Lewis' NFL Asia experience didn't start in mainland China, but on a three-nation trip in 2002 to Taiwan, Singapore and Thailand, where he conducted by his count hundreds of interviews, in both Chinese and English, with reporters and writers lined up at each stop for a 10- to 15-minutes apiece chat.

Since then, he's made five extended visits to mainland China — always either Beijing, Shanghai, or both, and often with a family member in tow — and looking to returning more in the future to visit other cities.

With its eye on the potential market of 1.3 billion people and some 300 million households, the NFL is venturing into China in opposite fashion from its 16-year European adventures. Starting in 1991 as the World League of American Football and finally closing in 2007 as NFL Europa, the notion was to field NFL-aligned professional teams in hopes of drawing Europeans to a different brand of football.

However, the China effort — as well as throughout Asia and back in Europe — is more of a grassroots approach, a 20-year plan that started with sponsoring international flag football there for youth ages 12 to 14, and slowly and steadily build interest, marketing and sponsorships.

And hopefully a fan base.

Besides the potential audience, China's 1.3 billion population — merely by sheer mass — provides quite a possible talent pool when it comes to athletes.

"That's a big pool to be choosing athletes from," said Lewis, recalling seeing "guys my size — massive — who could easily play in the NFL."

But China is in its infancy of learning the basics of "ganlanqui" — Mandarin for "olive ball," as football is called there — let alone the intricacies of the American sport. So, finding the next "Yao Ming of the NFL" maybe not be in the very near future.

But they're coming.

Three years ago, 10 international flag-football teams — representing nations from North and Central America, Europe and Asia — gathered in Beijing for the world championships. "And it was a total blast," Lewis said.

In his mind, he can still recall the highlights of the tournament MVP, an athletic Chinese receiver who not only impressed onlookers but wowed Lewis as well. "He was their Jerry Rice."

He credits the slowly blossoming successes in China and Asia to Tagliabue, who originally recruited him for the overseas efforts and traveled side-by-side while extolling the virtues of American football and doing the meet-and-greet with government ministers and mayors.

"He's a true statesman," Lewis said. "There's no flavor of him imposing anything American — he was simply sharing a game he loved with the Chinese." And he sees current commissioner Roger Goodell following the same path set by Tagliabue — a direction and a demeanor that equally describes Lewis himself.

"You treat people with respect," Lewis said. "You don't want to be a bulldog in their own country."

Spoken like a true ambassador.

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E-mail: taylor@desnews.com