The NFL Will Probably Eliminate International Games Schedule Rule

The NFL is pushing more and more games overseas.

The league will play a record-breaking nine international games in 2026. The league will open the year overseas, with a game in Australia, featuring the 49ers and the Rams. The NFL will also be holding games in new international cities like Rio de Janeiro and Paris.

In past years, NFL teams have been able to block certain games from being put overseas. Think Cowboys vs. Eagles, Chiefs vs. Broncos, etc. Games that NFL franchises know will be a priority for their fan bases.

But that probably won't be the case anymore.

During a conference call on Friday, NFL V.P. of broadcast planning Mike North made it clear that teams will probably no longer have the option to block certain games from being played overseas.

NFL is likely to eliminate that rule

NFL teams are going to be out of luck if they try to block games moving forward, it seems.

"Clubs right now, by resolution, have an opportunity to protect a minimum - a limited number - of home opponents from being taken for international venues," North said. "That's something this league's been discussing quite a bit and, like I said, at the beginning, it used to be four or five games protected, got down to three games protected. I think we're down now to two, and that may continue to diminish as we are trying to build a schedule and deliver quality inventory to our international fans.

"You know, you can't have a team say, ‘Well, I don't want my two best games ineligible for international.' What kind of message does that send to the international fans? So I think there's a lot of conversation about really just eliminating the protections in their entirety. . . . So [I'm] hopeful that the protections continue to diminish and maybe even are eliminated entirely. I think that would be better for everybody - not just the international fans, but also for the teams that might want to play internationally and keep getting blocked."

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This story was originally published May 17, 2026 at 1:03 PM.