ORLANDO — The NFL’s pursuit of global domination has taken a critical procedural step.
Team owners on Tuesday at the league’s spring meeting approved a plan that will increase the maximum number of league-run international games beginning with the 2027 season from 8 to 10. The NFL is all but certain to hit that upper limit next year, particularly given its keen interest in staging more non-U.S. games.
With the Jaguars’ separate agreement to play part of their home schedule in the U.K., the total number of international games next year could ultimately reach 11, but that would require a supplemental agreement with the NFL Players Association.
Regardless of how that nets out, the NFL is set to move beyond the league-record 9 such contests scheduled for 2026. As it does so, the league will focus primarily on existing global markets, but also potentially include new ones that the NFL is looking to develop.
“We’re in the process of exploring what ’27 looks like and there’s a path to 10 [international games] in 2027,” said NFL EVP Peter O’Reilly. “There’s some new markets that we’re looking at … parts of the world that we’re also looking at, maybe not 2027 but beyond. Asia would be an example of that. Japan would be an example within that. It’s a market that has complexity, like Australia does this year, from a time-zone perspective, but is an important part of the world for the league.”
All Fair Game
Parallel to that, the NFL also approved Tuesday a rule in which teams can no longer protect any home opponents on its schedule from being designated as international games. Teams previously could protect up to two games each year from being allocated for international play.
Beyond the league’s worldwide ambitions, that move was made to help give its schedule makers maximum flexibility in developing the overall slate each year.
Elephant in the Room
Like many other parts of league business, the accelerating international push also intersects directly with the league’s desire to ultimately play an 18-game regular season. Team owners such as the Patriots’ Robert Kraft have openly talked about their aim for an 18-game schedule. That enlarged slate would include two bye weeks for each team, and also open up additional inventory to create a 16-game international slate each season in which every team would play globally.
The NFLPA remains reluctant at best toward the prospect of the expanded regular-season schedule, but the global expansion is one of the foremost underpinnings in management’s push on this topic.
Should some sort of agreement develop there, though, it’s also uncertain whether the NFL would immediately push from 10 international games annually to 16, or pursue a more gradual path.
“That’s all part of the conversation,” O’Reilly said. “We’re evaluating every year, and I can envision any of those scenarios.”
The NFL’s international plans, meanwhile, dovetail with the newly expanded Netflix media-rights deal that includes worldwide distribution.
Full Steam With Flag
The NFL, meanwhile, continues to advance its efforts to begin play in a newly formed professional flag football league, operated in conjunction with TMRW Sports. The league and TMRW intend to have the men’s and women’s leagues up and running in 2027.
That pro-level effort runs along with continued development of the sport at the scholastic and amateur levels, including the forthcoming competition at the 2028 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles.
“We’re seeing continued momentum across the board surrounding flag,” O’Reilly said.
