Why I'm Hoping the Packers Don’t Play a Game in Europe This Season
By GilMartin
The NFL has gradually rolled out the identity of the team’s playing international games in 2026 and the Green Bay Packers have yet to be named as one of the teams going overseas. It remains a distinct possibility they will be playing in one of the remaining games in Europe, however. Ultimately, the hope is that the Packers will not be playing there this season.
If the Packers were to play in Europe this season, it would cost them a valuable home game. With an odd number of games being played each season, teams alternate between nine home games and eight. This year, the Packers are scheduled to have nine home games. If they lose a home game to play overseas, that costs the city of Green Bay one home game and the revenue that goes along with it. Local hotels, restaurants, and bars will lose roughly 11 percent of their annual revenue from Packers games if one of the nine games is moved overseas. The county and city will also lose tax revenue.
It also costs the Packers home field advantage. Last season, they had the disadvantage of playing nine road games and only eight home games. If they lose a home game to a neutral sight, they will experience the disadvantage of playing nine road games but not the advantage of nine home games.
Home field advantage remains important in the NFL. Point spreads change due to home field advantage because oddsmakers understand its importance. Across the NFL last season, home teams won 53.3 percent of all games while road teams won just 46.7 percent.
For the Packers, the difference is more pronounced. Over the last 10 seasons (2016-2025), the Packers are 62-34-1 at home, good for a .645 winning percentage. On the road, Green Bay went 45-45-1, a .500 winning percentage. Playing at Lambeau Field gives the Packers a distinct statistical advantage.
The overseas games are also disruptive to the players themselves. NFL players have routines in the week leading up to and following a game. Regular Thursday night games can disturb this routine, but overseas games are even more disruptive. There is a time difference of either five or six hours depending on where exactly the game will be played. By the time the players get used to the time difference, they are back to the United States and have to adjust again.
Understandably, the NFL usually schedules a team’s bye week around an overseas game. This helps reduce the impact of the time difference on one end, but it also reduces the rest a team gets during its bye week and can result in a very early bye week depending on when the game is scheduled.
The European games are also disruptive to the fans. The NFL used to play them in the evening local time, so they still started at the usual noon central time along with the rest of the early games. Now, however, the league starts European games in the afternoon local time. This may be more convenient for the fans purchasing tickets at the stadium, but it means games start at 8:30 AM central time or 6:30 AM on the west coast. Having to wake up early on a Sunday morning to watch a football game is less than ideal and disrupts the football watching routines of fans.
The NFL can easily play preseason games overseas. Yes, foreign fans are seeing a lesser product during the preseason, but the novelty of seeing just one or two NFL games in your city per year will keep foreign fans coming back and make them interested in buying tickets. It will also still allow the NFL to “grow the game,” which is what it is trying to do by scheduling games overseas.
The NFL has discussed the possibility of expanding to Europe at some point. They would need to place at least four teams there which would create other logistical difficulties that the league will eventually have to sort out. But playing preseason games instead of regular season games overseas until then will not have a major impact on that eventual possibility.
Despite the uniqueness of an overseas game, the way the league does it puts the Packers at a disadvantage and is disruptive to the players and fans in the United States. It also costs local businesses in Green Bay money. Here’s to hoping if the Packers play another game overseas (and they will) it will not cost them a valuable home game at Lambeau Field.
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You can follow Gil Martin on Twitter @GilPackers
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Comments (65)
[email protected]
February 19, 2026 at 06:59 am
The premise of the Packers losing out on a home is completely incorrect. They could be the "road" team, easily,
For example, the Saints will host a home game in Paris, the Packer could easily be selected as the visiting team here.
Also, many teams (not all) have started to prefer to not have bye games following European games.
I also hope the Packers do not lose out on one of their 9 home games, primarily for the football aspect of it, but also for the local community. At the same time, the International games are very fun and great for the game.
T7Steve
February 19, 2026 at 01:37 pm
It's only the 9th home game that the NFL will ever give to Packers overseas if it's their turn. They know how Green Bay's economy needs those games. And as Green Bay is one of the better draws, most teams prefer to keep them in the states so it will usually be that 9th home game that the Packers will use for their turn if it has to get used.
stockholder
February 19, 2026 at 07:01 am
Just another way to corrupt the game.
Their traditional, cultural, or structural roots,
are here in America.
Point- Europe calls soccer football.
LeotisHarris
February 19, 2026 at 08:23 am
Traditional, structural and cultural roots originate with rugby mostly, and soccer. The game evolved in the United States, but it's certainly not an American invention.
The NFL must grow the game. Growth is what drives capitalism. There's no growth in pandering to a dying generation trying to cling to what never was. Why do you hate America?
Swisch
February 19, 2026 at 10:44 am
Leotis, one might think you hate America by labeling its greatest generation as "a dying generation trying to cling to what never was."
I'm wondering if you hate yourself.
Are you trying to ingratiate yourself to the supposed cool kids of global elitism and cosmopolitan sophistication.
I'm just a crazy person talking, but I will say that I do genuinely care about you. I don't want you to lose yourself in the madness of unrestrained capitalism corrupted by campaign contributions and lobbying lowlifes from heartless megacorporations.
It's one thing for the NFL to hate its fans, a tragic thing. It's even sadder if good fans (and good Americans) like you hate themselves.
We the people are losing America because we're believing the lie that we the people are losers. Don't let the cool kids of manipulation and intimidation keep us down. They are generally superficial and sad and insecure. They're usually boring.
If we stick to the traditional ways of faith and family and freedom, we the people will continue to be the winners. We are the life of America.
Bitternotsour
February 19, 2026 at 11:10 am
As a long-time commentator (commentor?), I'd like to point out that, yes, Leotis likely hates himself, but c'mon man, he writes satire. And he is self-referentially funny.
I'd say he better understands late-stage capital as well as or better than anyone on the board.
Swisch
February 19, 2026 at 12:02 pm
I sincerely like Leotis. He does have a good sense of humor.
I truly wish him well, plus all of the other fans at CheeseheadTV, even those who for some inexplicable reason go berserk at some of my comments.
With honest respect, if you don't know the meaning of the word "woke" -- just look at the execs and owners of the NFL who rub politics into our faces to distract from them fleecing us. With respect, I think you do actually realize the apt description of a wokester (and that it's not the same as supporting the military or helping animals).
I like to think we can have a spirit of camaraderie even when we disagree. We can have verbal fights and still be friends at least virtually.
We may not exchange Christmas cards, but we can share our love for the Packers with good will and even a certain fondness for each other.
***
A big part of my anger and sadness is that it seems that we as Americans are susceptible to buying the lies of the elitists -- such as those noted in my attempt to be a commenting commentator above.
Against the grain of the greedy, bigger is usually not better. Small is beautiful -- as in the book by E.F. Schumacher. I think we need more of Chesterton's "Outline of Sanity" and Belloc's "Restoration of Property."
Most of all, we the people need to stand up to the supposed cool kids who are actually rather superficial and insipid. I would think most billionaires are boring.
They tell us all sorts of lies to distract us from their grabs for power and wealth at our expense. The worst lie they tell us is that we are losers if we don't like their rigged system of Big Business buying off Big Government with bribes masquerading as campaign contributions, which are then returned as legislative favors to thugs thinly disguised as slick lobbyists.
To borrow from Chesterton, they extol competition even as they try to use rigged regulations to wipe out all of their competitors.
***
Unlike Homer Simpson, God bless the likes of him (of which I include myself), I won't bow down to our corporate overlords. They have a lot to do with an economy that diminishes the working person to the point where he is 38 years old, driving a crappy car with a son who doesn't respect him, and is one Snickers Pie from losing a foot to diabetes.
When so many good people across the nation are suffering from an epidemic of social illnesses such as addiction, divorce, and obesity, it seems that the people aren't to blame nearly as much as the system that strains them to their breaking points.
It's so sad to say that the NFL has chosen to be part of this system of elitism and dominance, which is to say part of the problem and not the solution for ordinary Americans. For all of the lucre accumulated by the NFL, why do prices seem to skyrocket beyond the reach of the vast majority of fans?
The petty tyrant Goodell won't let Peyton Manning wear black hightops to honor the passing of a legend in Johnny Unitas; yet, he will pander to BLM and platform Bad Bunny as a kick in the groin to regular NFL fans. At the very least, we shouldn't applaud such insults aimed directly at us (in case we didn't notice the dissing).
When such outrages persist from the top of the NFL, how can we the people not protest from the bottom? If we truly believe in democracy, even us rubes have something worthwhile to add to the public discourse that affects our daily existences.
We believe in the content of character in expressing viewpoints and opinions over the padding of portfolios and ostentatiousness of lifestyle.
When all is said and done, I'm not really writing about politics, but about principles. Almost all of us can come to a large measure of agreement about fair play and sportsmanship in all areas of life.
Bitternotsour
February 19, 2026 at 04:03 pm
.
LeotisHarris
February 19, 2026 at 06:20 pm
I'd like you and your buddy Dr Freud to know I was booted out of a 45-day (made it to the afternoon of Day 5) inpatient self-loathing recovery program last year because I insisted I sucked at everything.
Bitternotsour
February 19, 2026 at 11:14 pm
Don't sell yourself short Judge, you're a hell of a slouch.
Swisch
February 20, 2026 at 12:00 am
Don't mind me too much, Leotis, just a drifter and a ne'er-do-well. I'm glad to somehow be still alive at 63, and grateful to not be living on the streets.
Been more than six months of my life in psychiatric hospitals.
Never was committed. Just a challenge to make it through each day.
Among other diagnoses and personal guesses over the years, the Mayo Clinic added in 2020 the likelihood of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME). I take four different meds to get by, along with lots of naps.
By the way, an interesting writer along these lines is Walker Percy. Also, just read recently about Francis Thompson of England and "The Hound of Heaven."
Anyhow, my only perspective on analysis regarding mental health is from the inside out.
I hope anything I might say in that regard, directly or indirectly, would be restrained, as well as compassionate. At least that's my intent, even if not well expressed.
I'm truly sorry if any of my words at any time have been out of line or unduly hurtful to any one.
I truly wish everyone well.
P.S. I've never explored whether or not being a Packers fan in the 1970s and 1980s may have contributed to my melancholia or other quirky characteristics.
BuckyBadger
February 19, 2026 at 08:53 am
Well since you use your feet in futball that makes more sense. The only time we kick in football is after failing to play football correctly.
Swisch
February 19, 2026 at 10:33 am
I'm with stockholder.
Why in the world does America have to go international in order to thrive?
I'm glad if the NFL attracts an international audience, but we don't have to play games overseas.
It seems that in general America has been going so much global that it has overlooked and left behind the ordinary people of our own country.
The NFL hates its fans. It insults them every chance it gets. It treats them like pariahs. It considers them rubes and bigots. For all its growth, it's pricing ordinary people out of the stadiums.
Meanwhile, Roger Goodell gets his obscene income of $40 million or more per year (as best I can tell the amount of his loot). In general, the rich NFL bigwigs get richer, and yet still get greedier.
We are in a Gilded Age 2.0 in which a few elites own almost everything and the most of us own almost nothing. Even the better off among us are basically reliant on the whims of the wealthy. We're working on their plantations, and we'd better not step out of line or else risk banishment and beggary.
Race is used to divide ordinary Americans from the fact that almost all Americans of every color are getting marginalized.
The elitists aren't about raising up immigrants, but about dragging all of us down into discouragement and dependency. It's about reducing people of all races to servility.
***
The NFL is a ruthless megacorporation. It's part of the domineering class. In the Roman Empire, it was bread and circuses; now, it's sports and obsessive betting on sports, along with SNAP. The powerbrokers want us dependent and servile, entertained and enervated, decadent and addled, and perhaps most of all divided against ourselves so as to be distracted by their deceits.
The ordinary person in America is being scammed. We're allowing ourselves to be saps.
We need to reform capitalism away from globalism toward localism -- small family farms and family crafts and family shops. We need a widespread capitalism in which more people have capital. We need to rig the system away from big donors and lobbyists to we the people. Ownership is independence.
To avoid the horrors of socialism, we need to reform the abuses of capitalism.
That begins with the ordinary person not believing the lies. That begins with rejecting globalism. We trade for spices and silks, not essentials. We put America first. We start at home.
It's so sad that the NFL has sold out its fans. That's the way to go broke, along with all of the other arrogant follies of history perpetrated by people who thought they were smarter than everyone else -- and didn't care about anyone else.
All around us we can find the ruins of the mighty who have fallen of their own corruption.
Bitternotsour
February 19, 2026 at 11:20 am
You know, that word globalism has some interesting antecedents. My guess is that is your unintended point.
The unexamined life and all that.
Swisch
February 19, 2026 at 12:13 pm
Your comment about the antecedents of globalism is truly too subtle for me.
I'm not afraid to say there's a lot I don't know.
***
Also, maybe change your name to Bittersweet. Lighten up a little.
Even if you disagree, you can soften the snark to good-natured sarcasm, and add a sincere gesture of camaraderie.
Win, lose, or draw, we can shake hands at the end of the contest.
CheeseEdWest2
February 20, 2026 at 03:38 pm
That's some inspired dialectic there...
stockholder
February 19, 2026 at 01:55 pm
In 1974 and !975
The world football league
started and failed.
Swisch
February 19, 2026 at 04:52 pm
However, in 1960 the AFL started and succeeded.
A couple of big keys to a new upstart league succeeding would be to not insult their potential fans and to not pay their commissioner $40 million per year.
Put a pro team in a place like Sheboygan or Appleton and I may support it.
After all, the NFL elitists are going out of their way to denigrate longtime football fans like me from blue-collar backgrounds.
(My immigrant grandfather was one of the last members of the horse cavalry out in the West during the 1920s, before becoming a bus driver for the City of Milwaukee. He also struggled with alcoholism and lived in a flophouse in the city when he died in 1980. A few months earlier, his room had cockroaches when we visited, so we had him moved to a different room while we did several loads of his laundry. I was a senior in high school.)
Somehow, that translates to white privilege, according to the founders of BLM (who seem to be way wealthier than me) and their compliant followers.
Yet, the NFL has for years been putting BLM slogans of condescending superiority on player helmets and end zone displays.
I'm open to a pro league with a lighter touch. It would be nice to not be demeaned watching a game.
There are lots of talented players who don't quite make it in the NFL who could be fun to watch on Sundays -- especially if they tried to relate to ordinary fans.
Most of the players out of college are ordinary persons, too, so why would they go along with the phony agenda of social justice from the billionaires of the NFL?
This new pro league could leave politics, and radical anti-American ideologies, aside altogether -- which is what we all want, right?
dblbogey
February 19, 2026 at 05:20 pm
Thursday Night football. 18 game schedule. Need 4 subscriptions to see games. Sending players across the world to play. It's all about money.
Starrbrite
February 21, 2026 at 09:35 pm
Right—I’m not an isolationist, except for the NFL. We can ship the NBA and MLB overseas—no one would notice.
jannesbjornson
February 20, 2026 at 08:24 am
The Law of Diminishing Returns. As the boomers age out the Next Gen gambles with their phones and attention spans. The Streaming schemes are already losing subscribers. NFL,LLC is grasping at straws to fill more coffers.
How many booth reviews before you turn the channel?
Cheezehead72
February 19, 2026 at 07:06 am
This is an excellent article. Thank you Gil. I agree. I also understand that the NFL needs to expand but when it comes down to it the success of the NFL rests on the shoulders of the players and the NFL must consider their health. I do not like traveling overseas I cannot imagine being a player traveling overseas, playing a game, and traveling back. Now the NFL has decided to have games in Australia.
I was going to write about playing a game in Mexico but I will not make a political comment being as some readers do not like them in this blog.
Yes Green Bay the smallest market in the NFL suffers financially with losing a home game. I often wonder where the NFL would be today if the Packers would have failed. Yes we can thank George Halas for saving the Packers.
On a personal note I do not like games played in Europe because of the time. I attend church on Sunday morning and yes I miss the game. I am so happy when it is a game where I have no interest. Yes, I watch Thursday night, all three Sunday, and Monday night games. I also watch some college football. My wife and I have an agreement. She gives me football season I give her the rest of the year.
Swisch
February 19, 2026 at 10:58 am
It's the NFL that is pushing politics into our faces.
It's the NFL that has put greed over its fans.
It's the NFL that is ruining a great experience for the ordinary person of America.
We can't help but comment on the corruption of the NFL.
If some people aren't interested, they can skim and skip. It's not all that hard.
All of the best to you Cheezehead72. I appreciate that you're kind enough to not want to upset others; however, IMHO, real football fans shouldn't be so sensitive to a little rowdiness in the comments section.
Man up!
Anyway, we'll see just how sensitive they are in their replies to me ;-).
Why are the wokesters who claim to be so very nice actually the nastiest and most obnoxious?
***
Starrbrite
February 21, 2026 at 09:41 pm
Me too-also a church goer here…and on mountain time. I have a difficult time reaching home in time to see any of the 1st quarter of packer games. Drives me crazy. But Priorities
egbertsouse
February 19, 2026 at 07:30 am
Uh oh. An article about foreign countries destroying our beloved football. Cue the conspiracy theories in 3,2,1……
Bitternotsour
February 19, 2026 at 11:21 am
You were late with this...
Swisch
February 19, 2026 at 12:26 pm
It's been said, with insight, that a conspiracy theory these days is something that will be proven to be true six months from now.
One might ask how worthwhile are those 94%-effective COVID shots that were foisted on NFL players and the rest of us, and yet didn't prevent the getting or spreading of the disease.
I never got one and somehow lived to tell the tale.
I hope I'd rather die than be manipulated and intimidated by our supposed social betters.
Maybe they're the conspiracists, after all.
Maybe it's a ritzy club of conniving elitists attended by the likes of Roger Goodell and many of the billionaires who own NFL teams.
Maybe we should wake up to the wokesters, even if they call us names from the coziness of their clique of mean-girl pretentiousness.
Starrbrite
February 23, 2026 at 06:27 pm
Yes
Guam
February 19, 2026 at 07:56 am
Goodell and Company have been working to spread American football to international markets for some time hoping to parallel the worldwide popularity of soccer. I have often wondered how many locals are attending these games or are they mostly attended by American expats (which would represent zero spreading of the game). I ask because I was an expat in Tokyo many years ago and went to two American football games in Tokyo - one college and one pro. Both games were heavily attended by expats with few native Japanese there. And Japan is a country where American football is played quite extensively at the high school level.
Is Goodell accomplishing his objective or is he just catering to the American expat population at the expense of fans here?
CheeseEdWest2
February 20, 2026 at 03:15 pm
I think if the NFL is devoted to making American Football a popular support in Europe etc. our commish should spend the money on bringing rich guys over from Europe or Australia and installing them in sky boxes so they get the feel of the game and feel enthused about starting a League of Their Own. Let 'em get their own teams. Leave ours alone.
The downsides of sending our teams overseas make me go Yeesh: bad fields causing injuries, small crowds that don't know when to cheer or make a Raspberry leading to a game that doesn't feel like a game, more like touch football or the Pro Bowl...the fatigue of long flights leading to lower quality games, some team losing a home game to boot, poorer quality telecasts, just to name a few. Other countries don't have football in h.s. and college: they have soccer. So there's no feeder system. This leads to the likelihood they will poach our players, and the talent level in the NFL is not so outstanding that we can afford to see a talent drain to the other side of The Pond.
Thumbs Down to overseas games. Period.
Since'61
February 19, 2026 at 08:21 am
These overseas games are unnecessary for the NFL. I would like to see how much revenue the NFL makes on an overseas game versus playing the same game in the US. Given how the US dollar exchange rate has dropped against foreign currencies recently combined with the travel costs for two teams I can't see how the NFL makes a profit on these games unless they charge exorbitant ticket prices to the European fans.
For example, it would be much more expensive for the Packers/Saints game to be held in Paris than it would be to hold the game in New Orleans.
As for expanding into Europe with 4 teams how would that work? Would it mean that those four teams would need to travel to the U.S. for their 8 or 9 road games?
That would be ridiculous and totally unfair for those 4 teams. Plus adding 4 teams to the league would further water down the quality of play which is declining every season with 32 teams.
There is a point of diminishing returns for every business/industry. Expanding into Europe may just be that point for the NFL. Thanks, Since '61
Cheezehead72
February 19, 2026 at 09:11 am
As for the teams located overseas I read a comment by someone years ago about how interesting it would be if the Patriots moved to London. They would be the London Patriots.
dobber
February 19, 2026 at 09:28 am
The London expats?
CheeseEdWest2
February 20, 2026 at 03:32 pm
Yeah, the London Expats. Team Colors could be Pea Green and Hot Pink, with chunks (as in, Barf-O-Rama).
BuckyBadger
February 19, 2026 at 09:05 am
"Home field advantage remains important in the NFL. Point spreads change due to home field advantage because oddsmakers understand its importance. Across the NFL last season, home teams won 53.3 percent of all games while road teams won just 46.7 percent."
It is less important with every passing year. Point spreads used to move about 3pts because of home field which if you know anything about gambling in the NFL, 3pts is a ton. A spread of -3 usually gives you a money line of about -145 which has implied odds of close 60%. As just stated home teams won just 53.3 percent last year which would be a money line of -105 which is barely a .5pt, most sportsbooks charge a -110 vig. Today sportsbooks barely move the line for homefield advantage unless it is in special conditions like humidity. Most home fields get adjusted anywhere between .5 to 1.5 pts.
LambeauPlain
February 19, 2026 at 09:10 am
Is Goodell building the NFL brand or diluting it? I think the latter. Hubris often precedes the fall and I admit I am losing interest in the product.
I have been bled Green and Gold for decades. But overseas games are eroding my interest. I don't watch those games unless the Packers are forced to go.
Also diluting the brand are 14...and soon to be half or 16 teams "qualifying" for the Playoffs...meaningless "pro bowls"...overhyping of SBs for two weeks...boring, even disgusting political halftime shows...games played with ever increasing, confusing rules...and incomprehensible penalty flags from officials, directly affecting game outcomes.
As long as Roger is collecting his hundred $million/year or whatever it is, I expect more of the same.
Swisch
February 19, 2026 at 12:46 pm
We bleed the Packers; the NFL bleeds our wallets.
If someone comes up to one of us and says something like, "Stop Hate," what is that person implying?
It seems to mean that we're idiots deserving of trite slogans, and evildoers deserving of demeaning insults.
It's not as though Americans haven't made magnificent progress over the past 50 years regarding race relations, that is until some hucksters decided to divide us again for cynical political calculations ultimately resulting in communism.
Meanwhile, the hucksters like Roger Goodell make tens of millions per year and generally own three mansions in exclusive enclaves. Even Bernie Sanders.
We've caught on, though, right? Please tell me you're on to their tricks.
Instead of bashing me, maybe consider whether the robber barons of the NFL are taking its fans for a ride. They're laughing behind our backs all the way to the bank.
It's one thing for them to insult us; it's another for us to actually like it.
By the way, how much is an official NFL jersey these days? Who might be exploited in the making of that jersey, and who might reap the profits of human misery?
P.S. To be clear, this comment isn't meant in contradiction to LambeauPlain, but in accord with him.
SinceLombardi
February 19, 2026 at 04:17 pm
Baseball mistreated its fans. If you’re old enough to remember the controversy of moving World Series games to nights (alienating young fans that had school the following morning) doing nothing about steroids, and canceling the 94 World Series over plain greed. Followed by stupid rule changes and exorbitant ticket prices to pay for $300 million dollar middle infielders.
If someone said in the late 50s that someday the sport crater the way baseball has, no one would have believed it.
Swisch
February 19, 2026 at 05:38 pm
My memory may be off, but as I recall from the early 1970s, my dad could take up to three of us brothers to Phillies games in Veterans Stadium for as little as 50 cents, with actually good views high up but right behind home plate.
For one game that had a promotion, we hauled in three free bats with etched autographs of Larry Bowa and Willie Montanez. I think that was against the Mets with Willie Mays playing in his waning days (but maybe hitting a homer in that game, as well as a double), and maybe Steve Carlton pitching in one of his few losses for what was to be a Cy Young season of 27 wins for a team that won less than 60 games.
Another game, with my grandma visiting from Milwaukee and joining in the fun, we got free baseballs.
I may have things more or less mixed up, but I do know that it's fond memories however blurred by time.
Bitternotsour
February 19, 2026 at 05:53 pm
Yeah yeah yeah, I remember nickel beer night at county stadium, those waxed paper cups grouped together snaking through the bleachers. Then, when the game ended, people got up, drunkenly staggered to their cars and drove home.
Perhaps the baseball experience has improved. Perhaps not, but things change. Bat days were fun, you used to get a full-sized louisville slugger when I was a kid. Then the Braves moved to Atlanta. Even in the first years of the Brewers you got a real bat. Drunks and bats. What could go wrong.
MitchAnthony
February 20, 2026 at 01:40 pm
Where MLB finally lost me was when they made their decision to move the All Star game out of Atlanta to protest Georgia election laws. Voter ID is supported by a wide margin of people of all types and political persuasions across this country yet MLB had to take a dip into that pool of wokeness. I said enough. Unless I walk into a bar and they have a game on I no longer turn on my TV at home. The wife and I would take a once in a while Brewer trip. No more. I just gave up on any interest in baseball after that and it hasn't bothered me at all.
So I do agree with some of those uncomfortable points made by Swisch. I don't care at all for international NFL games. I find them annoyances.
TKWorldWide
February 19, 2026 at 09:27 am
.645 winning percentage at home over the last ten seasons. But what about the last two or three seasons?
BuckyBadger
February 19, 2026 at 12:30 pm
5-3 2023
6-3 2024
5-3 2025
That is 16-9 by my count with a win percentage of 64%. Pretty darn good.
TKWorldWide
February 19, 2026 at 07:21 pm
Yes!
Weirdly, I am a little surprised.
Pleasantly.
SwedeBayPacker
February 19, 2026 at 09:45 am
You have to wake up at 6:30 on a Sunday to watch a game, once every few years? Boo-freaking-hoo, I'm playing the worlds smallest violin for you.
Try having to stay up til 2AM on Monday morning to catch a prime time game, every season, and being a zombie at work the day after. But you don't hear us complaining about it.
TKWorldWide
February 19, 2026 at 10:25 am
I’m a zombie EVERY day at work, so what? Good thing I’m only a brain surgeon.
Bitternotsour
February 19, 2026 at 10:57 am
well, you get to eat where you work then, right?
Starrbrite
February 19, 2026 at 04:32 pm
God one TK.
TKWorldWide
February 19, 2026 at 07:20 pm
LOL
Coldworld
February 19, 2026 at 09:52 am
I assume the intent is to eventually add expansion divisions in other continents. If not, where is this taking us? I can’t see that working—imagine playing 4 games versus NFL Europe teams and then, how the playoffs would work if one made it or the NFL decided a franchise on another continent should host one. Just getting there would be a disadvantage in later rounds.
Conversely, the reality is locals are unlikely to truly bind meaningfully in terms of loyalty to a team that plays a game each year somewhere in their country. I’m just not sure what the real strategy is. Yes it increases familiarity and general interest in the sport, but where is it hoped to go from here? At this point it’s little more than a curiosity for foreign sports fans I know.
If there is a longer term plan, all that is clear is that the disruption to traditional viewing and schedule for players and fans will inevitably increase.
Bitternotsour
February 19, 2026 at 10:25 am
Soccer is a global game, go to a bar in Portland, you'll see people in Arsenal kits, Real Madrid (and our local team, the Timbers) etc. The NFL sees that global reach and realizes they're leaving money on the table. You'll never see a Premier League or Bundesliga team located in the US, but that affiniti for Soccer has the NFL taking note and worrying about their primacy. Solution: expand the game viewing opportunity to other nations, harvest their branding dollars, and keep the show going. There may be a franchise in Mexico one day, but the travel will never allow Euro expansion. So yes, they'll keep playing abroad and if you get with the program you can plan a European vacation that includes an opportunity to see a Packer game in London or Paris.
I'm agnostic on the whole thing, but will confess I'd rather watch the premier league than any NFL game that doesn't have the Packers playing in it.
Bitternotsour
February 19, 2026 at 10:28 am
I'd also be remiss if I didn't note the Flag Football being played in the Olympics. Maybe that's the entry point for other franchises in Europe/South America/Asia.
The world needs content to feed the gambling industry. Darts are not enough. Bowling does not have global reach.
Coldworld
February 19, 2026 at 11:23 am
Soccer has been played around the world for a century or more and has active youth and adult leagues almost everywhere from the ground up. Soccer fans are drawn from people who kicked a ball around as kids and generally support local teams as well as a premiership or Serie A favorite. Often that favorite comes initially from a local star playing for a team, though some just gravitate to winners.
When NFL Europe existed that phenomenon started to develop because supporters of Rhein Fire, the London Monarchs etc., who had some local players and encouraged amateur clubs. People learnt the game through free TV, explanatory commentary and media attention and wanted to see the best players too.
The NFL botched that base by selling out to expensive satellite TV in its early days, cutting off most viewers (except in Germany). The league died fast, hanging on longest within German TV coverage. The NFL has a very long way to go to get back to that level of familiarity or involvement, even in western Europe. Just visiting is not likely to cut it. So the league will have to get more involved to succeed beyond being a periodic entertainment spectacle populated by the curious and a lot of expats and friends.
I have friends who go. It’s typically not the NFL teams playing they support but they enjoy the spectacle and wear their team colors regardless of who is playing. They enjoy it, then go back to following soccer/Rugby/Aussie Rules etc. until the Superbowl maybe and just check on NFL scores. Most of those have US connections through family, friends or work too: there’s banter involved.
BuckyBadger
February 19, 2026 at 12:01 pm
They are growing a brand. It may lead to putting a team over there but the goal is to get people in other countries to buy the product. They have pretty much maxed out the viewership here in the USA. Might make some gains with advertisement but at this point here in the USA if you aren't watching now you probably never will. Other countries have untapped groups that if exposed enough might become fans.
MLS helped the big European leagues because it got more Americans interested in watching soccer. NFL Europe had the same goal as these neutral site games have. To peak the interest of a market that hasn't been tapped yet.
Swisch
February 19, 2026 at 12:59 pm
The only way it would work is if there was a separate pro-football league in Europe that played all its games in Europe -- with its champion meeting our champion in the Super-Duper Bowl.
I don't see that happening, because I don't see the American version of football catching on all that much in Europe.
***
We can care about the rest of the world without diminishing that which makes us unique as Americans.
We can put America first in the same way we put our families first.
We can love everyone everywhere, while remembering that love begins at home.
We love America, most of all by far, not because we consider it better, but because America is us.
Let's celebrate America. That's why so many want to come here, right? That's why those nations who are good in the world rely on America as a beacon of hope and a bastion of security.
It's not a matter of self-superiority, but self-respect.
Let's humbly but firmly regain the dignity of America, and ourselves as we the people, who in our little ways make up its greatness.
BuckyBadger
February 19, 2026 at 12:03 pm
IT is all about growing the brand and it will never stop. I don't see a team moving over there anytime soon but they will continue to tap into markets that haven't been yet. That is just business. Baseball and Basketball have done this successfully and now the NFL is finding it has markets in other countries that will watch. The USA is saturated. Not going to make any big gains going after American viewers so they are doing what every business would do, find another market to sell your product.
SinceLombardi
February 19, 2026 at 04:08 pm
The reason the NFL needs to expand to Europe is obviously because the US market is saturated. The cap goes up, players make more and the billionaire owners want the revenue (as per Robert Kraft)
So what happens in 10 years when backup running backs are making $20 million per, and the European market is saturated ? Moscow? Shanghai? Sydney?
Soon it will cost $1000 for the Sunday Ticket
13TimeChamps
February 19, 2026 at 04:30 pm
"The NFL’s first-ever regular-season game in Australia will feature the Los Angeles Rams against the San Francisco 49ers at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) in 2026. Scheduled for the opening week of the season, the matchup will likely occur on a Wednesday or Thursday."
There is already a game scheduled this year in Australia. The cost of flying an entire team plus staff, lodging, etc. has to be astronomical. Not to mention what the effect an 15-18 hour flight in addition to traveling from the northern to southern hemispheres would have on the athletes who then have to go out and play a brutal game like football would have.
It seems like the NFL is really pushing the envelope on these international games. Hopefully, it will get addressed during the next labor talks.
Coldworld
February 20, 2026 at 09:53 am
It’s also a crowded market. Aussie Rules football is huge. Rugby is also big and soccer is widely played as well, and, if not a dominant sport, has gradually become significant. Not to mention that our season is their summer and that’s Cricket time and seriously hot at times. Melbourne Cricket Ground often hits over 110 degrees during an NFL season and it’s not alone. It’s no surprise the game is expected to be in week 1, before their summer begins (and just after Aussie Rules and Rugby finish and before cricket starts).
Starrbrite
February 19, 2026 at 04:25 pm
There should be zero NFL games anywhere else but here in the United States.
We have fan bases that thrive on NFL football. We have multi million dollar stadiums filled to capacity and more being built.
Yet, the NFL feels the need to ship “American” football overseas. If foreign nationals want to watch the NFL, then get a visitor’s visa and make the trip; we welcome you.
The Packers have sold out since 1960 in/at an iconic stadium. I travel 14 hrs to watch them, I don’t need or want to travel to Europe or Asia to see them play.
Go Packers!!!
Bitternotsour
February 19, 2026 at 05:03 pm
do you travel to Houston to see them, Seattle? It's the same idea. Away games. You don't have to get on the Titanic to see a game in London. You can get to London faster than 14 hours. In the 60's you only got to see 6 home games, right? Now you potentially get 8 or 9, and you don't have to sit in County Stadium with its baseball infield for 2-4 of them.
Things evolve. Evolve with them.
Starrbrite
February 19, 2026 at 05:10 pm
Not an outstanding argument Bitter?
Bitternotsour
February 19, 2026 at 05:46 pm
Seems pretty logical to me. You get more games than you got in the sixties, you get a better stadium experience, AND you don't have to drink that shitty hot chocolate they served back then.
Things change. With you, or without you.
HarryHodag
February 20, 2026 at 07:25 am
This type of article will appear every two years when the Pack are eligible to play overseas. We all can bellyache all we want, but the NFL will do what the NFL does like it or not.
The disaster in Brazil still haunts me. Not only did the Packers lose to the Eagles but Jordan Love got hurt on a lousy playing surface. His injury affected the team all year. He showed guts playing through(mostly) that injury.
The long travel also weighs down on the team.
I think it's a sure bet the Packers will play in Europe this fall. They're a global franchise and the NFL money mongers are well aware of it. My only hope is the game is played on something better than a cow pasture and the Packers win.
Strat
February 20, 2026 at 01:10 pm
I know there are NFL fans in Europe so maybe they get a chance to see that particular team (among other reasons), so I get it. That being said, it really does nothing for me. Watching the Packers play the Eagles in Brazil...yay. I don't even watch the other games because they're on earlier. I keep reading the NFL wants to establish team there. If I were in the draft, I know I wouldn't want to be selected by that team, move there, travel like that for road games. Would the league change from the NFL to the IFL if they put a team there? Honestly, more international games, flexing games and flexing ticket holders over, gambling with idiot losers that can easily threaten players and their families...keep screwing with the game, see what happens.