Football and Olympics Don’t Mix

Italian food is delicious, and so are macaroons. But I don’t want a macaroon with lasagna filling. I love football (obviously, otherwise this blog would be a real exercise in masochism), and every four years I lap up as much of the Olympics as NBC can provide.

However, upon reading that NFL commissioner Roger Goodell told Mike Florio that getting Olympians on the gridiron was a possibility, I said “PASS!” like June Jones running an offense.

There are plenty of sports currently not in the Olympics that make sense. Golf is one. MMA’s growth is undeniably international, and makes perfect sense for inclusion in the 2016 Games in Brazil, home nation of the Gracie family. Cricket is played in enough countries to justify a spot. The removal of baseball and softball is still perplexing. All are more international than football and thus should take precedent.

Even among sports of the same general style, football’s global translation is a distant second. Rugby offers far more competitive balance, and that’s a critical argument against football becoming an Olympic sport.

Goodell cites 64 nations that play the game. To paraphrase Jerry Seinfeld, Who are these countries?

Canada plays the game, albeit with significant rule changes from the American version. Simon Fraser is on the verge of crossing the border in the NCAA. Australia, Germany and American Samoa are other nations that participate in football. There are a handful of foreign-born NFL professionals, including English-born Osi Umenyiora and Nigerian Amobi Okoye. Some of the top players at their positions in the upcoming college football season are foreigners: LSU punter Brad Wing (Australia), Florida State defensive end Bjoern Werner (Germany) and SMU defensive end Margus Hunt (Estonia).

Still, these are anomalies. No other nation is nearly as serious about football as the United States. With apologies to baseball, American Pastime calls the gridiron home.

Aside from patriotic hubris, what purpose would Olympic football serve? The tournament would essentially become a race for the silver. The use of NBA players in the Olympics is credited for elevating the level of play internationally, and that is certainly true. However, the US did not have the same head start in basketball. Remember, the Dream Team was assembled because American collegians could not beat the Soviets. I tend to believe most international all-star teams would get pasted against your average American college team, let alone college stars.

Growing the sport internationally is an important step in expanding its success, but the Olympics are not the location to start.