I can imagine the topics now in order of interest.

1. New Super Greggs in Normanton
2. Bring back capital punishment
3. None poppy wearing outrage.
4. How the world persecutes small rugby league clubs to the benefit of the elite.

The RU chaps wouldn't associate with an oik like me.

Hey Lefty - another quote. "Instead of bitching about the dark , light a candle"

Wires71

Okay, the misunderstanding of the context of the written word.

No harm done, let's move on.

Plenty of time to ponder before posting on "the annual out of season league prediction 2019" thread.

To return to the original post on this thread, the NFL is in a different universe to the RFL when it comes to organising and promoting a sport. Obviously they have a massively different budget and so can afford things the RFL can't, but aside from money their general approach is much better.

Although the US is a bastion of 'me first' predatory capitalism, there is a general ethos in the NFL of the sport and the league being more important than any particular franchise. Concepts like the salary cap and draft system which actively redistribute talent and make it hard to sustain dominance are generally accepted by the clubs and the fans. You get regular turnover of leading players being traded to teams that are currently less successful and there is not the same hierarchy of "big" and "small" clubs as you get over here. When elite college players get drafted to a team that had a poor record last year, they see it as an honour to be the future of the franchise and be trusted as the player who could take them to better times. Over here I bet star juniors would be miffed if they found themselves signing for Widnes or Salford (although I suppose it's easier to accept when you sign a multimillion dollar contract like the top NFL draftees do!).

Also the NFL is powerful relative to the individual clubs. You have "big" clubs like Dallas Cowboys etc, but they don't dictate to the league how the sport should be run and the rules are not designed in order to preserve the dominance of the already-successful. The league stands alone and lays down the rules to the clubs.

Their advertising is obviously excellent but a big part of the way they have promoted the league over the years is through NFL films, which are always superbly produced, and enable the sport to be introduced to a casual audience through a drama-documentary style. Now they are expanding that further through licensing the "All or Nothing" series on amazon prime. Quite a few people I work with who weren't traditional NFL fans have watched a couple of series of All or Nothing and now are starting to follow the BBC NFL coverage and a couple bought tickets for the Wembley NFL games. The NFL and clubs are very generous in terms of the time and exposure they are giving the film makers but they see the big picture as to the exposure this kind of stuff gives their sport. I would so love to see the makers of NFL films produce Super League films, it would make our game look incredible.

Before too long there will be an NFL franchise in the UK and although they won't be a direct competitor with RL for supporters because the seasons don't clash, they will definitely be a competitor for the best upcoming athletes because the salary even a squad player would get in an NFL franchise would be way higher than anything a RL player could earn.

Good post Sal.

I enjoyed watching the NFL 'first time around' on C4 and enjoyed the glamour and romance of the sport as well as the action in equal measure and have recently re-tuned my goggle box to the latest NFL stuff on the Beeb with our very own Mark Chapman presenting and I've enjoyed it, particularly if it's presented in a highlights format a la MOTD.

We need some decent free to air exposure it's our only chance of getting our sport which I feel is the superior product out there rather than the SL Show as a filler before the Test Card comes on or a 'handy' repeat on Tuesday lunchtime.

This and Sky's subscription stranglehold isn't going to attract a new audience and the game's ills are not helped by asking the same, or more worryingly a decreasing number of fans to pay through ticketing TV, Magic, GF and Wembley trips. The 'event' fixtures have lost their Mojo as a result

Yea all good there Sal.
It took me ages though to work out the game, still can't work out the world champions bit though!

Good post. I must admit I enjoy the NFL coverage on BBC and I enjoy the spectacle of the sport and the insight of the commentary. They seem knowledgeable and concentrate on the game, and never mither on about the referee, umpire, linesmen or judges.

So they aren't a biased, get ya!

Seeing as the US has a population about four times the size of the combined UK plus Australia population, you have more of a claim to be "world" champions by winning the Superbowl than by winning the World Club Challenge (sorry Widnes).

NFL is dreadful to watch live (seen it three times at Wembley and couldn't named the teams in any of the games) but is really good to watch on tv. If people moan about the stoppages in Super League do not go to a NFL game, you'd be suicidal.

No sorry Sal, that does not help at all, as you have rightly stated the world club challenge, the word club being the important one, in football bit like the european cup winners play south american sides & asian, they still call that world club champions. I just see it really as typical american, no one else really plays this, like baseball so we can call ourselves world champions, when really they are not they are club champions of america.

Baseballs world series is named after a newspaper, called the world, or something convenient though

Urban myth alert!