The NFL held a league meeting on Wednesday to hold a vote for the league's expansion of the number of international games they plan to play in future seasons from four to eight games.
The vote passed, 31-1. Who was the lone vote against the NFL's international expansion? That's right. Bears owner George McCaskey. Along with his vote "no," he delivered a speech that caused the room to burst out laughing (in a good way), according to a report from CBS Sports.
"We have generational talents coming in," McCaskey said, according to the report. "Fans want to see Patrick Mahomes coming in. They want to see Josh Allen coming in. They want to see Jalen Hurts coming in.
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"They want to see Tommy DeVito coming in."
The room burst into laughter, according to the report.
"It was the best line of the entire meeting," CBS said one source told them. According to the source, it was a "good-natured and well-received quip."
DeVito, 25, was thrust into the spotlight after injuries to Daniel Jones and Tyrod Taylor forced him to take over as the Giants' signal caller. Although, he's helped the Giants to a 3-1 record under his leadership. His play and the threads his agent sported at a recent game have made him into a viral sensation.
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As for McCaskey's argument, it's a selfish reasoning, but difficult one to dispute if you're a Chicago Bears fan.
McCaskey's argument is based on the notion that fans want to see the league's best players on the rare occasions they're in town. For example, Patrick Mahomes has been in the NFL for seven seasons. He's played at Soldier Field once in the regular season in his career.
McCaskey "selfishly" wants his fans to see those generational talents.
The NFL has a rule in place for teams to protect games on their schedule from going international. However, the number of games they can protect recently changed from four to two games per season. Hence, a team may miss out on the chance to host generational players by the NFL moving said game to an international stage.
In 2024, the NFL will expand to Brazil, where one NFC team will be named the home team for that game. And again, the NFL will have a game in Germany and three in London next season.
That's another pitfall of international games; one team will lose a home game to play overseas. It's an unfortunate drawback of the NFL's ploy to expand their fan bases worldwide. But, that's part of the venture, yet probably another reason McCaskey answered "no" to the NFL expanding its international presence.
And, of course, fans are desperate to see the Tommy DeVito's of the world.