...LMAO... Did France try to surrender at halftime?

THey should've stayed true to form. Obviously, the USA was wearing Blue, as the French always wear White.

Actually it looks like they did following the coin flip.

Oh yes, and the obligatory, "The Detroit Lions are not impressed."

I immediately call for a World Cup of football.

Good sh*t, man.  I actually laughed out loud at work.

Wow.

'Grats to the US, but seriously.... I'd rather watch US soccer because that is at least a competitive game. I can't imaging anything more boring than watching one football team decimate another by 70+ points. I guess that is why I really like the NFL so much more than NCAA football too.

Hey, this is great to me--not because of the victory, nor the antic dotes about the French.  Rather, it is attributed to my personal opinion that American is the best and most complete game in the world today.  I think it's fantastic that American Football is growing in popularity around the world.  Who knows, perhaps in the next 30 years, we'll see an American Football version of the World Cup; the winner earns the Rozelle Trophy.

This is pathetic. 78 points? That's all you got? Weak, fellas, weak.

Its not getting popularity around the world at all. NFL Europe failed miserably, their colleges dont really have those kind of sports and theres no way for it to grow since starting football is so expensive compared to soccer or baseball.

Wake me up when the rest of the world plays American Football (or Handball as it's mostly played with the hands).  At this point, this is simply a sham of a tournament.  It almost seems like some Americans got together and said, "We're really not the best in the world at any team sport (except when our basketball team decides to make it worth their while) so let's beat up on some Euros to make ourselves feel good."

That and the fact that none of USA's best football player will NEVER suit up for the USA in a tournament like that because of the NFL and since there is no need for them since a bunch of no names just whipped France 78-0.

 wooooow well France does not even really play football though but thats just really embarasing!

 I bet I can make that team!

People said the same thing about soccer in America when I was a kid.....I actually started the first soccer team at my high school back in the fall of 83.  Now look at how it's excelled.  Granted, it has a long way to go, but it'll get there.  As for NFL Europe, all the teams but one ended up in Germany; they really developed a strong fan base in that country.  It makes me wonder why Goddell wants us to play in London all the time--their team, the "Monarchs" only lasted one season.

Pretty Amusing the offensive MOP rushed 7 times for 53 yards, when another guy rushed for 181 yards & 4 TD's.......Hilarious!

well it is still fun to watch teams win by 70+ because then you have constant massive good plays even if they are only by one team

Except the world cup has been around since 1928 while an idea of an international football tournament is not even a decade old.. THE IDEA isnt even a decade old. Dont try to sit there and say itll come around. It wont. Europe has rugby and prefers that. Soccer however has been around longer than American football and USA has been competing in international since 1885.

A strong fan base? really? thats why it failed no revenues coming from fans that put the league in a positive profit. Goodell didnt put it down because he was bored with it. Goodell wants to play in london so he can CREATE a fan base. If you had a chance to see Chelsea vs Man-U In seattle do you think that stadium will fill up decently? I do. So terrible argument.

ROFL, you say I have a terrible argument?  LOL....we'll see.  Personally I think you lack vision.

Here's a great link for those that are interested that defines the history of soccer in America.  Yes, attributed to the immigration of peoples from Europe, soccer has been present in America longer than football, but no soccer league ever formed in the US lasted near as long as has the NFL.

www.sover.net/~spectrum/overview.html

Chelsea versus Manchester U in Seattle....interesting thought, but I don't think it would currently fill a stadium.  Even when the U.S. hosted the Olympics, the average attendance was just over 40,000 per game, the average attendance for the home US team was 65,532.  To it's credit, the medal games played by Italy, Yugoslavia, France, and Brazil averaged over 100,000 attendees; you have to attribute a greater part of that to the attendance of people visiting from other countries and the fact that soccer is more popular in California than any other state in the US.

One suggestion....this is a forum for fans.  Neither you nor I are experts, so you might want to change your 'tone' and not present yourself as such.  Conversations are much better when two people discuss their perspectives, without condescension and sanctimony.

All I can say to that is... BORING!!!!!

I'd much rather watch to evenly matched teams playing, especially if they are both good teams. Other than that I'd rather watch to evenly matched teams playing even if they are both not very good. I definitely don't want to watch a really, really good team play a horrible, awful team. That just bores me to tears.

Vision without numbers is nothing but risky, dangerous and has the most possibility to failure. If FIFA really cared about American perspective on soccer or if UEFA had little but of care I think the situation would be different. The major soccer leagues(like UEFA, EPL, etc) and associations has not shown a bit of effort to bring soccer into America like the NFL has to Europe. 

What expert view do you need? An economist? A Marketer? Do you really need that given the evidence in the numbers? You aren't even comparing the right things. No Soccer league has lasted longer than the NFL? Why is that relevant? You need to compare soccer here to football there.
BTW soccer wins:
-MLS: 1993-present and getting stronger and stronger with ESPN contracts
-NFLE: 1997-2007. Before that WLF from 1991-1996.

My vision is fine given hindsight is 20/20. NFL has been there and done that and it, again, failed. The MLS has had more success and the sad part is... it is backed by its OWN finances. NFLE was backed up by the NFLs and it still got shut down. While MLS is its own entity and NFLE was not.  Its hard to imagine anyone logically argue American football expansion being greater than soccer expansion. Just Americans like that game enough to keep it afloat.

I agree with having some irrelevant games in London to expand the fan base. Maybe it'll work but just for NFL teams. You ll get fans for the Giants, Dolphins, Saints etc. Not London's team. The question isn't if they want to see a single football game a year in London its can Europe support its own league? do they want to see more than one game a year in London? Past experience says no. And not just London but all of Europe. They have soccer and rugby and seem to be content with that.

The problem with Americans is that we think our opinion is the be all and end all of what is a watchable sport and what isn't so people like you seem to think that American football can succeed elsewhere. Let me tell you with sources overseas in Russia, England, Germany, Spain, and Italy that it annoys European soccer fans and that turns them away from American football. You can invest in that if you want but I'll put my money into something else. I'd rather put it into Enron. Not really just an exaggeration.

Well, thank you for presenting a very even keeled response.  You bring up some very valid points pertaining to perception.  I am most interested in the sources you state from Europe and Russia.  What sources are these?

Personally, I've lived overseas and even played various club teams in soccer.  Needless to say, we got our butts handed to us on a platter as this was back in the 80's, but I loved playing these teams as I was able to experience the game on a higher level.  From the discussions I had, there were 3 primary factors that were obstacles to the perception of American football in Europe.  One, was nationalistic pride; in this case there is no way such an individual was ever going to watch the NFL.  Two, was the fact that they didn't like that the plays were so short, and there was so much of a pause in between them.  Considering the majority of their most popular sports involve constant movement, they thought this was a week element to the game.  The last was attributed to the fact that the game just didn't make sense to them.  These conversations inevitably included jokes about why America had to turn a game called "football" and have the primary focus of the game involving the use of hands--in the same ratio as goalie/keeper and kicker to the rest of the team.  Even so, the focus of the conversation was just in the nature and understanding of the game.

I don't see the NFL or any European professional league developing anytime soon, but to say never is (I believe) narrow-minded and with little foresight.  All such claims remind me of people saying: "Canadian football will never last", soccer will never succeed as a professional sport in America, or a black man will never be president.  Those are all things I've heard in the last 30 years.  Also, before the 1960's the Chinese and Japanese swore that they would never share their martial arts with Americans--it was "not for us".  Times change.  perspectives change, and with the internet and the access to information people can get online and learn and enjoy a multitude of things to which they may never have heard previously.

Will it ever happen?  Who's to say for sure.  Time, however, will tell the tale as does it always.

They are personal friends that have moved from the states to said countries. I keep up with them periodically. They are huge college football fans and have told me about soccer fans getting anoyed at bars when this discussion takes place. I've been to Germany to visit one of my friends so I know that one for a fact because I was involved in that conversation. Canadian football isnt even at the MLS's level yet. Their recent star was Ricky Williams. haha. When I say never I dont mean a absolute 0% chance i mean a .01% chance of football getting big overseas. Next issue is football getting big enough to go internation and i give that a .000001% chance of ever occuring before someone thinks of a different sport.

Yea, it's cool when you can talk to people directly regarding various topics of sports.  The only conversations I didn't enjoy were the ones when people solely basing their opinions on blind nationalism.  One thing that I considered interesting is that of the relatively limited fan base for American Football in Europe is that the ones that are fans really love the game.  In college, there were even two "walk-ons" for the football program--one Swede, and one Dutch.

One thing is for sure, as the international community becomes more integrated it will be interesting to see just how certain things develop.  One thing is for sure....the study of sociology has become a great deal more interesting following the development of the internet.  How much of a cultural homogenization will occur?  That could be a question pertinent to the evolution of sports.

Thanks for the exchange.