Partnerships with Chinese companies and organizations, especially long-term agreements, are something the NFL "must get much better at," Waller said. The NFL office in Beijing has been open only since March, later than expected, he said.

"We fell behind for lots of good reasons," he said. "One of the things that is important, particularly for our game, is whatever we do needs to be done very well. Speed is less important to us than doing it right."

In two years, the NFL has the potential to transform American football from a novelty sport to a more substantial game in China, but the NFL is looking long term.

"It's taken us 100 years to get where we are at in the States. We would have been no better off if we had done it in 98 years," Waller said. "Building sport in new cultures takes a long time and you're better off realizing that and working accordingly than trying to do things on an artificial timeline. I thought we would be well served coming in before the Olympics, but with the benefit of six to nine months of looking at that I'm not sure that was the right idea."

Chinese sports authorities and the city of Beijing are fully focused on Olympic preparations right now, and the NFL would have taken a backseat. By holding the game in 2009, Waller said the NFL is now in talks with Beijing officials to move the event to the new National Stadium. The game was originally to be played in the Beijing Workers' Stadium between the Seattle Seahawks and the New England Patriots. Both are among America's best football teams, as the Seahawks earned a trip to the Superbowl in 2006 and the Patriots won it in 2005. Both teams have expressed interest in participating in the 2009 exhibition game, Waller said.

The New England Patriots have prepared for years to play in the China Bowl. The team launched a Chinese-language website in 2004.

"We remain very interested in participating in the first China Bowl, whenever that is," Patriots' spokesman Stacey James told the Boston Herald. "If that's 2009, we'd be flattered to continue to be one of the teams asked to participate."

The NFL, like all major U.S. corporations, is obviously interested in China because of the country's rapid economic growth and huge potential market, Waller said. However, unlike some other American cultural exports, football resonates with the Chinese love of sports, strategy and physical achievement.

"The core of our game, which is a great combination of strategy and execution, is particularly relevant to the Chinese culture. Interestingly, there is an initial response to our game that it is too aggressive and not culturally appealing. Once people understand it, and realize how much of the game is strategic and pre-planned and incredibly trained and prepared for, it really does resonate."

China and the United States are two "incredibly great nations determined to do great things in the world," Waller said, and American-style olive ball taps into that drive for achievement.

(Reporting from New York)

Football, American Style American-style football is the most popular sport in the United States, and the televised games draw more viewers than any other sport. The Superbowl, the championship game of the National Football League, is an unofficial national holiday. Fans love the sport for its combination of strategy and brute force. However, to those outside the United States, the rules of the game are murky. Teams are given four chances to advance the ball 10 yards toward the opposing team's end zone. If they are successful they are given another four chances to advance, but if they are blocked they must turn over the ball to the opposing team. The chance to advance the ball, called a down, is over if the person carrying the ball falls or is knocked down or if the other team steals the ball. To score a touchdown, worth six points, a team must carry or catch the ball in the opposing team's end zone. A touchdown also gives a team a chance to score an extra point by kicking the football through the opposing team's goalposts. Teams can also score three points by kicking the ball through the goalposts during regular gameplay or two points by forcing the offensive team into their own end zone. Games are divided into four quarters of 15 minutes each, and in the result of a tie the teams go into overtime known as sudden death, when the first team to score wins. During a game, each team sends 11 players to the field, and each player has a specific offensive, defensive or special team role. There are also many game rules teams must abide by or they will be penalized by losing yards or possession of the ball. Teams develop playbooks full of strategies for combining passing, running and blocking to advance the ball, and the team's quarterback organizes each play like a military captain with his troops. The U.S. National Football League was organized in 1920 in Canton, Ohio. There are 32 teams in the league, representing major American cities and regions.