Reach of football growing globally

Did you hear about that nail-biter between the U.S. and Japan in the World Cup? You know, the football game. No, not the football that David Beckham is trying to learn to call soccer, the football played with an oblong spheroid.

In case you missed it, the U.S. captured its first World Championship of American Football at Todoroki Stadium in Kawasaki, Japan, on Sunday, slipping the host nation 23-20 in double-overtime.

Bet you didn't know Japan was the two-time defending champion. Or, honestly, that a U.S. national team even existed, coached by none other than John Mackovic, last seen making a mess of things at Arizona. Leading a losing cause against Japan probably wouldn't have bolstered his coaching legacy.

Perhaps that's unfairly dismissive. Folks used to assume absolute U.S. dominance in basketball and baseball, too. How's that been going lately?

Heck, speaking of Japan, the Falcons just signed receiver Noriaki Kinoshita, a native of Osaka, who learned the game in his native country and landed on the NFL radar when he hung up good numbers for the Amsterdam Admirals of the recently defunct NFL Europa.

Despite the NFL putting the kibosh on its European misadventure, the football footprint is growing. And it's not just about the multibillion dollar beasts that are the NFL and college football, or even the quirky arena football leagues.

Moving back stateside, the newest hand reaching for a slice of the football pie is looking to inhabit the space between college and the NFL: The All American Football League.

The AAFL imagines itself as a pro league that appeals to college sensibilities. Slated to start play in the spring-summer of 2008, it's working to align itself with Division I-A universities, sometimes even using their stadiums, while distributing players based on regional appeal.

The AAFL wants its niche to be the Southeast and select towns where college football rules. Moreover, players must have college degrees.

Are you ready for some (more) football?

You're smirking with good reason. There's an alphabet soup graveyard of failed leagues -- WFL, USFL and XFL -- that were squished by the NFL behemoth.

Yet some of the folks who are on board might give you pause, including former NCAA President Cedric Dempsey, former ACC commissioner and Notre Dame athletic director Gene Corrigan, former UCLA athletic director Pete Dalis, and Charles Wethington, the former chairman of the NCAA Executive Committee.

That's not a group of lightweights.

Former Florida and Denver Broncos receiver Travis McGriff, who is serving as a league spokesman until he suits up in April for the Florida team that will be based in Gainesville, understands the skepticism, but he also says research provided to the league by Octagon Sports Marketing told them they had an audience.

"When the numbers came back, we almost didn't believe them," McGriff said. "It almost looked too good. It screams at you. There is a beating pulse that they are tapping into."

The league, which failed to get off the ground last year, held invitation-only tryouts this month in Orlando, Fla., and more are planned for September.

The biggest name? Probably Shane Matthews, a former Florida quarterback and 13-year NFL veteran.

Players will be paid about $70,000 to $75,000, according to a USA Today story on the league.

McGriff said the league is shooting for six to eight teams in college football hotbeds, with arrangements in the works with Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Florida State, North Carolina State and Purdue.

He even asked about Washington.

"It's going to be done right, and the fan interest is there," McGriff said. "Everybody loves football. They can't get enough."

Not everybody, considering the closure of NFL Europa.

Yet some optimistic sorts would counter that American football has, indeed, gone international.

The NFL has set up Web sites in seven countries, and it will play its first overseas regular-season game in London on Oct. 28, with the Giants facing the Dolphins.

It took 90 minutes to sell out the first 40,000-ticket allotment.

A preseason game between the Seahawks and Patriots was rescheduled for 2009, allowing NFL International to set up an office in Beijing.

Meanwhile, the International Federation of American Football is based in, of all places, France. It notes on its Web site that the sport has "drawn people in over 50 countries on all six (populated) continents into its spell."

Who knew?

Probably not a U.S. national team made up of second-tier college players with no hope of making an NFL roster who found themselves struggling against an undersized but speedy and disciplined Japanese team.

After whipping South Korea 77-0 -- and having the Koreans ask for autographs and pictures afterward -- and then Germany 33-7, the U.S. team probably didn't expect a challenge.

"Of course, there was pressure," said Steve Alic, USA Football director of communications. "But the world is shrinking in football terms. It's not exclusive to the U.S. anymore. The exposure is there."

So each side of the ocean is trying to get the other to embrace its football.

Just imagine: Eight years from now, the U.S. team loses for the first time, so embarrassed officials send a "Dream Team" that dominates.

And then what happens next?