A decade into the NFL's London experiment, the league believes the United Kingdom is nearly ready for a full-time franchise.
"In the 2021-2022 time frame," said Mark Waller, the NFL's executive vice president of international. "I've always felt the logical timing would be around the new CBA (collective bargaining agreement) and new media broadcast agreement."
Many major hurdles need to be cleared before the NFL would vote to place a team on another continent, but the league's push in the United Kingdom has been steadily increasing. When the Vikings and Cleveland Browns kick off Sunday, it will be the NFL's 21st regular season-game in London since it first dipped a toe across the pond in 2007.
The NFL's global expansion is a priority under Commissioner Roger Goodell, who continues to ramp up the number of games in London each year, peaking this season at four _ or an experimental half-season for a would-be London team.
Some teams set up in London for a week. Some only show up for a couple of days. But unlike the other nine annual road trips for each NFL team, these London excursions require months of planning, from logistics to cultural adjustments and everything in between.
"There are a lot of (headaches)," Vikings quarterback Case Keenum said. "You can see those things as problems. They're inconveniences at most. We're getting to play a game on another continent in a really cool stadium. If you got to tell me as a kid I got to play American football overseas, I'd be like, 'What are you talking about?' "
