NFL boss Goodell does not rule out Super Bowl abroad

A Super Bowl outside the USA? For NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell, there is no unthinkable scenario.
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The Corinthians Arena in Sao Paulo, the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium twice and the Wembley Stadium in London once, plus the Allianz Arena in Munich: five international games are included in the NFL calendar for the current season, and there will be another in 2025 with Madrid’s Santiago Bernabeu Stadium far away from the USA will become the venue for a regular season game.

In the past, Goodell had ruled out the possibility of not holding the big season finale – the Super Bowl – on US soil, “but things change.” They have “always traditionally tried to play the Super Bowl in an NFL city – that has always been some kind of reward for the cities that have NFL franchises,” the commissioner explained.

However, as internationalization progresses, it would not surprise him at all if that happened one day.

NFL games in Asia are also conceivable

If Goodell and those responsible have their way, the International Games are far from over. As the 65-year-old explained at a fan forum in London – where the Bears met the Jaguars on Sunday afternoon – he has “no doubt” that the NFL will soon set up camp in Ireland. “I don’t know if it will be next year, but it will be soon.”

The largest stage for American football could also be built in the future on Copacabana, more precisely in the Brazilian coastal metropolis of Rio de Janeiro. It is also looking at “other markets in the opposite direction – in Asia” where there is “probably more interest than we can handle”.

Soon every team with an international game?

After the 32 franchises had already agreed to a possible scenario of increasing the number of international games to eight games at a meeting last December, they now want to implement this plan “quickly”.

The NFL is already planning a step further, which could lead to another adjustment to the regular season after 2021.

“If we expand our regular season to an 18-and-two structure,” Goodell said, “I imagine we will play 16 of those games in international markets.” This would create the possibility for each of the 32 teams to take part in one international game per season.

Such an increase to 18 regular-season games per team, which could each be accompanied by a second bye week, had already been discussed in the past. “A lot of it,” Goodell explained, “depends on whether we can continue to make the game safer” and present all the circumstances in a way “that the guys feel ready to play in this period of time.”