NFL Blitz to hit local screens this month
NFL Blitz to hit local screens this month
11:24, November 05, 2009 
Email | Print | Subscribe | Comments | Forum 
Another new tack in the league's shift away from nurturing middle school-age children by sponsoring flag-football leagues and clinics is the hosting of NFL evenings for collegians.
Tapping well-known Chinese musicians to spread the word about the sport, the NFL teamed with talent management agency IMG and CCTV to create NFL Blitz, a television program featuring the five members of the Taiwanese alternative rock band Mayday - Ashin, Monster, Stone, Masa and Guan You - and Ding Dang, a female pop singer from Zhejiang province. They spent 10 days in the US filming the show, which engages them in football-related physical contests and scenarios that introduce the game and unique slices of American culture.
"It's an educational show shot in a reality show format," said Stephanie Hsiao, the marketing manager of NFL China, who spent three weeks on location assisting with the program. "You have a band as popular as Mayday and it's a way to engage casual fans and present a complicated sport to them in a manner they can understand. Rather than just showing 11 players on the field, we delve a lot more into the strategy of the game. It's very lighthearted and entertaining but also very connected to the game in showing the fans how the whole thing comes together on game day."
The league has enough footage for 16 episodes of NFL Blitz, which will premiere this month alongside the weekly NFL highlights program on CCTV 5.
With its inaugural games in China, the NFL aims to incorporate some of the lessons it has learned from holding 10 games in England, most of them in London's Wembley Stadium, since the mid-1980s, not to mention NFL Europe, a 16-year league that folded in 2007.
"We have the same challenge in every country around the world," said Parsons, who noted that international audiences appreciate the uniquely Yankee trappings of the sport, including cheerleaders and the traditional pregame noshing.
"We have the tailgate in London ahead of the game," he said. "People who go to soccer matches in the UK are not used to going to a tailgate. Yet, we give them an experience that is part of the entertainment around American football and they embrace it."
Chad Lewis, a retired tight end who spent 11 years in the NFL, most of them with the Philadelphia Eagles, said the league is right to play up its American roots.
"We start with the premise that the Chinese people are interested in America and that football is in the fabric of America," said Lewis. "To understand America you need to know football."
Lewis, also speaking at NFL's Beijing office, visits China twice every year as the NFL's "ambassador to China", promoting the sport through appearances and by demonstrating techniques.
A Mormon, Lewis learned Mandarin as a missionary for two years in Taichung, Taiwan. He graduated with a degree in Chinese studies from Brigham Young University in Utah.
Individual NFL teams are enthusiastic about the league's future in China, Lewis said.
"The 32 owners are in," he said. "If I was an owner I would want my team to be China's team."
Source:China Daily
Tapping well-known Chinese musicians to spread the word about the sport, the NFL teamed with talent management agency IMG and CCTV to create NFL Blitz, a television program featuring the five members of the Taiwanese alternative rock band Mayday - Ashin, Monster, Stone, Masa and Guan You - and Ding Dang, a female pop singer from Zhejiang province. They spent 10 days in the US filming the show, which engages them in football-related physical contests and scenarios that introduce the game and unique slices of American culture.
"It's an educational show shot in a reality show format," said Stephanie Hsiao, the marketing manager of NFL China, who spent three weeks on location assisting with the program. "You have a band as popular as Mayday and it's a way to engage casual fans and present a complicated sport to them in a manner they can understand. Rather than just showing 11 players on the field, we delve a lot more into the strategy of the game. It's very lighthearted and entertaining but also very connected to the game in showing the fans how the whole thing comes together on game day."
The league has enough footage for 16 episodes of NFL Blitz, which will premiere this month alongside the weekly NFL highlights program on CCTV 5.
With its inaugural games in China, the NFL aims to incorporate some of the lessons it has learned from holding 10 games in England, most of them in London's Wembley Stadium, since the mid-1980s, not to mention NFL Europe, a 16-year league that folded in 2007.
"We have the same challenge in every country around the world," said Parsons, who noted that international audiences appreciate the uniquely Yankee trappings of the sport, including cheerleaders and the traditional pregame noshing.
"We have the tailgate in London ahead of the game," he said. "People who go to soccer matches in the UK are not used to going to a tailgate. Yet, we give them an experience that is part of the entertainment around American football and they embrace it."
Chad Lewis, a retired tight end who spent 11 years in the NFL, most of them with the Philadelphia Eagles, said the league is right to play up its American roots.
"We start with the premise that the Chinese people are interested in America and that football is in the fabric of America," said Lewis. "To understand America you need to know football."
Lewis, also speaking at NFL's Beijing office, visits China twice every year as the NFL's "ambassador to China", promoting the sport through appearances and by demonstrating techniques.
A Mormon, Lewis learned Mandarin as a missionary for two years in Taichung, Taiwan. He graduated with a degree in Chinese studies from Brigham Young University in Utah.
Individual NFL teams are enthusiastic about the league's future in China, Lewis said.
"The 32 owners are in," he said. "If I was an owner I would want my team to be China's team."
Source:China Daily
Special Coverage
Mickey Mouse, New Shanghai Resident
Major headlines
Editor's Pick
Most Popular
Hot Forum Dicussion
