Roger Goodell said the NFL will one day put a team based outside the U.S., a leap that would move the league’s global push from staged games to a permanent foothold abroad. He said there was “no doubt” it will happen and that, at some point, there will be NFL teams outside the USA.
The comments came as the league prepares for a record nine international games this season, which is why they land now. Goodell made them in an appearance with German outlet RTL/ntv, putting the NFL’s long-term ambitions in the same frame as a schedule that is still limited to special events rather than a full overseas footprint.
That gap is what makes his remarks matter. The NFL can point to a growing calendar abroad, but it is still far from the kind of structure needed for a team based outside the U.S. A single franchise overseas would raise practical questions the league has not had to solve at scale: how to handle travel, how to protect competitive balance, and which city or country would be trusted to host the first one. Goodell did not name a location, and that silence is part of the story.
The league has been building toward this for years. In May, owners passed a resolution to allow an increase to 10 international games beyond 2026, and Goodell has previously said the goal is 16 international games. The 2026 international slate begins in Week 1 with the NFL’s first-ever game in Australia, when the San Francisco 49ers face the Los Angeles Rams in Melbourne. Before that, in Week 10 of the current season, the New England Patriots and the Detroit Lions are set to meet in Munich.
So the direction is clear even if the destination is not. The NFL is widening its international schedule step by step, but a team outside the U.S. would be a different kind of commitment entirely. Goodell’s comments suggest that the league sees that as a matter of when, not if, even though it has yet to say where the first overseas team would play.
