The NFL executive and former advertising man who helped to sell flag football to the Olympics

Brett Gosper knows all about winning pitches. The 65-year-old, now the NFL’s head of Europe & Asia-Pacific, used the powers of persuasion he honed in advertising to full effect when he played an instrumental role in getting flag football — a non-tackling version of American football — into the 2028 Games in Los Angeles, putting what the NFL says is the world’s fastest-growing sport on the biggest sporting stage of all. And then, as CEO at World Rugby, rugby union’s global governing body, Gosper witnessed first-hand the transformative effect the Olympics can have on a sport, as men’s and women’s rugby sevens, a shortened version of the traditional 15-a-side form of the game, made its first appearance at the 2016 Games in Rio de Janeiro. So in that sense, the experience I’d had before was helpful.” The NFL says flag football — a non-contact version of its sport where ball-carriers are deemed to have been tackled when one, or both, of two flags attached to their waist is pulled off by a defending player — has 20 million players in 100 countries. We experienced that at Bayern, and we’ve experienced that in Real, where you have access already to a huge fanbase that are interested in what’s going on in their world.” Munich’s Allianz Arena hosted an NFL game between the Seattle Seahawks and Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2022 While talk of a UK-based NFL team has quieted down, Dublin has emerged as a potential host city for the league.