The CBS Saturday Morning crew heads to Berlin, Germany, to explore the NFL's growth abroad ahead of Sunday's game between the Atlanta Falcons and the Indianapolis Colts at the Olympiastadion.

Berlin

The National Football League is set to play its first-ever regular season game in Berlin, with the Indianapolis Colts facing the Atlanta Falcons at the historic Olympic Stadium. This event is part of the NFL's broader initiative to expand its international presence, having hosted games in seven cities outside the United States over the past 18 years.

Germany has seen a significant rise in American football fans, with approximately 21 million regular NFL followers. The league's international strategy includes not only staging games but also developing local talent through programs like the NFL Academy, aiming to further grow its global fan base.

NFL to play first-ever game in Berlin

Tomorrow, the Indianapolis Colts will take on the Atlanta Falcons at Olympic Stadium in the first ever NFL game in Berlin. Well, this is part of the NFL's push to increase its fan base around the world. In 18 years, games have been played in seven international cities with several more to come. And if Commissioner Roger Goodell gets his way, every franchise will play at least one regular season game abroad. We visited Germany. We found out that the game has been growing there for many, many years. From Sao Paolo to London, Mexico City to Dublin. Now in the first play in Dublin, he's got himself an NFL sack. The National Football League is showing up on the international stage. To the ground here, Gatewood on his end for the Pittsburgh touchdown. Next up on the NFL's world tour, Berlin, with a fan base that's been building for decades. Like 10 years ago, 15 years ago, if you were to ask me, can the NFL be this big in this country, I would say no. Part of that growth, thanks to former NFL player Bjorn Werner. I was always a big kid. So I was the fastest. I was the strongest. I was the tallest. And I was gifted by my parents, I guess. I was able to catch the ball, run with it, throw it somehow. He grew into the sport by age 12, from flag to tackle, eventually earning a scholarship to Florida State. Wrapped up, Werner, the germinator. The Indianapolis Colts select Bjorn Werner. A first round pick in 2013, a knee injury limited Werner to just three years in the league before retiring. My career in the NFL wasn't the career I was hoping for. The body was breaking down. The pressure got to me, because I couldn't be the player anymore. I lost a step. Werner returned to Germany, realizing he had a second career tailor-made. And the podcast Football Bromance was born. Me as a German guy, I lived the American dream. And now I live the German dream, because I can talk about American football and call it my job, you know? So why does his hometown make sense as the NFL's newest stopping ground? Is it really that popular here? American football, I have to say, is super popular over here. I mean, we have a country with 80, 82 million people, and we have around 21 people who follow the NFL regularly. 21 million. 21 million. That's like a fourth of your population. It's true, yeah. Alexander Steinfurth is managing director for the NFL in Germany. I still remember being a 10-year-old kid, going to this big stadium, watching a sport I didn't understand at all. That was in the 1990s. The end of the Cold War ushered in an era of new economic opportunity for Europe and for the NFL. Capitalizing on a built-in fan base from decades of post-World War II U.S. military presence, the World League of American Football was launched in 1991. But with just 10 teams and only three in Europe, the league failed to gain traction in the U.S. and suspended play after just two seasons. Rebranded as NFL Europe in 1995, the new six-team All-European League lasted just 12 years. The safety, John Walker, has sealed World Bowl XV for Hamburg. Why didn't it work back then, and why do you think it can work now? I mean, I think the NFL Europe probably didn't work to the extent that the league was hoping for, but that's on a larger scale, so to say. I think in Germany, specifically, it worked pretty well. And we still see the effects today. A lot of the fandom we see in Germany right now was actually created in the 90s and the 2000s, and they've been eagerly waiting for the NFL to come back. It didn't take long. Later in 2007, the NFL kicked off its international series. London, England, Wembley Stadium, the site of the Giants and the Dolphins. Regular season games played outside of North America, with the first at London's Wembley Stadium. And the Giants escaped with a road win in London. I think the difference in strategy these days is that the original product coming over, not a feeder league, not a secondary league, it definitely helped to grow the sport over here. In 2019, the league began sponsoring a recruitment mechanism, the NFL Academy, a training program for international high school students. It opens the door around the world to a potential global growth in many, many markets. Brett Gosper is head of Europe and Asia Pacific for the NFL. The NFL knows the next 50 million fans are going to come from outside America, and the NFL knows there's a globalization process of streaming platforms. The importance of being in more markets in a meaningful way is something that has been the pivot of the last few years, and something that ownership and the commissioner are driving very hard. Berlin has been driving hard for Sunday's game for some time, repurposing a facility that is no stranger to history. The 11th Olympiad was to be held in Berlin, hosted by a man whom the entire globe had good reason to fear. The Olympia Stadium was built specifically for the 1936 Olympics. The undisputed star of the competition was Ohio State University track star Jesse Owens. It can now house more than 70,000 fans. It's a very iconic historic stadium here in Germany, not just hosted the Olympics, but also soccer World Cup finals, the annual cup final for German soccer teams. Along with games in Munich and Frankfurt, Steinforth says Berlin's entry into the NFL season may be just what's needed to give Germany the upper hand when the Olympic Committee votes on who hosts the 2036 games in the next two years. Could this be kind of like a game changer for eyeballs who are considering where the next Olympics will be? I mean, I think hosting NFL games is amongst the most complex sporting events you can have in a non-core NFL market. So it's definitely a pro to be able to show to the world, yes, we're able to host it and that will definitely be a showcase for them.

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