International players in American football
http://www.sportingnews.com/college-football/article/2009-07-09/interna…
Do you guys see this impact ever being significant? If so, do you really think it will be any time soon? It seems like this could especially benefit Michigan with the large international student population.
I don't see our brand of football ever becoming popular enough to start a surge of international players. It will stay mostly as it is now where you have a couple guys coming from alternative sports, but that is about it.
I know that a few NFL teams look into some Australian AFL players as punters because that is a game that is predominately based on punting with accuracy (the rules are too intricate for me to detail for you without getting everyone all confused) ie. the punter from the Jets a few yearas ago. Also, being in Australia last year for a few months, a lot of people claimed that some NFL teams (The Cowboys specifically) tried to sign away Rugby players (AFL and rugby are two totally different sports)but were unsuccessful. The Australians take pride in playing Rugby and look at American football as a lesser sport because of the continuous stoppage in comparison to Rugby's continuous style of play. In fact, they take so much pride (and location is probably a factor) that the money isn't an issue; it truly is a different culture. They are satisfied with making enough to live comfortably, as opposed to switching teams over the difference between 35 and 36 million dollars.
Yeah I think American football is more cost prohibitive than more popular sports internationally like baseball, basketball, soccer, etc...
The NFL needs more Gramaticas.
Biaka...Batuka
blew the impact of the trend out of proportion. I do think we'll soon start to see a small increase of players who aren't kickers from foreign countires other than Canada.
I live in Germany and play football here. I was in the army and got out to live here. There is a lot of talent here,especially for offensive and defensive lineman.I don't know how much would be D.1 talent but there is talent here.