This is pretty cool. The NFL is creating its own virtual world, with an area for each team. Looks like somewhat customizable avatars w/ minigames. The style they’ve chosen is interesting. I am not the target demographic of this world (in as far as I don’t like watching sports) and upon showing this to one of my football-obsessed friends I am wondering who they are targetting. My friend (in my highly scientific survey of one person) thought it looked ridiculous and embodied absolutely nothing that he loves about football, but he’s got to be among the hardest of the hardcore (brags that he hasn’t missed watching a Bears game since 1985 or something).

This looks to me like a play to get kids interested in football and the NFL brand at a younger age than many do currently rather than a play to extend the NFL experience into virtual worlds for adult fans. This kind of brand-strengthening play is, I think, going to be the dominant form of virtual world going forward (think MTV’s various virtual worlds, Barbie Virtual World, etc) though I wonder how many we’re going to see that aren’t targeted at tweens/teens until the generation that has grown up with somewhat mainstream virtual worlds gets older.

On a related note, though there’s no CSI virtual world, this week’s much-hyped CSI tie-in with Second Life is squarely aimed at adults, and I think it’s going to be interesting to see what kind of adoption SL gets from this brand tie-in.