Jay Williams: Awkward Draft Moment Was ‘Extremely Uncomfortable’
Many of the NFL’s international games to date have felt more like undercards than marquee events. Despite the league’s fast-growing ambition to become a truly global brand and even consider a London Super Bowl, the overseas matchups have often been played at suboptimal times for U.S. viewers, feature lesser teams, and occasionally run into operational issues.
Everything about Friday night’s Chiefs-Chargers game in São Paulo, Brazil, conversely, is big by design—and could dramatically alter the league’s path to worldwide dominance.
The primetime game will feature the NFL’s most-watched team in Kansas City, featuring a star tight end in Travis Kelce who is newly engaged to Taylor Swift, the biggest pop star on the planet and a possible Super Bowl LX halftime performer. The Chargers are a heated division rival and a widespread pick to return to the playoffs. Most significantly, the game will be shown globally for free on YouTube as part of a high-octane start to the 2025 NFL season.
That distribution is a big shift from last year’s subscription-based airing for the NFL’s first Brazil game involving the Eagles and Packers, which averaged 14.2 million viewers on Peacock. This time it will be accessible to anyone in the world with an internet connection, and as a result, is poised to set a new record as the most-streamed contest in league history.
“YouTube is one of the most accessible platforms in the entire world, with billions of people tuning in monthly, this … is really a way to reach fans wherever they are,” says NFL EVP of media distribution Hans Schroeder.
Having already established a foothold in Europe, the league views the São Paulo game as a foremost means of opening up all of South America. The continent has nearly 440 million people, and the league estimates that more than 36 million people in Brazil alone identify as American football fans, presenting a sizable marketing and economic opportunity.
For a variety of reasons, South America historically has not been given nearly the same kind of attention as Europe by North American pro leagues. But the NFL is intent on changing that as evidenced by staging compelling Week 1 matchups in consecutive years The NFL’s Global Markets Program, meanwhile, now features four teams with local rights in Brazil—the Dolphins, Eagles, Lions, and Patriots—while the Dolphins also have similar rights in Argentina.
Overall, the South American push is a much bigger lift compared to Europe, given the relative lack of NFL history and smaller number of American expatriates. But the NFL now has a permanent São Paulo office, and the continent remains a significant part of the league’s worldwide agenda.
“A key element that’s really been building, and certainly remains a top focus for us, is our global expansion, and we’re very excited about the new markets were bringing in this year,” Schroeder says, also referencing scheduled games in Ireland and Spain for the first time in addition to Brazil, each of which add to returns to the U.K. and Germany.
The 2024 game in Brazil also started what would ultimately become a championship season for Philadelphia. The contest, itself, however, was marred in part by field issues at Arena Corinthians, local security concerns, and even a legal fight between a Brazilian court and X/Twitter owner Elon Musk. This year’s event is expected to be a far calmer affair, and both the league and local officials are pledging better conditions, boosted by the benefit of hindsight and additional planning over the past year.
“We are always focused on delivering the best experience for our teams in every way, and certainly the field surface is a key component of that,” says NFL EVP of club business Peter O’Reilly. “Our team has been down there working with Corinthians to ensure the best possible field surface for the game, and we feel confident in that.”
The rare Friday slotting of an NFL game, meanwhile, takes advantage of a loophole in the Sports Broadcasting Act of 1961, aimed in part at protecting high school and college football. This maneuver will not be repeated next year, however, as the September 2026 calendar falls quite differently.
For the Brazil game, YouTube will be expanding materially beyond its prior role with the league as the residential distributor for the NFL Sunday Ticket out-of-market package. The Google-owned streamer has selected a mix of established broadcasting talent and creators native to its platform to call the game from São Paulo.
The NFL Network’s Rich Eisen, now also somewhat back in the fold with former employer ESPN, will handle play-by-play duties; Pro Football Hall of Famer Kurt Warner will be the game analyst. That team will be supplemented by rules analyst Terry McAulay, sideline reporter Stacey Dales, and YouTube creator Deestroying, the online persona of former kicker Donald De La Haye with more than 6 million subscribers.
The league also called on prominent YouTubers such as MrBeast and Dude Perfect to promote the game in a new spot blending those influencers and NFL commissioner Roger Goodell, further signaling the NFL’s keen interest in reaching nontraditional audiences.
Constructing that YouTube announcing lineup, however, had some hiccups. YouTube also approached former Eagles standout, ESPN talent, and podcaster Jason Kelce, brother of Travis, to work the game, but the Disney-owned ESPN denied permission. Even without Kelce, though, the streamer has constructed an announcing group that is nontraditional in its core design.
“By merging NFL legends and seasoned pros alongside top YouTube creators, we are connecting two worlds that already call YouTube home,” says YouTube VP Angela Courtin. “This broadcasting lineup is intentionally designed to merge the deep analytical insights of traditional sports coverage with the community-driven energy from our creators.”
