The NFL played a regular-season game in Madrid on Sunday — Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow threw four touchdowns and receiver Ja'Marr Chase racked up 142 yards in the first 25 minutes alone — and not a single American city saw a dime of the economic activity that comes with game day.
The Bengals dismantled the Falcons in Spain's capital, with Chase catching eight passes for a touchdown before the half, according to NBC Sports. Burrow's four-TD performance padded stats and highlight reels. But the revenue, the foot traffic, the bar tabs, the hotel bookings — all of it flowed through Madrid, not Cincinnati or Atlanta.
Both The Guardian and NBC Sports covered the game as pure spectacle. The Guardian buried the Madrid location in a roundup headline and treated it like any other box score. NBC Sports marveled at Chase's
