N.F.L. Looks to Bolster Pipeline Beyond Border

“How can a Mexican have the last name Wong?” he said Friday after his first training camp practice.
Wong, whose father’s grandfather was Chinese, joined the Jets this season after one season in the Arena Football League and two in the now-defunct N.F.L. Europa. Born and raised in Mexico, he has pursued football from age 6, spurning soccer for a sport that he said was now probably more popular in his homeland than baseball.
Wong was among 99 foreign-born players on N.F.L. rosters as training camps opened across the country last week. That number has nearly doubled since the beginning of the preseason 10 years ago, when there were 52 foreign-born players on rosters.
Making sure international players are able to find their way onto N.F.L. rosters is a part of the league’s strategy in trying to spread its popularity throughout the world, said Mark Waller, the senior vice president of N.F.L. International.
Since N.F.L. Europa folded in June after 16 years, Waller said in a telephone interview Thursday, the goal of the league has been to show the world “the best product we have to offer.” That includes playing regular-season games overseas.
“Once we build the popularity of the sport, the players will follow,” said Waller, who added that the N.F.L. was focusing on Mexico, Canada, Britain, Germany, Japan and China.
In its fourth year, the N.F.L. International Development Practice Squad Program is giving 11 international players positions on team practice squads. Each N.F.L. team is also eligible for an international player exemption, a spot on the roster for a foreign-born player who does not count toward the 80-man limit.
One of those exemptions is Noriaki Kinoshita, a wide receiver from Japan who signed with the Atlanta Falcons after three years with the Amsterdam Admirals of N.F.L. Europa.
Kinoshita is trying to become the first regular-season N.F.L. player from Japan, a country that loves its baseball and soccer but also has football teams at the collegiate and professional levels. He drew Japanese news media to Flowery Branch, Ga., for the first day of training camp, on Thursday.
“Hopefully, this way, future players will not be so scared and will come over and play in the N.F.L.,” Kinoshita said Thursday in a telephone interview, with the help of an interpreter.
“I’ll probably be the first Japanese player to play. I can show them how it’s done.”
Even with the recent increase in international players, less than 4 percent of all potential N.F.L. roster spots were occupied by foreign-born players when camps opened. International players made up 20 percent of N.B.A. rosters last season, and 29 percent of Major League Baseball roster spots at the beginning of this season.
Kim Bohuny, the N.B.A.’s vice president for basketball operations-international, said that international sports clubs with basketball teams helped the influx of foreign-born N.B.A. players by complementing several other important events: the beginning of N.B.A. telecasts throughout the world, the fall of the Eastern bloc and the 1992 Dream Team’s dominating performances.
Bob DuPuy, Major League Baseball’s president and chief operating officer, said that baseball had benefited from having more than one method of obtaining players, including a protocol agreement with Japan that brings premade stars to the United States.
But international sports clubs do not have football teams, and football does not have the same global history as baseball. The N.F.L. also lost a major international feeder system in N.F.L. Europa. That “puts a lot more pressure on us as a league to continue to do a great job” of making sure foreign-born players get into the N.F.L., Waller said.
They would provide exposure for the N.F.L. in their native countries and the world’s best athletes should get an opportunity to play in the league, he added.
Even when foreign-born players make their way onto preseason rosters, most are a long way from the success that some international stars in other American sports leagues have seen. In the N.B.A., the last three Most Valuable Player awards have been won by players who were not born in the United States.
Nick Polk, the director of football operations for the Falcons, said that Kinoshita was “a long shot” to make the team.
And Wong had only four catches in two N.F.L. Europa regular seasons, and he is undersized at 5 feet 11 inches and 179 pounds.
One day, if the N.F.L.’s strategy succeeds, a name like Juan Wong might not be the topic of conversation for the opening day of training camp.
“I think it would help a lot,” Wong said about the impact he would have in Mexico if he played for the Jets. “It would help the young kids, to be some kind of inspiration to see that a Mexican, who was born and raised in Mexico, can make it on an N.F.L. roster.”