What the NFL's New International Series Really Means

With the NFL announcing regular season games in Berlin in 2025, what does to attempted foothold overseas mean moving forward?

Nov 10, 2024; Munich, Germany; German, NFL shield and United States flags during the 2024 NFL Munich Game at Allianz Arena. Mandatory Credit: Kirby Lee-Imagn Images / Kirby Lee-Imagn Images

The NFL is continuing to expand its reach overseas, but just how far will that reach go?

The Jacksonville Jaguars have historically been the NFL's top brand overseas, a result of the Jaguars playing annual games overseas. However, the NFL has long had visions of creating an overseas atmosphere that is entirely their own. And on Wednesday, the league took another step toward realizing that vision by announcing their first-ever regular-season game in Berlin, Germany.

The game will be played at Olympic Stadium, which the NFL said is "part of a multiyear commitment to playing games in the sports metropolis."

"Germany has a rich tradition of American football, and the NFL has a deep history with the city of Berlin," NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said.

"We first held a preseason game at the Olympic Stadium 34 years ago, before it was home to NFL Europe's Berlin Thunder in the early 2000s. Now, with almost 20 million NFL fans in Germany, we'll make a historic return to the city playing a regular-season game for the first time as we open the next chapter in our relationship with Berlin."

But despite the NFL's best efforts, there are still major obstacles.

On SI is at the NFL's winter owners meetings in Irving, Texans and there is plenty of buzz about what the NFL's commitment to eight overseas games a year and what it means moving forward.

The NFL would ideally want to get to a place where there can be franchises overseas, and potentially even an entire league that is based outside of American soil. At the very least, they could work to get to the level where there is an international game every week of the season.

With that in mind, there are some clear road blocks. For one, many European countries offer massive tax rates. NFL players who make top dollar are not willing to commit to play somewhere where a vast amount of their income is taxed, especially those who are currently playing for franchises that are in states with no income tax.

Players in the Jaguars locker room have told Jaguars On SI for years that one of the biggest negatives to playing overseas has been their heavily taxed game checks. Would teams throughout the league be willing to take that kind of deduction on a consistent basis?

While the NFL's plan for expanding the international game are relevant and underway now, we are perhaps a generation away -- if not considerably more -- from having any type of permanent team overseas.

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