The NFL will play a record nine games internationally this season, stretching its regular-season machine across Melbourne, Rio de Janeiro, Paris, London, Madrid, Munich and Mexico City while Jacksonville and San Francisco each get sent abroad twice.
The league’s expansion reads like a corporate itinerary. Ordinary fans get the spectacle; the owners get new markets, new branding, and more places to sell the same product. The Jaguars are scheduled back-to-back in London, and the 49ers will play in Melbourne and later in Mexico City. That’s not community sport. That’s a traveling empire with a playbook.
Who Gets Moved Around
In Melbourne, the San Francisco 49ers routed the Los Angeles Rams 27-7 in the NFL’s first regular-season game in Australia. Mike Evans, Demarcus Robinson and Deebo Samuel caught touchdown passes from Brock Purdy. There were 100,021 fans at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the seventh-largest regular-season crowd in NFL history and the second-largest international NFL match by attendance. The game was the league’s first regular-season game so far from home, nearly a 16-hour flight from the U.S. West Coast. It kicked off at 10:35 a.m. local time Friday, Sept. 11, in Melbourne, which was 8:35 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 10 on the U.S. East Coast.
That kind of travel isn’t some neutral celebration of global fandom. It’s a schedule built from above, with players and supporters folded into the league’s expansion plans whether they like the logistics or not. The numbers tell the story. A 16-hour flight. A 100,021-seat crowd. A kickoff time bent around time zones and television.
The League’s New Markets
Rio de Janeiro will host its first NFL game on Sept. 27, when the Dallas Cowboys face the Baltimore Ravens at Maracanã Stadium. The Cowboys will play their second-ever regular-season international game. In 2014, they beat the Jaguars 31-17 at Wembley Stadium. The league has committed to playing at least three regular-season games in Rio over the next five years. There have been two previous games in Brazil, both in Sao Paulo. The matchup features Dak Prescott against Lamar Jackson. Dallas to Rio is an estimated 10-hour flight. Maracanã has staged two men’s World Cup finals, in 1950 and 2014, and was the site of the opening and closing ceremonies of the 2016 Summer Olympics.
The league’s language is all about growth, but the facts point to extraction. New cities become new revenue streams. Historic stadiums become backdrops for a brand that already dominates the U.S. sports calendar and now wants more territory. The commitment to at least three regular-season games in Rio over the next five years makes the arrangement plain enough.
London has been a mainstay for the NFL since 2007. Forty-two of the 62 regular-season games played internationally so far have been staged in London. Three more are on tap this season. The first two will be at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium: Indianapolis vs. Washington on Oct. 4 and Philadelphia vs. Jacksonville on Oct. 11. The Jaguars will then face the Houston Texans on Oct. 18 at Wembley Stadium, becoming the first team to play two home games abroad in the same season. The Jaguars have a 7-7 record in London games. Washington’s only other trip to London ended in a 27-27 tie with the Cincinnati Bengals in 2016. Commanders quarterback Jayden Daniels will look to make his international debut after missing last year’s Madrid game because of injury.
What They Call Global Growth
Paris will host the NFL’s first regular-season game in the city on Oct. 25, when the New Orleans Saints face the Pittsburgh Steelers at Stade de France. The article said the Saints have the French connections and the Steelers have the star quarterback Aaron Rodgers, who is 42. Rodgers headlined Dublin’s debut as a host city last season. Stade de France, located just north of Paris in Saint-Denis, was the centerpiece of the 2024 Paris Olympics, where Tom Cruise descended from the roof during the closing ceremony. It opened in 1998 and hosted the FIFA World Cup final, which France won 3-0 over Brazil.
Madrid gets its turn on Nov. 8, when Cincinnati Bengals quarterback Joe Burrow will make his international debut as a player as the Bengals face the Atlanta Falcons at Bernabeu Stadium. It will be Cincinnati’s first game outside the U.S. since a 24-10 loss to the Rams in London in 2019 in Zac Taylor’s first season as head coach. The Falcons lost to the Colts in Berlin last season. Bernabeu Stadium has a capacity of 83,186 and is home to Real Madrid, whose soccer team has 180 million Instagram followers, more than the combined total of all 32 NFL teams. Last year, Bernabeu hosted Spain’s first regular-season game, when the Miami Dolphins beat the Washington Commanders 16-13 in overtime. Tua Tagovailoa has since joined the Falcons.
Munich gets the NFL’s third game there on Nov. 15, when the Patriots face the Lions at Bayern Munich’s home stadium. Detroit wide receiver Amon-Ra St. Brown is expected to draw attention because his mother was born in Germany and he has a large following among the NFL’s German fan base. The first Munich game, in 2022, was Germany’s first regular-season NFL game, and Tom Brady led the Tampa Bay Buccaneers past the Seattle Seahawks 21-16. The crowd sang "Take Me Home, Country Roads," and Brady called it "one of the great football experiences that I’ve ever had." Seahawks fans complained that no alcohol was served by vendors outside the venue.
Mexico City closes the run on Nov. 22, when the 49ers face the Minnesota Vikings. Azteca Stadium, renamed Banorte, hosted the first regular-season game played outside the U.S. when the Arizona Cardinals beat San Francisco 31-14 in 2005 before 103,467 fans. A Cowboys-Giants regular-season game in 2009 drew more than 105,000. The first play from scrimmage in 2005 was a strip-sack that resulted in a touchdown. Four years ago, the 49ers beat the Cardinals 38-10 after preparing for the high altitude. Azteca underwent renovations for the 2026 World Cup and now has a capacity of 87,523. The Vikings played in Dublin and London in consecutive weeks last season and are 5-1 overall in regular-season international games.
The league keeps adding stamps to its passport. The people in each city get the event, the traffic, the branding, and the bill for the spectacle. The owners keep the upside.