{"id":889280,"date":"2026-09-12T11:14:43","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:14:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/889280\/"},"modified":"2026-09-12T11:14:43","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T11:14:43","slug":"what-do-you-say-to-that-famous-us-pundit-left-stunned-by-aussies-in-bold-nfl-declaration","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/889280\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018What do you say to that?\u2019: Famous US pundit left stunned by Aussies in bold NFL declaration"},"content":{"rendered":"

One of the most well-known American media personalities has given Australia a glowing endorsement while making a bold declaration after Friday\u2019s NFL success.<\/p>\n

Watch an average of 6 games per week and every game of the NFL Postseason, LIVE with ESPN on Kayo Sports | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.<\/a><\/p>\n

The MCG played host to the Los Angeles Rams and San Francisco 49ers, with the franchises opening their 2026 seasons in front of 100,021 people at the home of footy. <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

It was the first-ever NFL season-proper match on Australian soil, and by lunchtime, it was the league\u2019s seventh-most attended regular-season game in history. <\/p>\n

Aussies with a passion for the overseas sport, as well as a handful of travelling Americans, flocked to Melbourne\u2019s sporting colosseum before 10am AEST on a Friday to fill it. <\/p>\n

And while the result wasn\u2019t ultimately tightly-fought, with the 49ers shocking the Super-Bowl-favourite Rams, 27-7, the event was truly a spectacle, complete with in-game fan engagement, the Jonas Brothers taking centre stage at half-time, and a spine-tingling pre-game flyover. <\/p>\n

Famous ESPN commentator Stephen A. Smith couldn\u2019t help but be impressed by the occasion, even if his praise of the people Down Under was slightly misdirected. <\/p>\n

\u201cLet\u2019s give props to the NFL once again,\u201d Smith began on ESPN\u2019s flagship show \u2018First Take\u2019 on Saturday AEST. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe NFL is showing that it is rapidly becoming the number one sport in the world. <\/p>\n

\u201cI know in America that\u2019s a given, but \u2026 when a hundred thousand people show up at a cricket arena to watch an NFL game at 10:30 in the morning, local time, what do you say to that? <\/p>\n

\u201cA hundred thousand people, on a weekday showing up at a place where they\u2019re usually watching cricket, and instead they\u2019re watching an NFL game. <\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, damn, I\u2019ve got to give props where props are due \u2014 the NFL wants to globalise its brand, and ladies and gentlemen, they are doing it.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE:<\/p>\n

FULL AUS GAME RECAP: \u2018Australia\u2019s team\u2019 torched over \u2018disrespectful\u2019 move as sleep taunt backfires in epic 100k scenes<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018FEELS LIKE THE SUPER BOWL\u2019: US fans react to wild MCG scenes \u2018never seen\u2019 before<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2018READY TO FIGHT\u2019: Hilarious \u2018crazy\u2019 MCG reveal as US fans say same thing about Aussies<\/a><\/p>\n

But despite Smith\u2019s praise, and the event being well-received locally, not everyone was pleased by the NFL\u2019s call to bring the game Down Under. <\/p>\n

\u201cRams-Niners in Australia, for what? Because they like football? Cool, they can turn it on (the TV). It\u2019s already Christmas in Australia, they\u2019re a month and a half ahead,\u201d fellow ESPN media personality Scott van Pelt said on his podcast in the lead-up. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not possible to be flying for that long in an aeroplane and still be on Earth. That\u2019s where two division rivals from the best division in football are playing. I just feel like it\u2019s entirely unnecessary.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that I don\u2019t love it, I just think at some point, and they\u2019ve already reached the point \u2026 they\u2019ve taken so many games that are significant out of the Sunday window that the space that already belongs entirely to them is just marginalised. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat they realise is that\u2019s going to belong to us anyway. Some is good, more is better, the most is the best and they can take the most.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"One of the most well-known American media personalities has given Australia a glowing endorsement while making a bold…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[559],"tags":[64,63,593,85],"class_list":["post-889280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}