The NFL never rests

The NFL spent the past year proving it will play football anywhere on this third rock from the Sun that has at least a 100-yard field and a workable Internet connection. The places are legion that range from Paris, France to Melbourne, Rio, London, Munich, Madrid and ignored Montezuma’s revenge playing in Mexico City.

Pick a continent and the NFL either has a game scheduled there or is already scouting for the next one.

NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell and his kennel of obedient lapdogs are literally on the move with 16 international games a year to compliment a 17-game regular season with the goal of establishing an NFL franchise overseas.

The NFL’s global appetite is growing faster than its rulebook.

This past weekend’s Steelers vs. Saints matchup in what was once gay Paris that is under siege with massive protests is the latest example of the NFL’s “full steam ahead” mindset. Despite the ongoing fiasco between demonstrators and police, the NFL refused to blink.

Security?

Amplified concerns?

'Forgettabout' it. After all, Goodell is from Bronxville, New York that has little in common with the Bronx. But I digress.

Even French President Emmanuel Macron was part of the international edition to the pregame hype meeting with Goodell and team owners to talk about the NFL’s longterm future in France. When world leaders are discussing your season’s eighth game matchup, you are not just a sports league, you have graduated to a geopolitical export that no blitz defense can stop or any tariff handcuff.

The NFL’s travel slate reads like a blue blood passport stamp collection. The Rams and 49ers opened the season in Melbourne, where Sean McVay later admitted he botched his team’s travel plan. The Cowboys played in Rio, where Jerry Jones spent the week praising Brazil’s “economic and social potential” like he was running for office there. London hosted three straight Sundays. Madrid and Munich are on deck. Japan and Abu Dhabi are being scouted. Australia is practically a done deal. Goodell even floated Tokyo as “clearly on our list.”

The NFL is not shy about their goal that is round the clock football, spanning every time zone and every market. The NFL is planting seeds everywhere and it is only a matter of time some seed takes root into an international franchise.

A Super Bowl outside the U.S.A.?

It will happen one Sunday in the first week of March.

While the NFL is busy conquering the globe, another story this week revealed just how deep NFL fandom now runs straight into the afterlife. Apparently, a lifetime of buying tickets, jerseys, bedsheets, wine glasses and even pet supplies are no longer enough.

Now there is the cremains option.

Yes, you read that right as no market – urns included – is too modest for the NFL.

Jacksonville Jaguar fans will pay nearly $6,000 to have their ashes stored at the team’s future stadium. Jacksonville is building a monument named the 904Ever Club, where fans can stash personal items including a fan’s cremains.

It is part mausoleum, part football shrine to the assumption that fan loyalty does not end at the grave.

The high-end tier comes with a private space and special event invites, while other tiers offer communal storage pouches. Eternal Fan maintains the monument. The Jaguars get a permanent tribute to their most devoted supporters highlighting how fandom can outlive the fan.

It sounds absurd until you realize how perfectly it fits the contemporary NFL. This is a league that wants your Sundays, your weekdays, your nights, your streaming subscriptions, your international travel plans and now your remains. The Jaguars are not alone in this either. Eternal Fan is already courting other NFL teams and major college programs. Here’s hoping Pat Kraft at Penn State is paying attention.

Sports loyalty has always bordered on the religious.

As the NFL expands across continents fans can now prepare to spend eternity at their “happy place.”

The NFL wants to own the world and dead or alive--you, too.