Pittsburgh Steelers quarterback Aaron Rodgers took shots at NFL owners as he revealed Sunday that the league once pondered having a full week of international games, an idea he strongly backs.
"There was talk about doing a week, an international week, where you had games in 16 different places, and you just added an extra bye week," Rodgers said after he led the Steelers to a 16-10 win over the New Orleans Saints in Paris, according to ESPN. "So you play 16 regular-season (weeks), you have two bye weeks, one of those weeks would've been an international week."
He added that he thought "it would've been phenomenal for the game," but team owners had different ideas.
Rodgers, who has now played international games in London, Dublin, and Paris, says the idea of a full week of games abroad would have been "awesome" for the league's expansion efforts.
"Now, the owners wanted to push for 17 games for the extra revenue and because they care so much about player safety, but it would've been nice," Rodgers added.
The 42-year-old says he wishes teams were forced to travel to their international games earlier in the week. He questioned if the reason why it isn't mandatory is because NFL owners are "tight on money."
"They would have to open up their pocketbooks," Rodgers said. " ... I think they should mandate every team coming over Sunday or Monday, to really enjoy the culture of the place you're going. You can do events in those cities and outreach stuff and community work, but they won't because they're a little tight."
In addition to France, the NFL also played its first regular-season game in Australia this year. The league has nine international matchups scheduled in 2026 with games in Australia, Brazil, France, Germany, Mexico, Spain, and England.
