A SOMEWHAT surprising entrant to India’s business of sports domain is the Elite Football League of India (EFLI), an initiative that aims to popularize the sport of American Football (“Football”) via a professional sports league across South Asia.
Backed by some heavyweight names from the world of Football such as Mike Ditka, Kurt Warner, and Sandy Grossman to name a few, this is one of the more intriguing concepts in Indian sports today. This is due in large part to the relative anonymity of Football in India, as well as the difficulty in luring youngsters to participate in a sport that requires outstanding athletic skill-sets to achieve success in a landscape that doesn’t have an abundance of such talent today.
Unsurprisingly, Football is not every demographics cup of tea. This could be due to the complicated set of rules and counter-intuitive game book. It starts with the simple yet salient quandary as to why it is even called football, when most of the playmaking has little to do with the foot, and the least respected members of the team are the kickers or the punters (the only two gentlemen who technically use their feet). This is actually not that difficult to answer, primarily because the origins of Football are from rugby, and not from the sport we know as football/soccer. Also, each game or each half of each game begins with a kick-off, so perhaps that has some bearing on how the word Football was coined.
Football is essentially a North-American sport, perhaps to an even greater extent than Baseball.
It is however a sport that defines American culture, essentially because it is a high-school, college and professional sport. The weekly academic calendar in the U.S. is clearly demarcated – ‘Friday Night Lights’ for high-school football, Saturdays for collegiate football, and Sundays for the professional games. Almost every boy (and occasionally, girl) aspires to be a great football player, but very few make it to the elite level.
Football is a grueling, hard-hitting, position-specific sport. Broken bones, torn ligaments, playing hurt, and freakish athletic ability and strength are the base parameters for qualification to the Football ‘club’.
Quarterbacks are the anchors of the offensive side of the team, and almost always the team’s biggest stars. Wide receivers, running backs, tailbacks, tight-ends and offensive linemen usually make up the core part of the offense, and depending on whether the Quarterback is throwing the ball to his wide-receiver, or creating a play for his running back, plays are set out. It is a strategic sport that takes into account unlimited permutations and combinations, depending on the strength and skill levels of the defense, special teams, and of course, the offense. It is a sport in which the better equipped team in terms of coaching staff, skill-sets and overall cohesiveness usually wins. Therefore, there are few Cinderella stories in Football.
The cream of the elite athletes in North America invariably choose to pursue an athletic career in Football, often over any other sport, primarily because of its prestige in Americans’ psyche, along with the numerous career and academic options that success in Football open up.
Arguably the single biggest sports event in the world is the ‘Superbowl’, Football’s defining championship game. At the culmination of each season, the National Football League (NFL) allots one Sunday each year that essentially ensures that time stands still and the marketing/advertizing world comes alive.
Superbowl Sunday is a cultural phenomenon in the U.S., and the NFL is the most lucrative professional sports league possibly in the world. The Superbowl boasts the most expensive advertizing slots, and consumer brands base their entire marketing campaigns around the event.
Iconic advertizing such as the Budweiser brand trace their origins to Superbowl Sunday, and in fact the advertisements along with the half-time show featuring A-list celebrities are almost as much an attraction as is the game itself.
The NFL is one of the most efficiently-run leagues in the world, and the team’s owners are all household names in and of their own right. From a business of sports stand-point, the NFL sets the gold standard, and its processes are emulated across the globe. It has an efficient draft system which factors in the collegiate athletes and strictly prescribed eligibility criterion.
The recently concluded collective-bargaining agreement has put into place a level of security for the league’s functioning over the next few years, after several hiccups and even the imminent threat of a lock-out.
Its merchandising, broadcasting, and sponsorship scales/revenues are among the highest of any league. Sure, the league has its own problems to contend with, and not every team is as successful as the New England Patriots or the New York Giants, but ceteris paribus, the NFL is elite.
Whether or not the EFLI is able to attract the top athletic talent in India, the fact remains that it is equipped to generate awareness of Football, and add an entertainment component to the sport and league, which may in turn also have ripple effects on popularizing the NFL or participation in the sport of Football in India.
With Warner, Ditka, Mark Wahlberg, Ron Jaworski and Grossman involved with the initiative, we are definitely talking about some of the bigger boys in the world of sports and entertainment. So, if any initiative for Football is likely to succeed, it ought to be the EFLI.
But first, the Indian audience and potential participants need to be convinced. It’s not a natural fit for an Indian youngster to be able to excel in Football, primarily because parameters such as height, athleticism, strength and speed in volumes isn’t available offhand in South Asia as it would be in North America.
Perhaps the sport has potential in India – and if it does, then it will be a great thing for the Indian fan. Because, when it comes to a pure spectator sport and event, Football and the Superbowl are truly a treat to follow and appreciate.
