NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell has consistently been pushing for more international games. The spectacle of American football has already reached a tally of nine international matchups this year, and will go to 10 next year. That is where the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) draws the limit.
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Even though Goodell has also floated the idea of 16 games per season so that eveyone gets to play one game, for now, the NFL has to comply with what the players have agreed upon: 10 games.
“We are considering going up to 10 games next year and want to make sure we have the right 10 games,” Executive Vice President Peter O’Reilly said at the owners’ meeting on Tuesday, per The Athletic’s Saad Yousuf. “This is limited inventory, and we want to make sure each one of those games are as impactful as possible.
“We learned the importance of that connection with fans. The (49ers) being there that week did a great job of connecting with that fan base … This is not a market we’ll be in just for the one-off. This is a market we’ll be in for the long haul.”
NFL owners voted to increase the threshold for international games from eight to ten earlier in May 2026. The higher-ups plan on expanding their regular-season reach to Japan (Tokyo).
“We like continuity, but we are looking at new regions, and Asia would be one of them,” O’Reilly noted.
The NFL’s push for international games is somewhat being rewarded, even though the league is taking a sport very characteristically American to countries that obviously don’t play it. The Melbourne game between the San Francisco 49ers and the Los Angeles Rams drew a crowd of 100,021 fans, making it the seventh-most attended regular-season game.
The Dallas Cowboys vs. Baltimore Ravens matchup in Rio de Janeiro was also a big hit, at least for TV. The matchup generated a viewership of 24.9 million on CBS, making it the most-watched Week 3 clash on CBS after 2014.
However, what about the players who will have to make the trips, play the game, and bring home wins?
An increase in the number of international matchups will eventually lead to and increase in the already-burdened 17-game slate. Tight end George Kittle had said that for players to take on the charge, the league has to give them an extra bye. And, they should also be compensated for the workload.
“You’re making 17 paychecks instead of 16,” he told Front Office Sports. “So in my opinion, I’m just like if you bumped up the payment a little bit for that last game, instead of cutting it again, I think guys would be more interested in that as well.”
But what about Goodell’s desire to have 16 international games one day? For that to happen, the NFL and NFLPA have to come to an agreement to bump up the 10-game threshold. But per Front Office Sports, no “substantive discussions about the possibility of the league scheduling more than 10 international games next season or beyond” have been held between the two.
Here’s what NFLPA’s JC Tretter had to say about the expansion:
“The NFL has been clear they want to continue to grow the game internationally,” Tretter wrote in a statement. “However, growth alone cannot be the goal. The goal has to be growing the game while maintaining the standards our players deserve. If we can’t do both, then we need to make different decisions.”
However, in time, Goodell will definitely want to make a move.
Roger Goodell hints at the possibility of international NFL teams
Goodell doesn’t just want international locations to host the NFL’s 32 teams. He has also floated the idea of an international team.
“At some point, there will be NFL teams outside the USA,” Goodell said in an interview with Markus Kuhn on German media outlet RTL/ntv. “I have no doubt that this will happen one day.”
London could emerge as a leading candidate to host an international Super Bowl if the NFL eventually establishes a permanent franchise there. The league, however, has not confirmed a team or venue. But a London-based NFL franchise could be a possibility. After all, the Jaguars are closely associated with London and have played multiple games there.
“There are definitely international cities that could host something like that,” Goodell said. “But we would like to see an NFL team in such a city first.”
The NFL’s push for 10 international games in 2027 brings Roger Goodell one step closer to his ultimate global vision. But first, the league must navigate the security for Sunday’s high-stakes Paris debut.