San Francisco 49ers owner John York

San Francisco 49ers owner John York can not only envision the NFL holding its championship game outside of the USA, but also sees an international franchise in the league's future.

"There is easily enough of a fan base (in London) to stage two games a season," York told Matt Maiocco of CSN Bay Area. "I think eventually there will be a Super Bowl outside the U.S. I couldn't tell you when that would be. I can see it both ways. I'm not sure what will be first, a Super Bowl over here or an NFL team, but they both seem likely to happen."

The 49ers football jerseys and Denver Broncos will play at Wembley Stadium on October 31.

For some reason York thinks the team will have a good home-field advantage over there.

"I was here for the [New England-Tampa Bay] game last year and there were Nate Davis a lot of 49er fans here," he said.

 ohnson had refused to take part in any offseason activities after gaining 2,006 yards rushing and 2,509 yards from scrimmage in 2009. Johnson has said that he wants a new deal that would guarantee him $30 million, which the Titans are not willing to do in the face of CBA uncertainty.

Even if they wanted to give Johnson a huge new contract, the 30 Percent Frank Gore Rule would prevent them from doing so. This is a proviso in the post-CBA labor landscape that precludes teams from giving players extensions larger than 30 percent over the previous year's earnings. The San Francisco 49ers circumvented the rule when giving an extension to All-Pro linebacker Patrick Willis(notes), giving him stacked signing bonuses and injury-based guarantees.

Titans general manager Mike Reinfeldt is known as a hard negotiator, but he had Michael Crabtree to realize that paying Johnson a little over half a million dollars in a season where he's a good bet to lead the league in rushing for the second straight year would be ridiculous.

Moving Johnson's 2012 bonus doesn't take care of the larger issue, but it deals with the problem in the short term. With quarterback Vince Young(notes) still getting the hang of the NFL offense (though he looked much better last season) and a defense in transition, the Titans desperately need Johnson in camp, in games, and at his best if they hope to compete in what projects to be a brutally competitive AFC South division.