Roger Goodell: Overseas NFL Team is ‘Possible’

The NFL has not expanded since adding the Houston Texans in 2002. But according to commissioner Roger Goodell, the league could place a franchise overseas in the future.

"I think it's possible," Goodell told NBC's Mike Tirico during a pregame interview at Arrowhead Stadium, site of Thursday's season-opener between. the Kansas City Chiefs and Detroit Lions. "The debate we've always tried to work on is if you can do it competitively, and do it in a way where it's fair, not only for that team, but every team."

Back in March, an unnamed league owner told Front Office Sports' A.J. Perez that the NFL is looking to add a four-team European division. The NFL has made it a point to establish the NFL's presence outside of the U.S., particularly in Europe, for nearly two decades.

The league began holding regular season games outside of the U.S. since October of 2005, when the Arizona Cardinals and San Francisco 49ers met at Estadio Azteca in Mexico City, Mexico — a game dubbed "NFL Fútbol Americano". The inaugural International Series contest, between the Miami Dolphins and New York Giants at Wembley Stadium in London, took place in October of 2007, which was the first regular season game played outside of North America.

The push for more international games came in the midst of the league ending the American Bowl — a series of preseason games played around the world — in 2005 and NFL Europe — a developmental league — folding in 2007. The league has held 40 International Series games since the Cardinals-49ers matchup in Mexico City (33 in London, four in Mexico City and one in Munich).

"We really see football as a global sport, and we're seeing that kind of reaction," Goodell added. "We have five games in Europe this year, we expect to do more games in the future, we want to do games around the world, and we believe this is our next big frontier. We want to make sure our game is shared with a global audience."

The International Series will feature five installments this season. In London, the Atlanta Falcons face the Jacksonville Jaguars on Oct. 1, the Jaguars face the Buffalo Bills on Oct. 8, and Baltimore Ravens will face on Tennessee Titans Oct. 15. Then, in Frankfurt Germany, the Miami Dolphins will play the Kansas City Chiefs on Nov. 5 on and Indianapolis Colts face the New England Patriots on Nov. 12.

The league announced in March that over 56 million viewers outside the U.S. tuned in to the Chiefs' Super Bowl win against the Philadelphia Eagles on Fox (a 7% increase from 2022), with audiences reaching 20.7 million viewers in Mexico and 17.3 million viewers in Canada.