Neil Reynolds' Wraps Week 15
We've just had a very intriguing and revealing round of NFL games, but let me start today's column with my thoughts on some news away from the Week 15 action. This is the first time I get the chance to speak to you since the NFL announced a minimum of eight international games per year will be played from 2025.
This news was also coupled with the confirmation that the league will play a regular season game in Sao Paulo, Brazil, in 2024. As NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told me in Frankfurt last month, the NFL was keen to expand to a new market next season and the feeling in league circles was that heading to Brazil – where there are approximately 30 million NFL fans – was the move likeliest to make the biggest impact ahead of going to a third country in Europe.
NFL fans in Spain may be disappointed at missing out on the 2024 game as that country was in consideration alongside Brazil. But regular season games are coming to Spain in the very near future following the vote by NFL owners last week that will change the landscape of the league forever.
In 2005, the first international regular season game was played in Mexico. But I genuinely believe the real focus of the NFL on the global stage accelerated when the Miami Dolphins played the New York Giants at Wembley Stadium in 2007. That one London game was considered something of a risk and yet here we are, just 16 years later, with confirmation of at least eight contests per year from 2025.
In reality, that is going to be nine games per season because the Jacksonville Jaguars have their own deal with Wembley Stadium that falls outside of that NFL agreement. Other teams are also free to negotiate their own deals in the future should they wish and that could mean even more
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