Aaron Rodgers is an unrepentant fan of the NFL’s international games and after the Pittsburgh Steelers won on Sunday in the league’s first-ever game in France, the Steelers quarterback decided to offer a lesson on what those games abroad could have been if not for owners and the league not being so focused on money.
Rodgers, in his 22nd and final year in the league, reflected on past collective bargaining negotiations with the NFL after Sunday’s game against the New Orleans Saints and said opportunities were missed to make international games bigger.
“The reach of the league is fantastic, and I think I always wanted to be a part of it,” Rodgers said. “I remember the 2011 CBA (collective bargaining agreement), there was talk about more games, expanding the amount of international games.
“Didn’t really a whole lot until the second CBA, and there was talk about doing a week, an international week where you had games in 16 different places, and you just added an extra bye-week.”
Wait, the NFL and NFL Players Association talked about having a full week of solely international games?
That might have caused something of a revolt among American NFL fans wanting to drive down the road to their local team’s stadium and enjoy America’s game – in America.
“So you’d play 16 regular-season games,” Rodgers continued. “You have two bye weeks. One of those weeks would have been an international week. I think it’d been phenomenal for the game.”
Not in America, but tell us more, Aaron. Tell us about the current situation.
“Now that the owners want to push for 17 games for the, you know, extra revenue and because they care so much about player safety, it [the international week] would have been nice,” Rodgers said.
Did you notice the passive-aggressive dig at NFL owners? But back to Aaron’s wish for the international week to have come to pass:
“I think there’s 16 opportunities,” he said. “I mean, you could do obviously in Canada, you could do in Mexico. There’s been games in Brazil. You could probably open up another country in South America.
“Obviously, there’s a lot of opportunities in Europe, you know, Ireland, fantastic, France, Spain, Germany, multiple games in England. And then who knows?”
The “who knows,” in Rodgers’ mind, includes playing in more exotic venues abroad.
“There’s, uh, you know, Dubai,” he said. “That area has really gotten into the sporting world in a number of ways. You got a boxing and UFC, I think was there yesterday, I believe.
“So I think there’s great opportunities for expansion in those things. It’d be awesome to see them have that international week. Because I think it’s great for the game and the expansion of the game.”
Despite the fact Rodgers is a major fan of playing games abroad, he does wish the league and its owners would agree to set parameters for them that include travel. The NFL was asked about that possibility last week and was against the idea of imposing travel mandates on individual teams.
But commissioner Rodgers would do it – once he’s done taking another jab at those money-grubbing owners.
“I wish there was a mandate, though, from the league, and they would have to open up their pocketbooks too, which, you know, maybe they’ll look tight on money and stuff,” Rodgers said.
“But, I think they should mandate every team coming over Sunday or Monday to really enjoy the culture and the place you’re going. And you can do events in those cities and outreach stuff in community work.
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“But they won’t because they’re a little tight.”
That’s truly something when one of the NFL’s biggest names and something of an ambassador for the game wants to play an entire week’s schedule abroad, but in the next breath says the NFL will never do it because the owners and the league are too cheap.