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Speaker 1: Before we get started, please rate and review our show.

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Speaker 1: It helps people find us. On this episode of Sports

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Speaker 1: Illustrated Weekly, the NFL regular season is nearly upon US

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Speaker 1: and football mat America is primed for another season of

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Speaker 1: its favorite sport. But have you ever wondered which country

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Speaker 1: outside the US is second best at American football? Believe

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Speaker 1: it or not, it's not Canada or the UK. Our

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Speaker 1: senior producer Harry swartout, how's this surprising answer, which traces

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Speaker 1: all the way back to a big international game in

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Speaker 1: the seventies and includes no small amount of booze and hijacks.

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Speaker 1: I'm your host, John Gonzales from Sports Illustrated and I

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Speaker 1: Heart Radio. This is Sports Illustrated Weekly. If you had

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Speaker 1: to guess, which is the best country in the world

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Speaker 1: at football after the United States, of course, it's not Mexico,

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Speaker 1: despite being our neighbors to the south. It's not the UK,

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Speaker 1: no matter how many Jaguars games the NFL insists on

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Speaker 1: exporting there. You might think it's Canada despite their insistence

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Speaker 1: on playing only three downs, But in international play, the

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Speaker 1: second best country in the world at American football is Japan.

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Speaker 1: Who are you expecting? Japan has a great college football system,

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Speaker 1: a semi pro league which can compete with the best

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Speaker 1: from any nation. Heck, they've even got football anime. All

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Speaker 1: of that football passion can be traced back to one

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Speaker 1: preseason game in nineteen seventy six, played on a drizzly

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Speaker 1: day in August. The Mine Starboard Let's Go Back. Six

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Speaker 1: was a big year for Japan, at least as far

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Speaker 1: as people in colorful costumes are concerned. Polyester clad Japanese

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Speaker 1: disco funk Ford out of every dance hall. Super Sentai,

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Speaker 1: which would later become power Injuries in America just hit

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Speaker 1: its stride God and in the Tokyo Grand Prix, James

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Speaker 1: Hunt narrowly outdueled Niki Laudo to become F one World

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Speaker 1: Driver's Champion. You know, like in the movie Rush, James

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Speaker 1: Hunt pay Jake third and almost catching Patrick Depie. But

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Speaker 1: James Hunt is the world Champion. Japan had their rainbow

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Speaker 1: clad heroes in America had hours. The NFL was humming

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Speaker 1: along after the a f L NFL merger, and there

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Speaker 1: was no real reason for the league to be looking

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Speaker 1: to expand beyond North America. But this wasn't the NFL's idea.

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Speaker 1: St Louis Football Cardinals alumni coordinator Bob Underwood explains the

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Speaker 1: Japanese excursion was all thanks to one man. The mastermind

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Speaker 1: behind this game was a Japanese American named Frank Takahashi.

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Speaker 1: And Frank was a lattice farmer. He was a wealthy

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Speaker 1: businessman and an Alattis farmer. He had about two acre

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Speaker 1: farm south of Los Angeles, and he was a huge

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Speaker 1: football fan and he was a huge San Diego Charger

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Speaker 1: ban how big a sports fan. He flew private jets

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Speaker 1: around the West Coast to see the best football matchups

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Speaker 1: each week. He attended the Super Bowl and Pro Bowl

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Speaker 1: each year. And he named his son Unitus, after legendary

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Speaker 1: quarterback Johnny Uniteds, who played just one season for his

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Speaker 1: beloved Chargers. Takahashi wanted to share his passion for football

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Speaker 1: with others who were very far away. Frank's passion, his

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Speaker 1: dream was to bring an NFL game to Tokyo, where

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Speaker 1: he had some business connections, and he attempted this for

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Speaker 1: three or four years. He was on six estival and

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Speaker 1: then he must have sweetened the deal enough to where

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Speaker 1: he got the Chargers and the St. Louis Football Cardinals

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Speaker 1: now the Arizona Cardinals to accept this game in Nix,

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Speaker 1: and Frank had to pay all of the expenses, and

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Speaker 1: there was a report that the Cardinals alone their expenses

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Speaker 1: were over a hundred thousand dollars, which would in today's

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Speaker 1: money would be over a half a million dollars. So

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Speaker 1: he probably had about a million dollars and expenses in

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Speaker 1: today's money, you know that he had to cover. Frank

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Speaker 1: Takahashi predicted that sixty thousand Japanese fans would buy tickets

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Speaker 1: to a game, and he hoped that kind of attendance

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Speaker 1: would convince the lead to play in Japan annually eventually

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Speaker 1: get a franchise on the island, and that he would

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Speaker 1: own it, but one step at a time. First, there

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Speaker 1: was the problem of where to play the game. Japan

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Speaker 1: didn't have any large American football stadiums, and they definitely

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Speaker 1: didn't have one that could fit sixty thou fans. What

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Speaker 1: they did have was a cavernous old baseball stadium known

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Speaker 1: for host in concerts Coorakuen Stadium. You might remember it

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Speaker 1: as the first stop on Michael Jackson's bad Tour. Thank you,

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Speaker 1: Thank you very much. Good Eye. Despite kicking off one

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Speaker 1: of the greatest pop tours of all time. Coacuan Stadium

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Speaker 1: itself was not the best. Built in ninety eight, Coakuen

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Speaker 1: Stadium was a concrete nightmare with an AstroTurf field that,

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Speaker 1: while being state of the art for the nineteen seventies,

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Speaker 1: was still like being tackled onto sandpaper on top of concrete.

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Speaker 1: But Coakuen Stadium had another problem. There were only forty

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Speaker 1: eight thousand seats, which is less than the sixty k

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Speaker 1: Takahashi had promised. To make up the difference, Takahashi got

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Speaker 1: a sponsor, my Niche Daily News, an English language newspaper

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Speaker 1: in Japan, put up some money for the naming rights,

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Speaker 1: and thus was born the my Niche Star Bold. But

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Speaker 1: what really mattered Frank Takahashi was attendance. A sellout, he'd

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Speaker 1: break even if not. Frank was pretty confident they could

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Speaker 1: sell out the game because there was actually a college

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Speaker 1: football All Star game in Tokyo back in January of

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Speaker 1: nineteen seventy six and they had almost seventy thousand fans,

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Speaker 1: so he was pretty confident. But the days leading up

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Speaker 1: to the game, there was a report that they had

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Speaker 1: only sold twenty five thousand seats advanced tickets, and then

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Speaker 1: after the game there were some conflicting reports that you know,

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Speaker 1: the attendance could have been anywhere from thirty thousand and

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Speaker 1: thirty eight thousand, but either way, it wasn't a sellout.

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Speaker 1: So Frank didn't get a sellout, he lost money, but

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Speaker 1: he did achieve his dream of having the NFL play

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Speaker 1: in Tokyo. Now I know what you're thinking, how was

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Speaker 1: it transporting to football teams full of rowdy grown men

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Speaker 1: to Japan in the nineteen seventies? And boy, am I

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Speaker 1: glad you asked? According to Cardinal Center Tom Banks, it

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Speaker 1: started before the flight had even taken off, but it

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Speaker 1: used to be aflo hours early. I mean, yeah, there's

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Speaker 1: a bunch of guys gonna do. We went straight to

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Speaker 1: the bar and started drinking, were trying to get on

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Speaker 1: the plane, and I recognized pretty quickly it was gonna

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Speaker 1: be a long flight. I ordered all the sake that

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Speaker 1: they had brought to my seat and started having people

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Speaker 1: to have a have a toach with me as you

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Speaker 1: go by up and down the aisles. So that was

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Speaker 1: the kind of flight it was. And it wasn't just

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Speaker 1: Banks either. Hall of Fame tight end. Jackie Smith and

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Speaker 1: the rest of the team had their fair share to

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Speaker 1: drink too. It was a charter of fight. Either that

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Speaker 1: or we had to hold back end of the plane.

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Speaker 1: But I know that we were freely walking around and

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Speaker 1: doing what pretty much what we wanted, and a few

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Speaker 1: beers were consumed on the way over, and so that

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Speaker 1: was what I remember most. Jackie Smith is also a

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Speaker 1: Hall of Fame understater. According to St. Louis Post Dispatch

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Speaker 1: writer Doug Rose account, the team drank all of the

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Speaker 1: beer and sake on the plane. And remember Jackie said,

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Speaker 1: the team was freely walking around the cabin. That's why

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Speaker 1: Tom Banks ended up stumbling towards the cockpit and had

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Speaker 1: to be restrained by the flight attendants. Not that he

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Speaker 1: exactly remembers that'ble to me later on when I ended

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Speaker 1: up eating in trouble about this, you know, having a

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Speaker 1: good times against the rules. And all of this was

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Speaker 1: before they had set foot in Japan. When they got there,

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Speaker 1: things only got weird. Jackie Smith and the team arrived

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Speaker 1: on Tuesday, but the game wasn't until Sunday. It was

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Speaker 1: quite an experience. Nobody was looking forward to it because

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Speaker 1: nobody had been over to Japan before, but I think

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Speaker 1: we spent a week over there, so we had time

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Speaker 1: to explore the area, go up and down the streets,

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Speaker 1: and get to meet some people. And it was an

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Speaker 1: interesting visit again, a world class understatement from Jackie. Sure

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Speaker 1: they practiced every day, but not at all times. They

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Speaker 1: had hours to explore. Players could pay just one thousand

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Speaker 1: dollars to bring their family with them on the trip,

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Speaker 1: and so many did. But the ones that didn't, well,

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Speaker 1: they had some fun. Or eight days in August, the

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Speaker 1: Cardinals experienced the ultimate road trip, a visit to Tokyo

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Speaker 1: or a preseason game with the Chargers. Here's a shortlist

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Speaker 1: of what the team got into in their spare time.

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Speaker 1: Tom Banks and company went on some bar crawls who

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Speaker 1: were up a local bar and goes in it, and uh,

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Speaker 1: they didn't have any any twelve manus bottles of beer.

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Speaker 1: It was always those two and a half the bottles

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Speaker 1: of so they would only start with you too, and

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Speaker 1: then they make you leave. We shouldn't make any sense

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Speaker 1: to me. Roger Whirley and Guardy Hammond got food poisoning

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Speaker 1: immediately after landing. Dan Fouts himself said he went to

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Speaker 1: some sage parlors. Cardinals offensive line coach Jim Hannaffan purchased

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Speaker 1: two fighting beatles in a bamboo cage for five hundred years.

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Speaker 1: One of those beatles ended up in Conrad Dobler's bed

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Speaker 1: as a prank. Who put it there? Jaggie did put

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Speaker 1: that one of those beetles in k He was never

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Speaker 1: any danger, I was saying, we were worried about eating.

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Speaker 1: Jackie claims not to remember this. Remember that a Cardinals

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Speaker 1: player briefly stole a bus from their Japanese guide, and

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Speaker 1: everyone players, coaches, in front office personnel misunderstood and were

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Speaker 1: misunderstood by the Japanese in a farcical translation comedy type

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Speaker 1: of way. But it wasn't all hijiing s though. The

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Speaker 1: team really did try to spread the word of American

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Speaker 1: football around Japan. They even helped coach a Japanese practice.

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Speaker 1: Look at that to even run up to the line

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Speaker 1: of scrimmage. Oh my god. After a week of uh

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Speaker 1: cultural exchange, it was finally time for the game itself,

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Speaker 1: which honestly was a bit of a letdown after the

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Speaker 1: shenanigans during the rest of the week. Except for one

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Speaker 1: little surprise. It was ris Ling and the teams knew

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Speaker 1: the astro turf would be slick, but they didn't know

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Speaker 1: about the lines. What was interesting is the yard lines

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Speaker 1: were not chalk or paint. There was some kind of

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Speaker 1: foam or soap or something. And there was one of

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Speaker 1: the players that said that he got tackled where they

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Speaker 1: out of bounce line. It took like five yards out

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Speaker 1: of the yard marker off the field because it was removable.

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Speaker 1: They still not really sure what it was made out of,

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Speaker 1: but you know, it wasn't permanent, that's for sure. Despite

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Speaker 1: a lackluster ten Cardinals win in the rain, the Japanese

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Speaker 1: fans seemed to enjoy the football game, at least Jackie

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Speaker 1: Smith thinks, so they had not a clue what was

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Speaker 1: going on. They didn't really know anything about the scoring

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Speaker 1: or anything about the plays or what to look for,

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Speaker 1: what to cheer for, what the first down was, or

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Speaker 1: anything else. Having no clue what was happening on the

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Speaker 1: field didn't stop the Japanese fans from cheering, though, and

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Speaker 1: they wanted to be as specific as possible. All of

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Speaker 1: a sudden, there would be some noise breaking out and

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Speaker 1: people call it hollering and saying something that we finally

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Speaker 1: figured out it was a group of them. They were

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Speaker 1: taking names off of the roster and then they would

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Speaker 1: try to I'll say it Jackie smith S, M I

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Speaker 1: z Z. So it was as close as they could

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Speaker 1: give to it, and uh, it never did come out

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Speaker 1: correct as far as the way it was pronounced. I

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Speaker 1: remember the sayings being enthusiastic. I've seen a few baseball

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Speaker 1: games in Japan on TV and he's kind of saying

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Speaker 1: that being orchestrated. The shooting people stand up in the

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Speaker 1: middle of the group, and they'll be leading all these

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Speaker 1: years since they get into it. Other chants included Chargers,

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Speaker 1: Chargers bon bons or my personal favorite, Cardinals attacked the

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Speaker 1: ball baza at the end of the game. The fans

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Speaker 1: were ecstatic, the media in a frenzy, and the players,

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Speaker 1: we're just ready to go home. I like it, We're

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Speaker 1: ready all I don't have it because I'm going home perfect.

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Speaker 1: So what's the takeaway from the Mini Starbowl? What did

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Speaker 1: Frank Takahashi's let his money really buy the band? Result

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Speaker 1: was a very good time for the team and a

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Speaker 1: lot of goodwill between people's of a different nature. Japan

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Speaker 1: experienced a bit of a football craze in the eighties

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Speaker 1: and nineties. Tom Banks was surprised to see the beginnings

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Speaker 1: of it before a single down of the Nice Start

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Speaker 1: Bull had even been played. We went into department stores

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Speaker 1: and they were huge. This one we went into had

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Speaker 1: a sporting good section kick up most of the floor

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Speaker 1: and they had a lot of NFL memorabilia, jerseys and

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Speaker 1: the trash kids, pens, all this NFL stuff were he goes.

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Speaker 1: They were having the football here, what's all this stuff do?

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Speaker 1: But they loved having TV shows of NFL games. Since

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Speaker 1: Frank Takahashi willed an NFL game on Japanese soil, the

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Speaker 1: NFL has played thirteen more preseason games in Japan, but

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Speaker 1: none since two thousand five. The NFL has largely abandoned

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Speaker 1: Japan to focus on Europe and Mexico. But the min

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Speaker 1: Starboard did do a little bit of what Frank Takahashi

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Speaker 1: set out to do in spreading American football to Japan,

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Speaker 1: just as John Gunning, who covers Japanese football for NHK,

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Speaker 1: The Japan Times and Inside Sports Japan. If there's one

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Speaker 1: thing I can say about Japanese American football, it's it's

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Speaker 1: very nostalgia heavy, so a lot of the the good

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Speaker 1: old days and the glory days is a big point

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Speaker 1: for a lot of the people who would be the

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Speaker 1: power brokers in the sports. Still, it was probably as

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Speaker 1: it's then it's its peak, it's most popular point in

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Speaker 1: the twenty years following the Starboard, I would say in

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Speaker 1: those following years from seventy six all the way to

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Speaker 1: there was a college football all star game play in

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Speaker 1: Japan called Unimagined. It of ly the Japan Ball, and

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Speaker 1: they got to see the good stuff. Here's Bob Jackson

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Speaker 1: housing a swing pass in the first Japan Ball. Paul Jackson,

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Speaker 1: Who's going to catch them? That's hurt nobody nine and

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Speaker 1: the NFL even came back for a preseason game. Nearly

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Speaker 1: every year from Football in Japan was hot, but not

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Speaker 1: even the power of the football boom could resist Japan's

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Speaker 1: economic bust in the nineties. I think what did it

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Speaker 1: in was a lot of the teams that were very

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Speaker 1: popular were backed by banks. When the financial crash happened

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Speaker 1: in the late nineties, a lot of the banks pulled out,

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Speaker 1: so a lot of the teams lost their sponsors went

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Speaker 1: to the wall. The money wasn't there to ensure it

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Speaker 1: was on TV, and it was a cascade effect basically.

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Speaker 1: Once that sort of rug was pulled out from underneath them,

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Speaker 1: the sport declined fairly rapidly, but ironically, as it was

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Speaker 1: getting less and less popular, the level was rising. It

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Speaker 1: was almost an inverse curve, so you know, it got

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Speaker 1: stronger and stronger, and then probably over the last ten years,

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Speaker 1: the level has just gone through the roof. You know,

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Speaker 1: we have guys who were stars at FBS programs and

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Speaker 1: who you know, did really well in the NFL comps

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Speaker 1: and they come to Japan and they just get humiliated.

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Speaker 1: So the football is stronger than ever, at least on

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Speaker 1: the field, but the NFL probably won't be coming back

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Speaker 1: to Japan anytime soon. The popularity has died down. But

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Speaker 1: there's also no Frank Takashi to leave the charge Ords. Instead,

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Speaker 1: the NFL is determining its own international policy. The NFL decided,

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Speaker 1: pull on, we can put teams in other countries and

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Speaker 1: play actual games, which is what they're doing now. Japan

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Speaker 1: really couldn't have been a consideration for them. It's just

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Speaker 1: too far geographically, the time zones are wildly different. If

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Speaker 1: the NFL was playing here you have two m kickoffs

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Speaker 1: in the US, which would just be a non starter.

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Speaker 1: And also the language, the culture of the food, the logistics,

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Speaker 1: everything is a hundred times more difficult for an English

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Speaker 1: speaking American team in Japan than it would be in

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Speaker 1: for example, London or even Germany, and there is a

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Speaker 1: a path to growth in those countries. There are large

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Speaker 1: existing NFL fan bases, which you can see with the

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Speaker 1: games that are in those countries, they're sold out all

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Speaker 1: the time. I don't think Japan has the same kind

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Speaker 1: of dedicated NFL fan base. There are a lot of

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Speaker 1: maybe casual fans who would have gone to games, but

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Speaker 1: the football definitely doesn't have the same kind of intensity

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Speaker 1: among its fan base in Japan. A catch twenty two.

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Speaker 1: For international NFL games, you need fans to get fans.

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Speaker 1: You need to be able to see the games live.

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Speaker 1: The Starboard did that. It grabbed the imagination of the

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Speaker 1: Japanese people, at least for a while there. It was

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Speaker 1: an experiment. We want all out to see what it

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Speaker 1: was like. And when we got outside and there were

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Speaker 1: a lot of people want to say hi to us,

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Speaker 1: I guess or whatever, I have some photographs or some

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Speaker 1: kids on my lap and they were very family, very outgoing,

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Speaker 1: and and then now reluctant to come over and talk

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Speaker 1: to us at all. And they live spools, not catafilt

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Speaker 1: the kidship with the mind you we're being there, and

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Speaker 1: they were responding to if that being there making friends

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Speaker 1: is how you make future fans. Japan still loves football now.

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Speaker 1: The NFL just needs to bring the games back to Japan.

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Speaker 1: Attack the ball fun side. Thanks for listening, everybody, and

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Speaker 1: a reminder to please rate and review the show. It

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Speaker 1: helps people find us. Sports Illustrated Weekly is a production

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Speaker 1: of Sports Illustrated and I Heart Radio. For more podcasts

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Speaker 1: from I Heart Radio, visit the I Heart Radio app,

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Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. And

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Speaker 1: for more of Sports Illustrated's best stories and podcasts, visit

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Speaker 1: SI dot com. This episode of Sports Illustrated Weekly was

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Speaker 1: produced by Jordan Rozsieri, Jessica Armoski, and Isaac Lee, who

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Speaker 1: was also our sound engineer. Our senior producers are Dan

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Speaker 1: Bloom and Harry sward Out. Our executive producers are Scott

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Speaker 1: Brody and me John Gonzalez. Our theme song is by

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Speaker 1: Nolan Schneider and if you've stuck around this song, we

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Speaker 1: leave you with this. Jack was really a great teammate

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Speaker 1: and he was quite a jokester. Kane was getting getting

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Speaker 1: set for a national interview and during training camp in

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Speaker 1: UM in St. Louis, and he brought a brand new

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Speaker 1: pair of jeans and he had a face. He showed

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Speaker 1: that Phillis Shuis was gonna do it. Was her first

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Speaker 1: he being on the NFL broadcast and she had this

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Speaker 1: all set up to interview Conrad and Jackie took some

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Speaker 1: serzis and cut one of the legs off his new

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Speaker 1: gene and I'm standing there in the locker going told

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Speaker 1: you that guy dude that he might have a heart attack. Well,

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Speaker 1: they did it anyway, and he came. He didn't know

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Speaker 1: when he went to put his pants on, his foot

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Speaker 1: went through the leg and he just started screaming and

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Speaker 1: he picked up the bench and threw it into the water.

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Speaker 1: I was I really working, so he might have a

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Speaker 1: heart sack. He just was so upset and Jackie and

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Speaker 1: nobody returns who did it but Jackie and lended him

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Speaker 1: uh pair his hands up