VOA常速英语2008年-NFL Committed to International Growth

By Parke Brewer¹
Phoenix²
01 February 2008

The National Football League continues to try to grow the popularity of its sport outside the United States. VOA Sports Editor Parke Brewer reports from Phoenix that the league has announced that team owners have approved a multi-year agreement to play games in Britain.

This season was the first time that the NFL scheduled a regular season game across the Atlantic Ocean. And the October 28 contest between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins was a huge success. It drew a sell-out crowd of more than 81,000 to London's Wembley Stadium, where the Giants prevailed, 13-10.

Since the Giants have reached this year's Super Bowl here against the undefeated New England Patriots³, NFL teams can make no argument that playing so far from home in the middle of the season would hurt their playoff chances.

Mark Waller of NFL International said there will be one regular season game in each of the next three years in Britain. "We're still in our infancy⁴ of growth, and this initiative is hugely important, particular for generating TV audience and Internet audience for us. I'm very pleased with how we're doing, but we've got a lot of growth to go," he said.

Next season the NFL teams selected to play at Wembley on October 28 are the San Diego Chargers and New Orleans Saints.

Waller told VOA Sports it's a great match-up for international fans.

"I think the fact that we've been able to get a team like New Orleans, which can showcase itself as a city is huge, and also the fact that we've been able to get a west coast team (San Diego) to make that trip. So I think it really shows our commitment, as does the three-year commitment."

Team officials from both the New Orleans Saints and San Diego Chargers, who are here to attend Sunday's Super Bowl, said they were excited to have been selected to play in London next season.

Waller said there is a possibility that the NFL could hold a game in Mexico in 2009. "We want to play in Mexico. We had a great experience in 2005, and we would love to go back in 2009. There's a question of making sure we can get the right venue⁵ with the right broadcast coverage⁶. That's key for us," he said.

It's not a question of popularity. When the league played its first-ever regular season game outside the United States in Mexico City in 2005, that contest between the Arizona Cardinals⁷ and San Francisco 49ers drew a record crowd of nearly 103,500 fans.

The NFL's Buffalo⁸ Bills are popular north of the border, and NFL ownership has already approved a Bills' team initiative to play one regular-season home game in Toronto, Canada in each of the next five seasons.

1 brewer   

n. 啤酒制造者

参考例句：

• Brewer is a very interesting man. 布鲁尔是一个很有趣的人。
• I decided to quit my job to become a brewer. 我决定辞职，做一名酿酒人。

2 phoenix   

n.凤凰，长生(不死)鸟；引申为重生

参考例句：

• The airline rose like a phoenix from the ashes.这家航空公司又起死回生了。
• The phoenix worship of China is fetish worship not totem adoration.中国凤崇拜是灵物崇拜而非图腾崇拜。

3 patriots   

爱国者，爱国主义者( patriot的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• Abraham Lincoln was a fine type of the American patriots. 亚伯拉罕·林肯是美国爱国者的优秀典型。
• These patriots would fight to death before they surrendered. 这些爱国者宁愿战斗到死，也不愿投降。

4 infancy   

n.婴儿期；幼年期；初期

参考例句：

• He came to England in his infancy.他幼年时期来到英国。
• Their research is only in its infancy.他们的研究处于初级阶段。

5 venue   

n.犯罪地点，审判地，管辖地，发生地点，集合地点

参考例句：

• The hall provided a venue for weddings and other functions.大厅给婚礼和其他社会活动提供了场所。
• The chosen venue caused great controversy among the people.人们就审判地点的问题产生了极大的争议。

6 coverage   

n.报导，保险范围，保险额，范围，覆盖

参考例句：

• There's little coverage of foreign news in the newspaper.报纸上几乎没有国外新闻报道。
• This is an insurance policy with extensive coverage.这是一项承保范围广泛的保险。

7 cardinals   

红衣主教( cardinal的名词复数 )； 红衣凤头鸟（见于北美，雄鸟为鲜红色）； 基数

参考例句：

• cardinals in scarlet robes 身披红袍的枢机主教
• A conclave of cardinals was held to elect the new Pope. 红衣主教团举行了秘密会议来选举新教皇。

8 buffalo   

n.(北美)野牛；(亚洲)水牛

参考例句：

• Asian buffalo isn't as wild as that of America's. 亚洲水牛比美洲水牛温顺些。
• The boots are made of buffalo hide. 这双靴子是由水牛皮制成的。