If you haven't had time to listen to seven hours of podcast interviews, or you didn't retain everything you heard, here are some key points. I didn't think to do this until just now, so I'll be posting it as a work in progress and updating it throughout the afternoon. That way more people will have a chance to read up before the premiere.
Karishma Patel, 37, Personal Injury Trial Lawyer, Houston, TX -First generation Indian-American Her mom was as a legal assistant, and got her a filing job at her law firm when she was 14. "I didn't have other options. I was basically told I was going to be a lawyer and I didn't disagree."She has watched every season and regularly listens to RHAP. She sits close to the TV to study the inflections on people's faces when something is said to them, so that she can think about what that means. But, her parents and husband don't share her enthusiasm for the show. Asked if it's her dark pleasure she says, "It is completely bright. It is a beautiful pleasure of mine, but it is mine and mine only. I haven't been able to find people to share it with." -Doing the show has caused her conflict. "Not only is it not expected, it's not allowed. It's kind of like being a disobedient Indian girl. You're not supposed to be doing this. What you're supposed to be doing is having babies. But I don't care. I'm a risk taker. I'm here to prove to myself that I don't need to listen to anybody else. I don't need permission from anybody else. This is my journey and I'm going to take it. I hope that people watching out there can see that an Indian woman's value does not come from doing what she's told." -She doesn't currently have children, and she says she has some decisions to make as she enters a crossroads and the next stage of her life. -Her law firm told her they'll replace her if they're able to find someone, and she can have her job back if they don't. "I didn't flinch." -Her strategy is to be non-threatening and play a social game. She doesn't look 37, and she wants to use that youthfulness to be disarming. She wants to build relationships other people believe in. She defines success by other people vouching for her loyalty when they go off and have private conversations with one another. "That means I got 'em, because it's actually the other way around." Asked if she wants to find someone she can trust, "I'm not going to be capable of it. I'm too skeptical for that. I overthink things, so I'm not going to be able to trust somebody the way I want to be trusted... If I do, that's the end of my game."
My take: Oh my God. Poor Karishma. Her story hurts my heart. She reminds me so much of myself in her isolation, her defiance and her deep feelings. I worry that her fear of trusting people could get in the way of her forming genuine bonds. But, there's nothing she can do. Society has made her the way she is. I hope she gets a lot of screen time so she can be a star of her favorite show.
Missy Byrd, 24, Military Veteran/App Developer, Tacoma, Washington -Originally from Georgia. Her family was 'decently poor.' She played basketball for the Air Force Academy because she thought it was her ticket out. -She had a brain tumor. She stopped menstruating for a year and two quarters. "I'm not dating anyone but I have breast milk. I'm a literal cow... I would look down and my shirt would be wet, and I thought, 'Dang you're clumsy. I knew you were clumsy, but you're clumsier today than you were yesterday. But it was - it was - uhh - milk." She had crying fits. She developed a stutter and couldn't look at people. Doctors told her she was just stressed. When her dad died she couldn't process emotions normally. She was about to go to the French version of the Air Force Academy, École de l'air, after graduation but because of her mental instability she was removed from school. The military shipped her to the same Air Force base as Sandra (Fort Lewis.) "I don't want to be there. Super sad. Check into the post office - fuck this. Check into the dorms - hate that." The doctor there found the tumor. She got an MRI and all weekend she believed she might have cancer. Over the next year and a half she eliminated the tumor and the symptoms using vitamins. She enlisted and worked logistics. -She made a list of the things she wanted to do now that she was going to live. "The first thing was go see Beyonce. Beyonce costs way too much money for a normal person to go see, but if you've just almost had a near death experience you go see Beyonce, bro!" She was feet away. She drove across the country. She tried weed. -She had an idea for an app, but didn't even have the computer literacy to use social media. She found a veteran's association and asked if she could intern. "They said, 'No, you should build this out yourself. We want to work for you.' I said, 'No, the fuck you don't. Okay, lemme call my grandma.'" She wrote a grant proposal and won a $1,500 office space in the center of Seattle. "Just to do whatever I want. It was like a laboratory for a child. I had Play-Dough up there. I had a white board... Just mind blowing shit when I could have been dead." -She'd seen every episode of Survivor at least three times. She started watching because her Air Force Academy basketball team was getting decimated, and she related to Foa Foa getting decimated in Survivor: Samoa. She added the show to her list. Josh suggests, "The bugs are eating you because they want some of that magic." -She isn't going to tell people her story until she's in the Final 3. "That's that Final 3 magic." She doesn't want to overly rely on strategy. She doesn't want to win individual challenges. She to build a social game and find ways to relate to everyone.
My take: She's so full of exuberance. There's not a negative bone in her body right now. She's too young and her life experience is too necessarily limited to talk around three years of her life. If she shares her story, the beauty of her perspective will cause everyone to fall in love with her and want her to do well. If she doesn't, people will sense that she's hiding a lot. I think she'll figure that out and course correct within the first day. Since she was at the same Air Force base as Sandra and she was a massive fan, does that suggest she knows her?
Ronnie Bardah, 35, Professional Poker Player, Henderson, Nevada-Born and raised in Brockton, Massachusetts, 20 minutes south of Boston. They were the only Israeli family in town. 50% of the people in Brockton were from Cape Verde, and he considers himself an "honorary Cape Verdian." A couple of his friends were shot and killed at a young age. -He was a good kid and had a good heart, but he was always hustling. In Junior High he was flipping Oatmeal Cakes and Fudge Rounds for a profit. Slinging baseball cards. Both his parents gambled. They were always at the dog tracks or Mohegan Sun. He had his friend make him a fake ID and got stuck with the name Alaja Jones. He went by Al and started playing the casinos. Quit his job at Sears Automotive to play poker full time.-He played Atlantic City, Vegas, then internationally. He had his first big score in 2010 when he took 24th place in the main event for $320,000. Got to keep $150,000 after taxes. "Poker's a hard way to make an easy living. Lots of people try. We risk every day. You have to get to a point when you can manage your bankroll and I've never gone broke in the 16 years I've played." -In one of the most viewed poker hands of all time, he was bluffed out of a million dollar pot by a supermodel on a poker TV show filmed in Monaco. "She made a sick play. She had no idea what she was doing but all the stars were aligned."-He watched Borneo when it aired and got back into it when fellow poker player Anna Khait was on. He calls Jean-Robert, "kinda a lazy guy...He's really good at befriending multi-millionaires." "Anna Khait... is probably the least poker player out of all of us. She played for a couple years." "And then Garrett - He's a very, very smart, smart kid... Self-made millionaire. One of the very, very few." -He only drank water for 7.5 days and lost 25 pounds for his health and to get an idea of the conditions of the show. He thinks he'll thrive in the survival situation. "People like being around me. I like to fucking bust balls and joke." He thinks old school alliances are a good plan, but you have to adapt. He says that like in poker, Survivor players can have every advantage, but they have to really smell it. -He wants Vince out. "There's an Asian Zeke in there. What value does he bring besides ruining people and getting in people's heads? He's a liability in challenges. He looks like a little corn puff. We gotta get him outta here. Sorry to sound so mean but it's the truth."
My take: Ruuuuude. He has no way of knowing how other people on the cast are talking in their interviews, and may assume the trash talk is standard. If he were playing on some seasons it would be. But, in this particular season it sets him apart in an unflattering way, and it seems a part of the tough persona he's built up to escape a scary situation growing up and enter a fantasy career. We'll see whether his tribe thinks he's a straight talking character or a jerk.
Tom Laidlaw, Former NHL Player, Brampton, Ontario, Canada -He was with the New York Rangers for 7 years and the LA Kings for 4. Now he has his own podcast, True Grit Life (
truegritlife.com). Does it with a friend, Kevin Allen, who writes for USA Today. Does motivational speaking. -Growing up on a dairy farm outside Toronto there was a pond to water the cows. It froze over in the winters and he'd play hockey because there wasn't much else to do. Went to Northern Michigan University - four year hockey captain, ranked #1 team in the country. Drafted as a 20 year old. "My buddy had a horse farm. We were cleaning horse shit out of the stalls. There were no cell phones back then. This is 1978. My father got a call at our farm house from the New York Rangers at the draft. Back then nobody went to the draft - it was just teams. They said I'd been drafted in the sixth round. He calls the farm house where I'm working. They bring me up. He says, 'Son, you've been drafted by the Rangers.' I said, 'Great. What do I do now?' He says, 'Finish cleaning the shit out of the stalls.'" -When he played intimidation and fighting was strategy. There were guys tougher than him, but he could fight and he could also play. Problem was, he fought a guy once, and from then on the guy wanted to fight him over and over. -Jerry Bruckheimer, big hockey fan, called the NHL and wanted to get some players on the Amazing Race. Tom had kept himself in shape, he had his passport. They ended up asking him about Survivor. He'd watched it before but not for a while. He wasn't so sure he wanted to play a game where you hurt other people, but friends helped him get his head around it. He was very impressed by Christian's toughness in the endurance challenge. To prepare for the show he studied how he reacted to different situations, how to control his heart heart, etc. He wants the mental challenge.
My take: Tom really ticked me off when he spoiled a couple of outcomes of this season. That's a betrayal of the producers, his cast and the viewers. But, if that hadn't happened I would like him. He's an easy-going, charming guy. His life experiences are a bit different than anyone else who's been on the show, which is what you want.
Vince Moua, 27, Admissions Counselor, Merced, CA -His family is Hmong. His parents lived in Vietnam in the destruction left by the war - dead bodies, guns, people who wanted to kill them. They went to refugee camps in Thailand. Then his dad became a Montana farm hand. He met Vince's mom in the US, but she came from the same place. -Vince is from small town Merced, California - the 209. Few people he knew went anywhere but the UC system and community college. He went to Stanford, one of only 7-10 Hmong. He realized the significance someone can bring to people from the same community. He tried to be pre-med but realized "no, not today." The issues of access he cared about came well before people got to the hospital. He ended up going with education. His mom was a teacher, "But when I was growing up she said, 'Yo, if you become a teacher Imma disown yo ass.' To all of us. But, that's always kinda been my jam." -He lived in South Korea for five years. He taught English in a town. Then in Seoul ahed worked with low and middle income students who wanted to study outside of Korea. -He's a Survivor superfan, who even mentions on his Tinder account that he plans to be on Survivor. His parents were worried about him doing TV because he's not out as gay to his extended family. He comes from a clan where his dad is the "top dog" and Vince is "the next top dog." In the Asian American/Pacific Islander community when you come out, it's your family who faces - in a sense - dishonor. For a long time he distanced himself from his family, hoping they'd all be less hurt if they found out and disowned him. He always tried to find friends who would be there for him should his parents not be. A year ago his mom asked him rhetorically if he was gay. "I was try'n to go around it. I was like, 'Gurl, you don't wanna know! Yo ass keeps asking!' But she kept asking, asking. So finally I told her 'Yeah, I am!' and she was crying. My dad was like, 'Oh, my son!'" But, Vince is fine with who he is and wants to show kids like him that "let's hope that it gets better." Now his parents just want him to win. -He'd like to play an old school strategy but "I'm not afraid to cut a bitch." With the tribe he's going to be Homeboy Vince from the 209, but when he talks to the camera he's going to tell people "Don't underestimate your narratives." This past year with Crazy Rich Asians, he wants people to know that there are some Crazy Hood Ass Asians.
My take: What a character. Vince has a clear point of view - Hmong, blue collar, gay - which is unique to him in Survivor lore. Even though double minorities have sometimes had trouble fitting in socially on Survivor I think somehow he's going to pull it off. As unlikely as this sounds I could even see him being a Cochran-esque winner.
Aaron Meredith, 36, Personal Trainer, Warwick, Rhode Island -He's very keyed up at Ponderosa. Rambling so fast it sounds like you're listening to 1.5x. He's read four books so far - Relentless by Tim Grover, Can't Hurt Me by Dave Goggins, Iron Cowboy by James Lawrence, Harry Potter. -He was an engineer at a building insulation plant. He was miserable, too antsy sitting at a desk. Couldn't focus. So, he drove up and down the East Coast popping kettle corn - from Maine to Florida - traveling with carnies. Bartended for a while. He'd played college football and baseball, lifted since high school, and he and his friends wanted to get "huge and jacked and ripped." The owner of the gym suggested he become a personal trainer. He ended up working mostly with middle aged women and it taught him empathy. Now he owns two women's-only fitness studios. He puts supportive women around one another and offers them the positivity to seek self-growth. -He's also a party boat emcee. Lights, DJ, bar, drinks. He's an extremely social person. -He'd first applied at 23 - 6 or 7 times over the years. He was in the mix for Cook Islands and David vs. Goliath. -He's been married 7 years and has a 5 year old son. His son is a huge fan of Survivor. Libby Vincek is his favorite player. Kara Kay was his next favorite. Aaron is already sure Molly will be his son's favorite. "He has a type. He He likes the attractive blondes. He says, 'I like them because they have a nice face.' I like mommy because she has a nice face too." The boy was very concerned about his dad going on the show. He said, "Dad, I don't want anyone to laugh at you and make fun of you." Aaron said he wanted to win. His son said, "But you might not win." When they watch the show he'll always ask, "Do they like him? Do they like her?" If Aaron is portrayed in a negative light he'll have to sit down with his son and talk. He doesn't want to play a deceitful game, but he will, because he doesn't care how he's portrayed.
My take: His story about his son is one of my favorites from all these interviews. I hope he gets to work with Molly. His adrenaline is too high. I hope he calms down a lot when the game starts. But, someone so social and sweet hearted who can win challenges and take themselves to the end has got to be a contender to win.
Chelsea Walker, 27, Digital Content Editor, Los Angeles, CA -Chelsea just took the cast photo and they put her in the third spot from the bottom, a good omen because a weird number of winners have been in that position. "Your girl's number three. I got this!" -She's a Jersey girl. She went to the University of Maryland. "I didn't do Survivor: Maryland or anything." She studied Broadcast Journalism. She knew the generic emails for NBC Universal and emailed random people until someone replied. Now she's been in LA a year. She did coverage of award shows. Now she works at IMDB, where she helps Kevin Smith with his show. She just interviewed people at SXSW. -She's been watching Survivor since she was 8. She's cried in every interview because this means so much to her. She's trying to explain that at the point she starts crying again. "It's been such a dream of mine and To be told no year after year after year - these past six years have been a total mindfuck. I've basically been called every single year. I've been to finals three times. Survivor is my one true love, but the one year they didn't call me I got really pissed off so I tried out for Big Brother. I ended up becoming the alternate and got my key being filmed and all of that crap. But I don't like that show anyway." -In September 2017 she was at a WeHo bar for her friend's birthday when, "Oh shit that's Jeff Probst." Her girlfriends all know she's obsessed, so she pulled the waiter over and asked what that guy was drinking. So, Chelsea sent another one over. "I told my friends, 'Take my credit card. Split the bill, because I can't come back after I do this. As soon as the waiter drops off the drink I'm like, 'Jeff, this one's on me. You can buy me the next one at finals.' And I just walked out of the restaurant... That was a big move!" They didn't call her again that year, but Jeff still remembered when they talked this year. -She's been working out at four different gyms - weights, pilates, yoga. Push ups. Memorized puzzles. Reading How to Win Friends and Influence People, which she keeps in.a Bible sleeve so people will think she's religious. She also carries Harry Potter because she would trust someone who read HP. She wants to keep it cool. Make one on one connections. Eventually find idols - and not tell anyone she has one - and make calculated moves. "I don't want to be a Jacob. No offense."
My take: Hearing this girl cry from joy because she's so happy to be on the show makes me emotional. She's a real go getter. I wish I were that damn fearless. Truly, I wish I were more like her. I hope her pure zest for life comes across on TV and she doesn't get stuck with a purple edit just because of her age and gender. I also hope no one decides to get threatened by her as a competitive girl and vote her off premerge. I think she'll go far. Hope so.
Dean Kowalski, 28, Account Executive, New York, New York -Referring to himself in the third person, "Dean is 28 years old. As we mentioned, he lives in New York and he prides himself on being a well rounded person when it comes to interests, abilities, personalities... If I'm listening to Drake and Lil Wayne, I gotta go home and cry to This Is Us.. I can play basketball but also think about our place in the universe." He likes to tag basketball courts with a peace symbol with a ball on it which he makes using a stencil. -He structures most of his interview with Josh around an Outwit, Outplay, Outlast format, explaining why he excels at each. -He grew up in an affluent suburb. His dream was to play in the NBA. He was 5"9 3/4, so he set his eyes on college basketball as a realistic alternative. In order to get looks from colleges he went to a school 30 minutes away - top five in the country, Nike would fly them around for games and give them free Jordan sneakers. He was one of only 4 white guys in the whole school and the only one on the team. He played with Kyrie Irving, the #1 overall draft pick. "My friend said you look like the Make a Wish Kid who just wants to be on the team for a day." He played at Colombia University, where he was co-captain his senior year despite averaging two minutes a game. He became a teacher, then did sales for a tech startup in New York. He now sells ads for Google. -He's a fan, but far from a superfan. He started watching Brenda's season. (He thinks it was Nicaragua, but it was actually Carmoan.) He works with a superfan who freaked out when they had a meeting at H&R Block with Carolyn Rivera and they went out to Bourbon Street with her. He kept watching for five years and thought he could do well. He hates when people are all talk, so he sent in a tape. For the video he interviewed random strangers on the street, who had never met him or seen the show, and asked them, "Why am I going to win it?" A barber, a construction worker. He's going to tell people he's in marketing, not sales - people have sales.
My take: I'm just not that into him.
Elaine Stott, 41, Factory Worker, Rockholds, NY -When Josh asks her not to touch the table she asks him, "You seen that Bart Simpson commercial, right? Don't touch my Butterfinger? I'm already hungry thinking about it." -"I had a pretty rough way to go growing up." Her single dad raised her and her three brothers. She was the youngest. "I was raised like one of the boys. Know what I mean? Daddy didn't know how to raise no little girl." He worked 16-17 hour days. The kids raised themselves. "When little children make their own decisions, they make poor ones." She was a hellion. -She's originally from Woodbine, Kentucky, Nick Wilson's hometown. Her god sister went to school with him and she knows him through the grapevine. "We rode on different sides of the track. 20 years ago he coulda been my lawyer, because I was on the other side of the law. I'm not bad. I've just done some things." Public intoxication several times. "I come from a dry county. It's like Footloose. We cross the state line to get a beer and when you come back you're in trouble." She stole a newspaper stand once and had to do community service. "I was a little bit mean." -She went to live with her grandpa and cleaned her act up, by which she means that she started smoking a little weed and playing sports - basketball, softball, track. She played softball and judo in college. "I couldn't do nothing real technical. We had Brazilians on the team who could do flying arm bars. But if I got these claws on you and got ya on the ground I'd waller you to death." In casting she put this guy Will in an armbar. She was gonna choke him but didn't know if she should. -When she graduated, her girlfriend was a college Freshman so she went to all the same parties and ballgames for four years. Then she realized she needed a job. Now she drives a Ford truck for a factory. She's been there 15 years. She works 12 hours, 7 days a week. -Growing up her mom "was always in my life in some sense. She'd never miss a birthday. She'd be homeless, but she'd still call." Elaine and her brothers bought her cars, and places to live, and got her jobs. "In a sense I've been mourning the loss of my mom my whole life." Once Elaine was homeless herself and there was snow on the ground. It was cold, and her teacher took her in. Gave her Christmas presents. Made her go to prom. Survivor was a thing they shared, and the teacher was gonna be Elaine's loved one. But within a one year period the woman lost her daughter, her husband, her dog and then had a stroke. Now "she walks like Frankenstein" and can't go. Elaine got Probst to talk to her, and she can't wait to watch. In October Elaine's biological mom went into a coma. She was on life support, but Elaine wouldn't unplug her. Her mom came out of it and seemed to be doing a lot better only to die very suddenly of a heart attack. -Her girlfriend and her girlfriend's two sons are gonna be watching. The 18 year old doesn't know because he can't keep a secret. The 13 year old helped her lose 20 pounds doing crossfit to come out here. She wants the money, but she really wants "some of that soul searching, that life adventure, that life changing - some of that. You know what I mean? Gimme some of that soup! Lemme eat some of that up! I want this show to build me up, because I feel like it can. I sure hope to hell it don't tear me down."
My take: About 12 sobbing emojis in a row. She's my favorite. If she gets voted out premerge I'm going to go into mourning. And how can you not sort of expect that? I am going to be so upset if they just dismiss her because she's older and looks out of shape and sounds country. If that happens, I want another Second Chance season next year.
Elizabeth Biesel, 26, Olympic swimmer, South Kingstown, Rhode Island -Josh says that Elizabeth was outright identified by one of the other contestants because they'd been watching YouTube videos about how to be a better swimmer. Others guessed she was an Olympian based on her rings tattoo. -She's from the Ocean State. They lived a block away from the beach, so they wanted her to take swimming lessons. She was a rambunctious child and swimming was the only way they could calm her energy. She started breaking records when she was 7 or 8. When she was 13 she made her first national team. At 15 she went to the Olympics. She got good early. Women peak around 22-23, and she ended her career at 24. You couldn't make much money doing it. She swam one of the longer, more grueling races, and her body said "no more." She listened to her body and retired. Some athletes lose their love for swimming because they're embittered by losing by 1/100th of a second, or they leave injured. She left on a good note. Still, if she could swim competitively for the rest of her life, she would. Now she doesn't know who she is or what she's going to do with the rest of her life. Every hour of the day used to have a purpose. Now her days are wide open. She can't keep eating 5,000 calories a day. "It's sort of like I'm mourning the death of Elizabeth Biesel the swimmer." -She was a Survivor fan as a kid because Richard Hatch was from Rhode Island. In her area "Every single household that had a television set was watching Survivor." When they asked her if she'd do the show, she felt pure joy. She said absolutely right away. She's excited about the competition of Survivor. No heated Olympic pools. You're stripped down to your core. She's amazed by the scope of the production apparatus. She's not a schemer. She wants to be a challenge beast - not the best woman but the best overall. She'd love to have a Wendell and Dom relationship with another woman. But, she wants to avoid the drama as long as she can.
My take: Could Chelsea be Wendell to her Dom? She's so wholesome. She's just so "Olympics." I love her and everything she represents. I'd love to see her rocket through the swimming competitions, lapping everyone else. Go Elizabeth.
Roger Goodell is always talking about growing revenues and sometimes expanding the league. It seems likely that Los Angeles will eventually get a team again, but what about cities that have never had an NFL team? What city will be the next to host their first home team?
City: San Antonio, TX Population: 1,382,951 Other Pro/Major College Teams: San Antonio Spurs (NBA) Pros: Located in football-crazy Texas, San Antonio is by far the biggest city outside of Los Angeles to not have an NFL team. San Antonio is growing rapidly. And while a San Antonio team would be the third Texas NFL team, the geography works- they're more than 2.5 hours from Houston and 4 hours from Dallas. But what's most attractive is that it would be easy to plug in an NFL team without much investment, due to the construction of the 65,000 seat (up to 72,000) Alamodome in the early 90's. It hosts the annual Alamo Bowl and other events such as CFL and college games. At 65,000, it would be the 6th smallest stadium, tied with Ford Field and just a little more than the University of Phoenix Stadium. Expanded to 72,000, it lands between Atlanta's Georgia Dome and Buffalo's Ralph Wilson Stadium. It would be newer than 9 currently in-use NFL stadiums. As the NFL seeks to internationalize itself, having a team this close to the Mexican border may also prove to be an attractive prospect to draw in Mexican audiences. Cons: The Cowboys and Texans may not want to share their Texas pie with another major franchise, even one far away from most of them. And while large, San Antonio is not a high-profile city. While the Spurs are popular, there isn't much in the way of major sports to know if a team would succeed in the town, and if they could pull enough dollars from Texans, Cowboys, and Longhorn fans. Likelihood: This seems to be the most likely place. An untapped population, international reach, and a ready-made stadium could make this a highly attractive spot for an owner looking to make a move with minimal investment (i.e. not having to build a new stadium, or get a local government to build one).
City: San Jose, CA Population: 982,765 Other Pro/Major College Teams: Sharks (NHL) Pros: San Jose is hip place in the heart of Silicon Valley, with beautiful weather and a lot of money. Cons: The 49ers just moved their stadium to Santa Clara, just bordering San Jose. If anything, they are more San Jose than San Francisco. With the Raiders in nearby Oakland, it would concentrate a lot of NFL firepower in one small footprint. Likelihood: Very low. The league would likelu not allow a team there with the 49ers on their doorstep. While a market can support two teams if large enough (Jets/Giants, 49ers/Raiders) adding a third would be too deletrious to those in place.
City: Columbus, OH Population: 809,798 Other Pro/Major College Teams: Blue Jackets (NHL), Ohio State Buckeyes (NCAA) Pros: Ohio is up there with Texas with states that take their football seriously. Columbus is the largest city and capital in Ohio, and is already the home of very avid football fans for the Buckeyes. I'm not sure of the politics would make this possible, but if OSU allowed the Columbus NFL team to use Ohio Stadium, it would be the second largest (only behind Cowboys Stadium) with a max attendance of 102,329. Cons: It would be the third NFL team in Ohio, next to the Bengals and Browns. Both of those teams have been historically not great, and along with the continued poor showing of the Blue Jackets and difficulty of succeeding in the NFL may make Ohio sports teams weary. Likelihood: Unlikely. The Buckeyes own Columbus, and the other two owners in Ohio (and nearby Pittsburgh) would probably not want to share their turf with a new team. Unlike Texas, this is an area that has been under some economic hardship and may be difficult to justify another team in the state.
City: Austin, TX Population: 842,592 Other Pro/Major College Teams: University of Texas Longhorns (NCAA) Pros: Like with San Antonio, Texas is enthusiastic about football. Still located a good distance from the current NFL teams in Texas, Austin is a city in the midst of large economic expansion. The University of Texas contributes to a fun, weird atmosphere that would make Austin an attractive destination for visiting fans to come into town. If like Columbus the NFL team was able to lease Darrell K Royal–Texas Memorial Stadium, it would again be the #2 stadium in the NFL wth 100,119. Cons: Like Columbus and their Buckeyes, Austin bleeds burnt orange. UT football is a big deal there, and an NFL team would probably be in competition for these dollars. While there is large support from Texas faithful and the very large student body at UT, it's not clear that there would be the same level of support for an NFL team right there. Asking for 200,000 football tickets to be sold most weekends in the Fall is a daunting prospect for a town of less than a million people. Likelihood: Unlikely. Austin doesn't seem like a city that has much drive to need an NFL team, as their sporting fixes are more than made up by a typically-competitive UT team plus the nearby Cowboys and Texans.
City: Portland, OR Population: 603,106 Other Pro/Major College Teams: Timbers (MLS), Trail Blazers (NBA) Pros: Portland is a growing city that doesn't have a competitive football team nearby. Seattle is 2.5 hours, and the two recently-competitive football teams, Oregon State Beavers and the Oregon Ducks, are 1 to 2 hours away. Portland is larger than many NFL cities and is very underserved by pro sports in general, and Oregon fans have shown a lot of support for their NCAA teams. A sporting culture, including a ready-made partnership with Oregon-based Nike, might make Portland a place to put on the radar if the NFL seeks to expand. Portland and Seattle can continue their rivalry on the gridiron, instead of arguing whose Pride Parade is gayer. Cons: There would have to be a new stadium built, and locals are probably going to put up a fight against any public financing or use of eminent domain to secure a desirable city location. This would mean a stadium probably built out in the suburbs, which can have mixed results. I asked some relatives of mine what they thought about local support, and they were decidedly mixed, thinking that Portland thinks itself too much of itself to allow something as base as professional football to succeed. Likelihood: Not the least but not the most. While there's no real muscle pushing a team to Portland, and Portlandia has biased me to think that locals will protest something as base as football, it might actually be a good place for the NFL to consider expansion to.
City: Toronto, ON Population: 2,615,060 Other Pro/Major College Teams: Blue Jays (MLB), Argonauts (CFL), Raptors (NBA), Maple Leafs (NHL), Toronto FC (MLS) Pros: The Bills already play one game a year in Rogers Centre (though it will always be SkyDome to me) and there are a lot of Canadian fans of NFL football. While the Toronto series has been a debacle for the Bills (usually meaning the opposition has as many fans there as the Bills, giving them effectively one less home game a year), a dedicated NFL team may fare better. With local support, Toronto has the sports culture, population, stadium, and most importantly money (check out Maple Leafs ticket prices!) to support an NFL team. Whether the local support would actually catch is another story. Toronto would also become the third-largest city with an NFL team, coming in just under Chicago's 2.7 million. Cons: For American football, Rogers Centre only seats 54,000. That makes it the third smallest stadium in the NFL, above just Chicago and Minnesota. Crowd noise at the Bills games has been lackluster to say the least, but then again, so have the Bills. They would also be in direct competition with the Toronto Argonauts of the CFL. While the NFL definitely has larger marketing and name power, the Argos do enjoy healthy local support and are one of the oldest sports franchises in the world. Ex-con players might create headaches for visiting teams at the border. Free agents might also be hesitant to make Toronto home, given that it's (really) cold and Canadian taxes are much higher. Likelihood: Very. Goodell wants to make the game international, and Toronto is the prime target. Buffalo seems the most likely team to move there, but it's far from guaranteed. Don't be surprised if Jacksonville sneaks in on this one.
City: Las Vegas, NV Population: 596,424 Other Pro/Major College Teams: None Pros: A completely underserved sports market along with a fairly high population. It probably wouldn't be hard to find a casino magnate with money to burn that could finance an expansion team in the desert. Cons: It's hot. The gambling and party culture might make it a hotbed of player misbehavior, as there's quite a difference between a rookie signing their first million-dollar contract in northern Wisconsin versus a 5-minute drive from The Strip. A new stadium would need to be built, and without any major sports teams nearby, it's difficult to know if an NFL team would be viable. The NFL might also balk at the image of a Vegas team, as inevitably there would be accusations of fixing and bribery for gambling reasons. Likelihood: Unlikely. The NFL is just too risk-averse to invest that kind of money into a place like Vegas.
City: Virginia Beach, VA Population: 449,628 Other Pro/Major College Teams: None Pros: Virginia Beach is one of those invisible large metro areas. Taking in the bordering cities of Chesapeake, Norfolk, and Hampton, the greater area has a metro population of 616,805 just in those towns. Expanding to the larger area and it gets pretty big. It's a wealthy area with a major port and some great tourist areas nearby. It fills a void between the Baltimore/Washington tail of Megalopolis before the Carolina fans pick up. While there is no stadium, there is plenty of room for one, and lots of waterfront that could potentially be converted to a beautiful stadium location. And while the Sacramento Kings deal didn't work out, it showed that local government and ownership groups may be willing to bring a team to this area. Cons: Not a high-profile place. An NBA team, especially one like the Kings, is significantly cheaper than an NFL franchise. The team would have to build a stadium. Likelihood: Could be a dark horse. Virginia has a surprising lack of sports teams, and is even underserved by major college sports. UVa is rarely much more than middling, and sometimes-competitive Virginia Tech is all the way at the western end of the state in Blacksburg. While they probably won't be much of a target for a team looking to move, if the NFL chooses to expand, expect VA Beach to be under consideration.
City: Birmingham, AL Population: 212,038 Other Pro/Major College Teams: None Pros: The southeastern United States is strangely lacking in professional football teams. While the dominant SEC dominates the local sports fans attention, it seems like fertile ground in which to plant an NFL franchise. Birmingham is the largest city in Alabama, and doesn't have a local team in the city. Cons: It is on the smaller side of NFL cities, and it's not a sure thing that the dyed-in-the-wool Alabama football fans will change their spending from the Tigers and the Crimson Tide enough to really allow the team to take root. Likelihood: Very low.
City: London, England Population: 8,308,369 Other Pro/Major College Teams: Like, half the Premier league and a bunch of rugby, cricket, and at least one NFL game a year. Pros: The NFL has been playing games in London for a few years, and fan support has been steady. Wembley Stadium seats over 86,000 for American football. While many Brits seem to find our American game incomprehensible (but somehow find a way to figure out Cricket), there is some fan support for the game. Goodell has publicly expressed an interest in getting a team to London sooner than later, so there is definite management support. Cons: Imagine the 49ers travelling to the London teams, and you're talking about a 20-some-odd hour flight. American free agents will probably often be very hesitant to go to England. The London team's travel times to ANY games, even those "close" games on the US east coast would be a huge disadvantage. Their body clocks would also be completely thrown off, and jet-lag would become a factor. Likelihood: Very, but I believe it will be short-lived. The logistics and other factors of having a European-based team in an American league is just awful, and I think over time that would bear itself out.
City: Omaha, NE Population: 421,570 Other Pro/Major College Teams: None Pros: Omaha is a growing city, and Nebraska's economy is one of the strongest in the nation. While the state of Nebraska lives and dies by their Huskers (located at the University of Nebraska an hour away in Lincoln) Omaha's distinct lack of any major college or pro sports seems to be odd. The Huskers manage to scrape up enough people to fill their 90,000 capacity stadium in a city half the size of Omaha every week, so I think Omaha could very well support a team. The midwest is underserved with pro ball, forcing most Nebraskans to split between the Rams, Chiefs, or Broncos. I work with a few people from Omaha, and they tell me there's too much residual hate of the University of Texas for Cowboys fandom to take root. Omaha has a burgeoning music and art scene, and probably wouldn't be a detriment to free agents. Cons: No ready made stadium, and a lack of too much of a metro area. Knowing how absolutely religiously dedicated Nebraskans can be to their Cornhuskers, I'm not convinced an NFL team can really gain traction. This might be pure college ball territory. Likelihood: Not bad. I think Omaha would be a good location, and could be a great place for an expansion team.
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