RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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Every time a college football team torches the opposition for an entire season — think 2019 LSU, 2021 Georgia or 2025 Indiana — sports talk hot-takers start wondering if this team could beat an NFL squad. (It’s always the Cleveland Browns in this hypothetical scenario.) The truth, of course, is that the worst NFL team — yes, even the Browns — would obliterate even the finest NFL team. They’re just totally different weight classes, totally different universes.
The NFL got a look at this dynamic from the other side this summer. As popular as the NFL is — and make no mistake, the NFL is still America’s most popular form of entertainment in any medium — it’s a minnow in the ocean compared to the World Cup. Millions more viewers, billions more in revenue — the World Cup is a reminder to the NFL that there’s a whole planet of sports lovers out there who don’t much care whether this is the Cowboys’ year.
The NFL will never compete with the World Cup, but the NFL can learn from the World Cup. Here are a few lessons that The Shield will likely incorporate from the inspiring, thrilling and so, so lucrative tournament that comes around every four years.
A fan of Norway holds up a sign stating they sold their viking ship for tickets to the match during the FIFA World Cup 2026 Round Of 32 match between Cote D'Ivoire and Norway at Dallas Stadium on June 30, 2026 in Arlington, Texas. Robbie Jay Barratt - AMA via Getty Images
Ticket prices
The most notorious element of the 2026 World Cup, and one likely to linger, was FIFA’s realization that fans were willing to pay astronomical sums to get in the doors of the 16 arenas holding World Cup matches. FIFA priced the tickets at staggering levels, sent prospective buyers through a labyrinthine lottery process, didn’t even disclose the exact seats available for purchase … and fans still flocked to pay up. The lesson there for the NFL is, sadly, obvious — if people want to get in the door badly enough, they’ll jump through all the hoops you put in their way. Expect dynamic pricing and other techniques designed to separate fans from their money to spread across the NFL over the coming years. Sorry, but you know it’s coming.
A high-altitude drone shot depicts a large crowd of people around a central city monument to view the live broadcast of the Argentina vs. Spain World Cup final in Chattogram, Bangladesh, on July 20, 2026. NurPhoto via Getty Images
Fan fests
The World Cup played out on hundreds of thousands of public televisions across the world, with fans gathering around bars and backyards in communal joy. But the fan fests taking place in each host city were the epicenter of the outside-the-stadium activities. Giant screens showing every game, sponsor activations, giveaways and a general sense of happy camaraderie made these gatherings the place to be if you couldn’t get in the stadium. Some NFL teams already put on versions of these, but usually only for ticket holders on the way to the stadium. World Cup-style street parties, like the NFL already does for the Draft, could further expand the Shield’s brand and goodwill.
Netherlands fans wear orange and march across Houston, Texas, during the Oranje Walk ahead of a World Cup match between the Netherlands and Sweden on June 20, 2026. NurPhoto via Getty Images
National/regional identity
The World Cup offers fans of participating nations the chance to lean into their own national identity, bringing the best of their home country to the fore. The NFL tries to keep everything within its purview unified, a standardized brand with different helmet colors. Why not allow individual teams some more room to express local identity? Pittsburgh is different from Tampa is different from Arizona is different from Seattle … why not build more branding efforts around cities and regions, rather than around logos and bloodless “Keep fighting”-style mottos? The story of the World Cup was made up of a hundred different, smaller stories; why not let the NFL’s story breathe and expand a bit beyond bland sponsor-friendly narratives?
Scarcity works
The World Cup only comes along once every four years, and only plays a limited number of games over a month-long timeframe. The NFL, obviously, cycles around annually and lasts for five-plus months — not as long as, say, baseball, but not rare either. Add in the hypefests for the NFL Draft, schedule release and other offseason activities, plus the ever-increasing in-season expansion — Hello, 18-game schedule! — and the NFL is giving away the very scarcity that makes it so precious.
Opaque bureaucracy
Like ticket prices, this won’t come as good news for fans. FIFA does what it wishes because it knows fans will come back to the matches no matter what kinds of questionable, infuriating or outright corrupt decisions come down from on high. The NFL will throw its weight around, but the Shield hasn’t tried anything as brazen as FIFA’s revocation of a red card against the USMNT’s Folarin Balogun. But now that FIFA’s shown that the “just try and stop us” approach works, well … there’s now precedent, is all we’re saying.
A sense of humor
All too often, the NFL and its most ardent devotees treat the league as something more solemn than national security. It’s football! It’s sports! It’s supposed to be entertainment, not a grim march of tactics. The World Cup got weird at times, from the roving bands of Europeans discovering the glories of America to Erling Haaland’s stuffed raccoon. The NFL could use a bit more low-stakes, high-humor strangeness.
It followed me home 🦝🤣 pic.twitter.com/IwMhgv0CAb
— Erling Haaland (@Erling) July 13, 2026
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