The Bad Bunny halftime show made a lot of people mad. The NFL saw it coming and did it anyway.

Girls flag football is suddenly getting A LOT more airtime. The league is playing games in Brazil, Germany, and Mexico City. And if you're part of the NFL's core fanbase wondering why the league seems focused on everyone except you, I get it.

You Have to Look a Little Deeper.

If you're tailgating every Sunday in your Zubaz pants & team jersey, the NFL already has you. You're bought in. You're watching. You're engaged.

The league's growth challenge isn't keeping you. It's reaching everyone else.

My friend Ethan Strauss calls it "the undecided whale." He wrote about it in his brilliant piece called “Nike’s End of Men”. Both Nike & Lululemon have dealt with this on opposite ends of the spectrum.
There’s that dream customer out there who could unlock billions more in growth because your existing base, no matter how loyal, has natural limits.
Nike was chasing after women & forgot that their base is actually bros. Lulu went after men, but forgot their base is yoga girlies.

Baseball was once America’s Favorite past time.

The NFL is aware of what happened to baseball and basketball to a smaller degree with genuine concern. Kids & families are obsessed with the Savannah Bananas. They'll only look up on a golf broadcast if Grant Horvat is on the screen. They have zero interest in MLB or the PGA Tour whatsoever.

The NFL is trying to avoid the same fate.

Baseball has Japan. Basketball has China. But the globalization of the NFL has been a struggle. That's why they've been grinding in London for years and are now expanding into Germany, Mexico City, and Brazil.

To keep growing at the scale they need, they have to build a global brand. That means going outside the US to find new audiences.

Bad Bunny reaches people across the globe and connects with a younger demographic. The NFL knows the reality: there aren't a lot of kids willing to sit through 3.5 hours of football anymore.

They have to meet the next generation where they are. And Bad Bunny gets them there.

It’s all been forgotten by now as the country has collectively shrugged after CTE concerns years ago. Nothing will slow our love of football consumption, but there is a clear dropoff in kids participation in tackle football.

Flag football offers parents a way to let their kids fall in love with the game without the concussion concerns. The league needs the next generation getting obsessed young, and they need parental buy-in to make that happen.

Women's sports is surging. Flag football will be in the 2028 Olympics in LA. Stars are already emerging.

The girls flag football initiative has been building for years, and we're seeing it hit a tipping point now. Under Armour, Nike & Oakley are jockeying for position to be the brand of choice.

Here's the real tension: how do you chase new customers without alienating the ones you already have?

This is a challenge every growing business faces. Do you invest heavily in acquiring the dream customer and risk making your core feel ignored? Or do you play it safe and watch younger audiences drift to whatever becomes football's Savannah Bananas?

The NFL has clearly made its choice. They're betting they can keep you while expanding to everyone else.

Whether that works remains to be seen.

Education

Golf is on fire and a new course in East Texas is an indicator of that. The founders of Bandon Dunes are building a course here and expanding all over. Join me for my favorite video I’ve ever made.

Blessings:

Life is hard.
I’ve been empathizing with my kids about how tough it is to be a kid sometimes. You can’t do what you want when you want. People constantly telling you No.
But, the truth is, life is hard as an adult too. It’s just different.
Sickness, death, loss, demanding jobs, torn between what we want in the long term and what we want to do in the short term.
It’s important to have an anchor in all this.
My faith has been a guiding force for me. I’ve tried to share it in different ways.
I spent some time with Streams Studio from London when they came thru Dallas. I’ve shared some thoughts about my hope for young men and my challenges as a young man.
I’m grateful to be alive and dealing with life’s beauty and challenges.