As the NFL continues to expand globally, new destinations are appeaing on the league's map every year it appears.
The newest rumored destination: China. (Insert Donald Trump joke here.)
It appears that the league — which has hosted a series of games in London, has one scheduled this year in Mexico City and has looked at future games in Germany and South America — could land in Asia within two years.
The NFL never has played a game — regular season or exhibition — in China. The league had planned to host a preseason game between the New England Patriots and Seattle Seahawks in Beijing in 2007, a year prior to the Olympics there, but the game was postponed two years and ultimately canceled.
The NFL had a long-running preseason series in Japan through the 1990s up until 2005. The only three countries outside the Unites States to host a regular-season game to date are Canada, Mexico and England.
So let's talk about China. It was the dream of former NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue, as he said in one of his final state-of-the-league addresses, to land in that country. Tagliabue said he envisioned the day where Chinese-born quarterback "Yao Fling" would take the NFL by storm. That clearly hasn't happened yet, and it might be decades away from coming to life in some form. But the league hosting a game over there might go a long way toward breaking into the Asian market, which has a stated goal of Roger Goodell but has yet to really take shape under his watch.
The state department says that China remains a very safe country, with petty street crime likely the biggest concern for Americans making the trip over there. Now, we try to stay as apolitical as possible here at the Shutdown Corner, but we do wonder what this report might do for the Trump campaign.
Because, after all (and please do yourself the favor and watch the video all the way through):
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