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NFL expects American football 'Yao Ming'
(AFP)
Updated: 2006-02-05 09:18
A Chinese player among the American football elite, a notion that might have
been fantasy a decade ago, is coming in the near future, according to National
Football League visitors to China.
Yao
Ming | Chinese center Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets was the top vote-getter in
balloting for this month's National Basketball Association All-Star Game and an
NFL version of him could excite all of Asia in a similar fashion as Yao.
That's the hope of NFL commissioner Paul Tagliabue and Chad Lewis, the
Philadelphia Eagles tight end who has visited China for youth programs and
served as a television commentator for Mandarin-language Super Bowl telecasts.
"It's not too far in the future before we see the 'Yao Ming' of football,"
Lewis said. "There is no doubt about it. We will see a 'Yao Ming.' It probably
won't be a quarterback. It's probably going to be a special teams player.
"You get some kamikaze guy flying down the field full speed on the kickoff
team and slamming into American guys. He will be a rock star in China."
Lewis learned Mandarin to handle two years of a Mormon mission in Taiwan and
has visited the Chinese mainland, Thailand and Singapore as well in helping
spread the global reach of American football, whose championship showdown here
Sunday will match the Pittsburgh Steelers and Seattle Seahawks.
"People in China ask, 'Why do you think it will work in China?' Well when you
get the ball and go out in a park and just start throwing it around, it's a lot
of fun. The joy of just doing that is enough," Lewis said.
"When you start throwing around a ball and realize how much fun it is just to
play the game and enjoy it, that just makes you want to play and be good."
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