For much of its history, the United States asserted its exceptionalism and isolationism through sport, opting out of shared global sporting cultures to develop its own games — even going so far as proclaiming its domestic winners “world champions.”

Until recently, the top athletes in the country’s most popular sport, American football, didn’t represent the country in international competitions. They simply had no one to compete against. But this is starting to change.

Author Andrés Martinez chronicles the convergence of footballing in his new book The Great Game: A Tale of Two Footballs and America’s Quest to Conquer Global Sport. He says the shift is happening right before our eyes. The Kansas City Chiefs’ 2025 NFL game in Brazil is major evidence of an updated attitude, and the city’s upcoming role as host of a FIFA men’s World Cup this summer further supports the idea that more than one variety of football can rule the hearts of fans.

Martinez, the director of Arizona State University’s Great Game Lab, discusses how, regardless of politics, the globalization of sport is accelerating alongside the growth of sport’s geopolitical, mediatic, economic, and cultural “soft power.” He helps make sense of how and why Americans are becoming more connected to the world through sport and Kansas City’s role in this story.