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Indeed, Toronto is just a one to two-hour flight from half of the NFL’s markets. Hell, more people live BETWEEN Toronto proper and Buffalo (about 3 million) than live in the entire metropolitan regions of most NFL markets.

I asked Goodell at the end of the formal portion of his news conference why Toronto is off the NFL’s radar, at least publicly, whenever the subject of the league placing a franchise in a foreign market is ever raised.

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“Well, it seems you already came to that conclusion when you said it’s off my radar, which couldn’t be further from the truth,” Goodell said. “I’m from Western New York. I spent a lot of time in Canada as a young kid, and I have nothing but admiration for Toronto. I think it’s a great city that continues to evolve, continues to grow. It certainly could be a great city for an NFL team.

“The one thing I’ve said openly over the years – you may not be aware of it – but a stadium that is up to NFL standards is going to be a certain requirement. That is going to be an important element that’s going to have to be focused on. It’s not enough to just have a great city, which you have. You have to have a facility also.”

Right. And Toronto currently doesn’t.

I’ve written for nearly a decade now that Toronto’s famous downtown domed stadium – once named SkyDome and now known as the Rogers Centre – does not meet minimum NFL requirements as a home stadium for either a relocated or expansion franchise.

Which leads to the conundrum Los Angeles experienced for two decades, before the Rams and Chargers relocated to Tinsel Town in the past few years, on the contracted, multi-billion-dollar promise of a spiffy new covered, downtown stadium – set to finally open this summer. The conundrum is the NFL won’t come unless there’s a new-stadium plan, but no one’s going to build a new stadium unless they know for sure the NFL will send a new or existing team.