No word on Canada hosting NFL games
The NFL did not conclude at its just-ended annual meeting whether, or where, to possibly expand its annual slate of international games in 2018.
At the Super Bowl last month, Mark Waller, the NFL’s executive vice-president of international, said the league toured four stadiums in Canada, and others in Germany, for a possible “International Series” game.
“We updated primarily on U.K. games this year,” Waller said late Tuesday.
“We talked about the security for those games, given the incident in London last week. And we talked about the Mexico game. But we really didn’t get into 2018 at this point.”
The NFL last year visited Montreal’s Olympic Stadium, Toronto’s Rogers Centre, Edmonton’s Commonwealth Stadium and Vancouver’s B.C. Place Stadium.
Waller said he wants to hold talks with the Canadian government regarding the CRTC’s decision to allow U.S. commercials to be shown on FOX affiliates in Canada during Super Bowl LI.
Viewership for CTV, CTV Two and TSN plummeted 39 per cent as millions instead watched the game on FOX to catch the bigbuzz American TV commercials.
Bell Media and the NFL jointly fought the decision last year, and will carry that battle into 2017.
“We definitely will focus now on talks with the government, to see what we can do,” Waller said.
LYNCH STILL RETIRED
Maybe it’s time to retire speculation on former Seattle Seahawks running back Marshawn Lynch returning to the NFL.
Seahawks head coach Pete Carroll was asked about Lynch a couple times Wednesday, and finally said, “He’s retired.”