Could American football become a Olympic sport?

Some would say no since it's not popular in other nations and that athletes would have a hard time playing more then once per week due to its physicality, but I think if Rugby works... why not football? You can even put in arena football rules with arena football size fields.

You can't expect the NFL players to be down, their job status' is up in the air already, one unfortunate injury and they could be dropped from the team that pays em.

The arena football idea is intriguing, I don't know how physical the AFL is, if it isn't like the NFL maybe you could use the AFL players. You're not gonna get NFL guys though, or college guys either with their NFL futures on the line.

It's highly unlikely. Rugby is a (or the) major sport in about 15-20 countries. Football only in 1. And in saying that, rugby should not be an Olympic sport. They're playing 7s which isn't anything like real rugby.

America is the only place that it's truly played. It's not even a sport in most countries. Maybe down the road but not for at least another 20 years, I highly doubt it ever happens anyway

No chance.

It would have to differ a bit from the NFL game. 7 days of rest in between games for a team is way to long for the Olympics (last only 16 days). Having less than 7 days rest can really take a toll on the body, so Idk if it could work.

But yeah this would be complete domination by USA. At least in basketball, the other team has a small chance.

They were talking about it, there is a interest in American Football across the world, just it takes a lot to field a team and the level of play would be so lopsided for decades I'm not sure they want a Basketball type situation where we dominate it for so long before the rest of the world can catch up, if they ever could. Although with the complaining about concussions etc I could see Flag football being the next sport, after all Goodell is almost there now in the NFL.

chris98251":36nart1l said:

They were talking about it, there is a interest in American Football across the world, just it takes a lot to field a team and the level of play would be so lopsided for decades I'm not sure they want a Basketball type situation where we dominate it for so long before the rest of the world can catch up, if they ever could. Although with the complaining about concussions etc I could see Flag football being the next sport, after all Goodell is almost there now in the NFL.

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Theres interest across the world? Outside of North America.. where? The British have a bit.. but as a spectator sport. The Germans seem to have some. Chinese people dont even know what it is.. there are company teams in Japan but 95% of the population thinks its the same as rugby. Even the whole "Super Bowl is the most widely televised event in the world" thing that gets repeated every year is over blown, the people watching the game in many countries are ex-pats. When I briefly owned a sports bar as a side business last year the Super Bowl was totally booked, but all by Americans or a handful of Japanese who had spent time in San Francisco (there was ONE Ravens fan in the bar, about 50 49er fans).

American football has little cultural appeal really. Too complicated, too much equipment to play.. too many players to a team, too much infrastructure needed.. Some sports are just too nation specific.

They are already discussing removing Womens Hockey from the Olympics because 2 Countries USA/CAN are so dominate they have played each other for the gold the last 3 Winter Olympics(or since it was introduced?). Could you imagine how lopsided Olympic Football would be at this time? The first Dream Team Football team would make the NBA one look silly when the games started. I know the NBA team blew everyone out, but the NFL team would do that along with a shutout.

Going off some report I read a while back about introducing it as an Olympic Sport, they were probably going off Super Bowl Viewers. I agree cost to start up and venues is expensive, I think they are beleiving that most places that have Soccer Styadiums would accomadate Football though.

Really Dwarf Tossing or Bowling could be the next best thing though, England I think has the expertise as of now but I think the world could catch up, it's finding enough cooperative Dwarfs that could be the problem.

dontbelikethat":9cys2q8y said:

It would have to differ a bit from the NFL game. 7 days of rest in between games for a team is way to long for the Olympics (last only 16 days). Having less than 7 days rest can really take a toll on the body, so Idk if it could work.

But yeah this would be complete domination by USA. At least in basketball, the other team has a small chance.

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I agree. You can't play football at that level, 2-3 times a week. Too tough on the body.

There is already an international governing body for football that runs a World Cup tournament every four years. Rules for the American team include no pro players. If you check out the roster it's mostly small college guys.

Some reading:

IFAF: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IFAF

World Cup of American Football: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IFAF_World_Championship_of_American_Football

United States National Team: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_national_American_football_team

It would be kind of like women's hockey. There'd be 2 good teams, and everyone else would suck.

Sarlacc83":2lggqyp3 said:

It would be kind of like women's hockey. There'd be 2 good teams, and everyone else would suck.

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The Americans and...

the Germans?

volsunghawk":j8bh2t2n said:

Sarlacc83":j8bh2t2n said:

It would be kind of like women's hockey. There'd be 2 good teams, and everyone else would suck.

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The Americans and...

the Germans?

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Of course, Tommy. It's zee Germans.

You mean Soccer vs.NFL?...That would be fun to see.

If American Football were an olympic event, I sure as heck wouldn't celebrate a gold medal the way the canadians do for hockey.

And no offense to CanHawk or his ilk (or elk). Just saying

It would be like the Dutch and speed skating, everybody else would just be competing for silver and bronze.

We'll sooner see Olympic "full length motion picture making."

I don't see it happening. Hell, half-pipe skateboarding isn't an Olympic sport (yet), which definitely should be.