http://www.espn.com/nfl/story/_/id/15273529/how-american-football-becoming-worldwide-sport-europe-china-beyond

Was watching the video. It seems they already have a Chinese league of some sixteen teams, with fans, and roughly about division 3 level so far. I think this is a good development. If they can expand just a little more (and next years first NFL game in China should help), the potential is quite high. The foot may already be in the door.

What do you think? Is this just a misunderstanding of China, or could this actually be something?

I don't know, it seems like there's still a long way to go to grow in any meaningful way there.

Purely anectodotal, but when I was in Ireland over the summer I got to talking to a young bartender guy who was a big fan of sports in general, and including American sports. He lived the NBA and had been getting into the NFL, and said that there was a sort of semi pro league springing up there, and he and his friends were going to be trying to get to the college football games that they'd be playing in Ireland. It seems to have spread a bit in popularity there, but I feel like that's most likely still a fringe interest. I never heard anything about China being into the sport at all before, but it seems like it's at best still a minimal interest.