Uterusofsteel
Even when I visit family in my hometown in Mexico (pop 5.5 mill for the metro area), I am SUPER careful. There is a travel warning to the city, as it’s not a resort town or one filled with many tourists. I am able to speak the language, so I avoid speaking English in most places. I’m pretty street smart and know the city well but still avoid taking ubers or flashing anything expensive. My phone stays in my forward facing anti theft bag. I walk with purpose and make no eye contact. I take all these precautions as someone who BLENDS into the local population. I can’t even imagine how she is going to be out there.
Well, I can try and answer the best I can lol the NFL is trying to push an international fan base because heaven forbid only Americans watch football and soccer be the most watched sport in the world. They have initiatives all over the world to host games in “sister cities” assigned to the teams (see: https://www.neworleanssaints.com/news/new-orleans-saints-france-nfl-international-marketing-global-markets-program).
They are especially trying to push into Canada and Mexico since they are more likely to be able to get to games. I think NFL Canada didn’t do enough research as their IG only has 136k followers , which tells me that their social media team is lacking, considering the regular NFL IG has 30m. I don’t think sending Birdie would make a difference because if they aren’t already a fan, it would be hard to convert middle aged moms. I’m convinced Birdie only became a fan because Shine incentivized her. If you live in a big football town, it’s hard not to become even a casual watcher. Sundays are for football. My friends don’t follow football but if we go to any bar or brunch it’s inevitable football will be on. Merch is sold at every Walmart or Target.
And finally, the NFL turnS a blind eye to domestic abuse and DUIs from their players, I don’t think they care about optics. People will go into debt to go to a game, and they know it.
Yeah of course! Didn’t mean to downplay anything, as a visitor I’m sure it’s way different than actually living day to day. I do know Canada is having a housing crisis right now as well as an economic downturn because of inflation. That obviously comes with elevated crime, which is very unfortunate and a whole other bag of worms.