Puerto Ricans should be proud and smiling from ear to ear over Bad Bunny’s halftime performance at the Super Bowl. But the person with the biggest grin on Sunday was in one of the most exclusive luxury boxes at Levi Stadium: Roger Goodell. The National Football League commissioner undoubtedly had an even wider smile after the ratings came out. The game averaged 124.9 million U.S. viewers — second all-time only behind last year’s Super Bowl between the Eagles and Chiefs — and 128.2 million viewers during halftime. The show was a hit. Goodell didn’t really care if Bad Bunny’s singing was any good or if the props were fantastic or the dancing was electric, all he cared about was the viewership and the worldwide reaction. International numbers aren’t yet available, but projections are high. The NFL did not pick Spanish-singing Bad Bunny to perform at halftime to make a political statement or to upset certain segments of American society, even though Puerto Rico is a U.S. territory and Bad Bunny is a U.S. citizen. Bad Bunny was chosen as a pure business decision, a test case. Goodell knows that no politician, whether a Democrat or Republican, can derail the league’s popularity. In reality, the only thing that can hurt the NFL is the NFL itself: concussions, domestic abuse, a gambling scandal, you get the drift here. The NFL, for the average American, whether living in a blue city like Philadelphia or a staunchly red county like Carbon, is a distraction from daily life. It’s something to look forward to for 20-some weeks a year and something to miss the rest of the time. For Goodell, the NFL is nothing but a product. And he is smart enough, and egotistical enough, to know he must grow the product. On the smart side, it will make him more money and give him perpetual job security; on the ego side, he wants to go down as the greatest NFL commissioner ever. And that’s where Bad Bunny comes in. Anyone who thinks the NFL’s overseas and south-of-the-border games are akin to a National Lampoon’s vacation movie for the league’s bigwigs and players is a fool. Goodell’s motive for testing the market is motivated by increasing profits. Revenue growth is limited domestically, but outside America’s borders, the possibilities are wide open. “It’s the ambition that we have to be a global sport, but it’s also the demand that we’re having,” Goodell said at his annual “state of the league” press conference during Super Bowl week. “We’re hearing from cities all over the world that want to host these games and that really want to get more American football.” Is the NFL going to expand to Brazil? No way, at least not in the near term. But Mexico City may be viable sooner rather than later, according to Nate Silver and other analysts and economic surveyors. Ciudad de México, for two decades, has been a regular stop for the league’s international games, has a new stadium in the works and boasts a metro population of 23 million in a nation of 133 million. The NFL is actively eyeing expansion outside the U.S. and has been for a while. That’s why the league is playing games in Berlin, London, Madrid, São Paulo, etc. That’s why it had NFL Europe as a precursor to its current international showcase series. It’s not to visit Westminster Abbey or drink some Guinness in Dublin. It’s because the NFL wants to figure out exactly where to expand to make more money and grow the product. The league made some economic inroads in Japan and other parts of Asia in the 1990s and early 2000s, but interest there ultimately proved sparse, according to retired NFL insider Peter King, the Los Angeles Times and other reports. Latin America and Europe are a whole different story.   Bad Bunny’s halftime show has Goodell giddy because he now knows that Latin America is ready, with Mexico leading the way. But even before adding any franchises abroad, the league wants to expand its current international series, with all 32 teams participating annually. “I’ve said many times, 16 games, so that every team is playing a regular-season game every season (outside the United States),” Goodell said. “I think that’s an important mark for us to go for.” Once the league reaches that milestone — and it isn’t far off — the next frontier will be permanent NFL teams around the world. ...read more read less