Dhani Jones is a good sport

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But is that enough to make his Travel Channel show, ‘Dhani Tackles the Globe,’ very revealing about the places he visits?

Travel shows are often about the illusion of uncomplicated assimilation, how simple it could be to jet off from your dull life and be a part of somewhere foreign, how easy it might be to see another place through the eyes of an insider. In truth, though, travel can be a struggle, a war against the unknown. Then -- poof -- as soon as you’ve got it figured out, it’s time to go.

It’s this more reliable understanding of cultural immersion that motivates ‘Dhani Tackles the Globe,’ a new Travel Channel show that is part global sports experiment, part travelogue.

Dhani is Dhani Jones, a 6-foot-1, 235-pound linebacker for the Cincinnati Bengals, with none of the brusqueness that those descriptors imply. He’s warm, handsome, eager to learn, and seemingly indefatigably genial. Often he arrives in country with a beautiful scarf casually tossed around his neck. In many episodes, he gamely flirts with the local women. In short, Dhani Jones is the sort of ambassador we need.

Other travel shows emphasize different forms of going native, but this show’s conceit involves a particular sort of getting dirty. In each country he visits, Dhani takes on a local sport -- muay Thai fighting in Thailand, rugby in England, jai alai in the Basque region of Spain -- as a window into the local culture.

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-- Jon Caramanica