Aaron Rodgers may have dazzled the Paris crowd with his late-game heroics last Sunday, but his grand vision for the NFL's global expansion isn't winning over the league's power brokers.
After the Pittsburgh Steelers edged the New Orleans Saints in the first-ever Paris game—where Rodgers threw for 212 yards and a touchdown at Stade de France—the veteran quarterback floated an ambitious idea: a dedicated international week featuring games in 16 different cities, paired with an extra bye week.
“There was talk about doing a week—an international week—where you had games in 16 different places and you just added an extra bye week. So you play 16 regular-season [weeks], you have two bye weeks—one of those weeks would’ve been an international week,” Rodgers said via ESPN. “I think it would’ve been phenomenal for the game. Now, the owners wanted to push for 17 games for the extra revenue and because they care so much about player safety, but it would’ve been nice.”
But according to Front Office Sports, the proposal has “no support” from NFL management or team owners. One source dismissed the concept outright: “You’d be competing against yourself. It’s a nonsensical concept.”
The league's current international strategy is more measured, with a handful of marquee matchups sprinkled across the season. This year alone, the NFL has already played in Paris, and upcoming games include the Bengals-Falcons clash in Madrid in Week 9, Patriots-Lions in Munich in Week 10, and the Vikings-49ers finale in Mexico City.
Commissioner Roger Goodell has also hinted that Tokyo is on the horizon, telling NFL.com, “Tokyo is clearly on our list. It’s coming at some point in the near future. We’re going to continue to focus on our priority markets, which a lot of them they’ve been in, but there are other cities; this year, we went to Rio rather than São Paulo.”
Rodgers' suggestion isn't the only scheduling debate swirling around the league. Criticism of the SEC's unbalanced slate has echoed similar frustrations about competitive fairness, while NBC's Mike Tirico has pitched flexing NFL schedules like soccer to create more compelling matchups. Rodgers himself has been in the news for other reasons, including deflecting after a rough Steelers loss and being floated as a future broadcast analyst.
For now, the NFL seems content with its incremental global footprint—a game here, a game there—rather than a full-blown international takeover. As one league insider put it, the idea of a concentrated international week just doesn't make business sense when you're already selling out stadiums worldwide.
