet to cash in on what owners feel is its fair share of global revenue from potential marketing opportunities. The league’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, has expressed interest in playing the Super Bowl outside America, and not merely in our neighboring countries. London will host the 2012 Summer Olympics, and it isn’t much of a stretch to presume that Goodell has given the British capital some consideration. (It isn’t beyond the realm of possibility that the NFL Pro Bowl could also end up in another country .)

In pushing to expand its international presence, the NFL recognized it’s no longer enough to be the biggest game in the nation — far too many euros, yuan, and yen are being lost to other sports.

The NHL will open its 2007–08 season in London with a pair of games featuring the Anaheim Ducks and the Los Angeles Kings. The NBA will hold pre-season training camps in Europe and China. And starting in 2008, the NHL will send a team to represent the league in an annual September tournament that showcases teams from an emerging European league. Similarly, Stern foresees an NBA-sponsored league in China.

In 2006, MLB held its first World Baseball Classic in which 15 nations and Puerto Rico were represented, and league officials plans to do the same in 2009. The Yankees and Boston Red Sox may even start the 2008 season in Asia.

Because American football is played in few countries, the NFL trails all the other North American professional leagues, including soccer, in gaining worldwide acceptance. Although the NFL has made an effort to keep a European league going for about a decade and a half, it is largely a German-dominated league that is well supported by American soldiers stationed in Germany.

Still, the Giants and the Miami Dolphins will play the NFL’s firstever regular-season international game in October in London. A sign of progress even if the NFL will need to do far more than hold a single game in Europe. To that end, the owners preparing for their Nashville session are set to examine plans that include scheduling a “Game of the Week” in cities such as Toronto, Mexico City, London, and a host of German venues.

Officials hailing from several Canadian regions have already shown interest in hosting a game in 2008. Toronto’s elected officials desire an NFL franchise of their own, but the city poses a slight problem for the league. Although its robust economy makes it a prime location for an NFL team, there are two drawbacks: The seating capacity at the city’s existing stadium is far less than that of many of its American counterparts, and the Buffalo Bills depend on the revenue earned in the Niagara frontier and Southern Ontario to help support their franchise. But Toronto could easily support a “mini-season ticket” comprised of four games, as the NFL senior vice president, international, Mark Waller, described it in a recent article by the Associated Press. It is only preliminary, but if the NFL decides on a 17th regular season game, the mini-season package would be held in one city or country, rather than 16 different venues.

Toronto would likely be a favorite stop for NFL coaches and players because its proximity would make it an easy road trip. Montreal could also prove a logical choice, though it does not quite rank as the financial, press, and broadcast capital of Canada, something NFL owners like Denver’s Pat Bowlen understand all too well. Meanwhile, Vancouver may soon be without a football facility, since its BC Stadium Place may soon face the wrecking ball. In Alberta, where the capital city of Edmonton might be a draw and with the region thriving economically because of oil, an outdoor stadium might still prove a hard sell in November and December.

The NFL has been looking to establish a foothold in Mexico and has a pre-season history in Mexico City. (Owner Jerry Jones has marketed his Dallas Cowboys throughout Mexico.)

But the real prize is Europe, where the league does not yet have an established fan base or investors, though the Giants-Dolphins game at Wembley Stadium on October 28 is expected to draw as many as 80,000 ticketholders. The football league will find stiff competition on the continent, where European hockey and basketball leagues enjoy large followings; and it is only the lack of stateof-the-art arenas in many European countries that has kept the NBA from installing four or five expansion teams.

Hurdles remain numerous for the NFL in Europe. The league enjoys no football equivalent of basketball’s Dirk Nowitzki or hockey’s Jaromir Jagr, and there exists no American football feeder system in the school system. Until Europeans begin playing American football in their leisure time — and there is no indication that Europeans, Asians, Africans, Australians, and South Americans are ready to embrace the pigskin — the NFL will continue to play catch-up with the other pro sports leagues.

The best the NFL can do is build an infrastructure for growth over decades, not years. London and a host of German cities would seem to be the best bet for the NFL to plant seeds of success.

The NFL does have a Canadian initiative with Buffalo, Detroit, and Seattle, in which it holds Canada Day promotions during the season; the NFL’s Super Bowl XL Detroit promotion included sites in Windsor, Ontario.

In the past, the league focused its efforts on putting a team back in Los Angeles and holding a Super Bowl in Tinseltown, but they appear to have forgotten Los Angeles in favor of places like London. Even so, the league has some domestic matters to discuss in Nashville, including where the 2011 Super Bowl will be played. All signs point to Arlington, Texas, where Jones’s new Cowboys stadium will be operating. It would be a great upset if Jones didn’t walk out of Nashville with the deed to the Big Game in February 2011.

evanjweiner@yahoo.com