I used to be an NFL fan. Seriously. From the old Don Lane days on the ABC. Now, for some reason, it’s dropped entirely off my sports fan radar. Maybe it’s because of the unease with which US administrators still insist on calling the NFL and MLB “World Champions” of domestic, one-country contests.
Accordingly, the San Fransisco Giants are now the greatest, bestest baseball team on the face of the Earth.
The same applies for the Green Bay Packers in the gridiron realm.
How did they manage such an amazing feat? By beating just one team from the same country as them.
Arguably the height of American isolationist sporting cliché, it still beggars belief that the Yanks think you can be world champion of a sport playing against only your own countrymen, on their own turf.
This week, Green Bay’s newspaper lauded its club as the planet’s premier “football” team… don’t even get me started on what constitutes football.
At least the Australian Football League never name the premiers of that competition as the world champions of anything.
A quick scan of the internet revealed the correct list of teams the Packers have to still beat in order to be crowned champions of the world at American Football:
The Montreal Alouettes (Canada), West Flanders Tribe (Belgium), Cuiaba Arsenal (Brazil), Porvoo Butchers (Finland), Kiel Baltic Hurricanes (Germany), Vukovi Belgrade and Kragujevac Wild Boars (both Serbia), Dublin Rebels (Ireland), Tel Aviv Sabres (Israel), Parma Panthers (Italy), Kajima Deers (Japan), Potros Salvajes (Mexico), Porirua Knights (New Zealand), Oslo Vikings (Norway), Wroclaw Devils (Poland), L’Hospitalet Pioners (Spain) and the London Blitz (England).
Get past that lot and then there’s the play-offs – against the Canberra Monarchs, Sydney Wolfpack, Brisbane Sundevils, Adelaide Swarm and Perth Raiders.
Then – and only then – will I grudgingly accept Green Bay as the best gridiron team in the entire world. Maybe.
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