NFL’s Paris Game Kicks Off Despite Saturday Protests

NFL fans gathered Saturday in Paris as a day of widespread protests in France culminated with reports of clashes between demonstrators and police.

Sunday’s Saints-Steelers game kicked off off as scheduled at Stade de France without incident.

According to the Associated Press, police made nearly 1,000 arrests as more than 400,000 people across France participated in the ongoing protests over school funding and the cost of living. A mass march began peacefully, according to the AP, but ended with protesters throwing fireworks and other objects at police, who reportedly responded with tear gas, sound grenades, and water cannons.

Earlier, NFL fans were shown in gatherings that were unaffected by the protests. The NFL’s Twitter/X account showed Steelers fans waving gold-colored Terrible Towels near the Eiffel Tower and Saints fans doing the team’s trademark “Who Dat?” chant on a Paris street.

The Saints announced that their Saints House had been postponed until Sunday. The NFL told fans that its NFL House would be closed Saturday. The Steelers previously had canceled a Steelers House fan event. Sunday’s soccer game between Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon was moved to Monday night at the request of French police.

Front Office Sports’s Amanda Christovich is in Paris and wrote Saturday on social media: “The NFL House in Paris is closed today due to a planned protest march in the city (as are Steelers and Saints houses). But the protest route is miles from this area (Rue Cambon). All quiet around 5:45 pm local time, three hours after the protest began.”

The Saints spent the entire week in Paris. The Steelers arrived Friday in France.

NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said Wednesday at the conclusion of an owners meeting in New York that his comfort level was “very high” with the NFL’s plan to proceed with the game as scheduled, adding that the league had “made all the preparations. We’ve been in touch with the appropriate authorities. Protests are not unusual in France, as you know. And that’s something that we will be aware of and make sure that the appropriate arrangements are made.”

Peter O’Reilly, the NFL’s EVP of club business, major events, and international, said Tuesday in New York that the league would have a “heightened” security presence around the game and related events.

Goodell traveled to France following the owners meeting. On Friday, he and owners Gayle Benson of the Saints and Art Rooney II of the Steelers met with French President Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée Palace in Paris, according to a social media post by the Saints, to “discuss Sunday’s game and the long-term future of the NFL in France.”

U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters Friday outside the White House that “you worry about it,” adding that he “would have said the NFL could have probably postponed that match.”

Sunday’s game in Paris is the sixth of the nine international games on the NFL’s schedule this season.