Super Bowl Around the World
— -- This story appears in ESPN The Magazine's February 6 Super Bowl Preview Issue. Subscribe today!
When Tom Brady and Matt Ryan face off on Sunday, fans will be watching all over the world. But how would you watch if you had to go to work at the same time, or if no TV station broadcast it in your country? We decided to find out.
Brazil
Brazil is futebol country, but the Coritiba Crocodiles don't care. Once coached by former Jets tight end Johnny Mitchell, the 2013 Brazilian American Football League champions throw a Super Bowl party each year in Curitiba, where for $5 fans watch the game and place bets at a bar with the players, who tell stories about their own experiences.
Russia
Our completely unclassified intel indicates that no Russian TV network carries NFL broadcast rights. So the roughly 7 million local fans have to choose between a European satellite subscription and watching online, which sometimes means using pirated streams. Which is really just another way Russia and the U.S. resemble each other in 2017.
Nigeria
In 2014, Nwaji Jibunoh, a Nigerian-born Falcons fan who went to high school in Atlanta, began hosting a viewing party in Lagos, Africa's most populous city. Jibunoh and his friends' invite-only list of American expats and homegrown Lagosians has kept swelling to the point that they might take their shindig public this year.
International Space Station
Houston, we have a kickoff. The countdown to Super Bowl LI actually started in space last February when astronaut Scott Kelly kicked -- or should we say, floated -- a football at the station. If the astronauts miss the late finish (science is demanding!), they can watch a game transmission afterward.
South Pole
It's minus-38 degrees F outside, but that doesn't stop scientists inside the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station from getting their game on. Just not when their teams are playing. Because TV signals don't reach the station, fans wait for a DVD to be delivered by military cargo plane. Depending on the weather in Antarctica, that can take up to three days.
Australia
Proficient in their own right at violent sports, the Aussies have taken a shine to American "footy." (Ten percent count themselves as fans.) If you make your way to one of the Sporting Globe's nine bars in Oz, you can catch the pregame analysis of one Ben Graham, the first Australian to have played in the Super Bowl, as a punter for the Cardinals.
Denmark
For the first time, the game will be televised at Copenhagen's 131-year-old Circus building, which, with its 1,000-person capacity, might be hosting the largest Super Bowl party in Scandinavian history. Playing emcee is Claus Elming -- ex-player, commentator, Vikings superfan and inductee into the Danish American Football Federation Hall of Fame.
China
The timing of this year's game couldn't be worse. The Super Bowl kicks off at the end of the Chinese New Year's weeklong festivities. The Monday morning broadcast means everyone will not only ?be worn out but schlepping to work after seven days of partying. Cue people in suits jostling for space on the subway while watching the game on their phones.