How Aaron Rodgers Exposed The NFL’s Missed Opportunity To Take Football Global?

Aaron Rodgers says NFL owners once passed on a global International Week.© X/@NFL_DovKleiman

Aaron Rodgers added another milestone in Paris, but his words drew as much attention as his passing. The Pittsburgh Steelers beat the New Orleans Saints at the Stade de France, and the quarterback used the week to talk about a bigger idea the NFL once had. Owners could have built one giant week of games around the world. They chose an extra game instead. Rodgers now wants the league to rethink how teams travel abroad, starting with when they land. With the schedule going global, his timing is hard to ignore.

 Aaron Rodgers And The NFL International Week

Talk of more overseas games first surfaced around the 2011 labor agreement, Rodgers said, though little came of it until the next deal. That second round is where he remembers the international week taking shape. Teams would have played 16 games and received two byes, with one of those byes doubling as a league-wide trip abroad. Rodgers still lights up when he describes it. He says the idea had real support before owners pushed for a 17th game and the extra revenue that comes with it.

"And there was talk about doing an international week, where you had games in 16 different places and you just added an extra bye week. I think it would have been phenomenal for the game," he said.

Plenty of places could host. Canada and Mexico are obvious, Brazil has already staged a game, and he believes another South American country could follow. Spain, Germany, France and Ireland all fit, and he even brought up Dubai because of its growing sports scene. "It'd be awesome to see them have an international week because I think it's great for the game and the expansion of the game," Rodgers said.

Aaron Rodgers and rest of Steelers QB room arriving at Stade de France #Steelers #NFL https://t.co/IQt6QHhORb

— Steelers Depot  (@Steelersdepot) October 25, 2026

The league is not sitting still, either. This season has a record nine international games, with Melbourne and Rio de Janeiro joining as first-time hosts. Madrid, Munich and Mexico City come next over the following month, and Commissioner Roger Goodell said Friday that a Tokyo game is planned for 2027 or 2028. Goodell has also compared the approach to Formula 1 and floated the idea of an international franchise or division down the road.

 Pittsburgh Steelers, New Orleans Saints And The Arrival Debate

Look at how each team got to Paris. The Saints reached the city at the start of the week. The Steelers landed Friday morning and walked straight into media availability at their hotel, which Rodgers said he did not love. He told reporters he wished the team had come over earlier. A quarterback trying to find timing with his receivers can use every extra day to settle into a new time zone, and Pittsburgh did not get that luxury.

The results elsewhere give his complaint some weight. The Los Angeles Rams touched down in Melbourne just a day before losing to the San Francisco 49ers. A year earlier, Sean McVay's team flew into London on the eve of its game and cruised past the Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium. Same plan, opposite results. Nobody seems to know yet what the right formula is.

Rodgers would like the league to take that guesswork away, and he knows who would foot the bill. "I wish there was a mandate from the league and they would have to open up their pocketbooks, too, which, you know, maybe a little tight on money and stuff," he said.

He also has a picture in mind of how those extra days should be spent.

"But I think they should mandate every team coming over Sunday or Monday to really enjoy the culture and the place you're going. And you can do events in those cities and outreach stuff and community work. But they won't because they're a little tight."

Pittsburgh flew home 5-2, and Rodgers was not satisfied. After the game he said the team was not playing like a 5-2 team, which tells you plenty about the standard he holds in that locker room.