As nationwide protests continue across France, raising security concerns, the NFL says it still plans to stage its first regular-season game in Paris on Sunday.<\/p>\n
When the New Orleans Saints arrived in France after they beat the New York Giants on Sunday and the Pittsburgh Steelers arrived Thursday, they came to a country that has been roiled by protests since early October<\/a> over the high cost of living and deteriorating conditions in the country\u2019s schools. French officials have said the unrest has led to thousands of arrests. The French government estimated that 550,000 people took part in demonstrations Saturday, and a curfew has been in effect in some parts of Paris. Though many of the protests have been peaceful, some have turned violent as masked looters clashed with riot police.<\/p>\n In one instance, the mayor of the Paris suburb Saint-Denis, the site of the Stade de France, where the Steelers-Saints game will be played, stood between police officers and protesters. A league spokesman wrote Wednesday that \u201cpreparations continue as scheduled.\u201d<\/p>\n The security and events team the league uses to host events such as the Super Bowl is also staging the international game in the Stade de France, the spokesman said, adding, \u201cThere\u2019s been no disruption or impact at league sites.\u201d <\/p>\n The NFL has moved the locations of some games because of natural disasters, such as a Los Angeles Rams game in January 2025, as wildfires raged across Southern California. Peter O\u2019Reilly, the NFL\u2019s executive vice president of club business, international and league events, told reporters after league owners\u2019 meetings Tuesday that no such discussions had taken place in this case.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have never been close to that point,\u201d O\u2019Reilly said. \u201cWe\u2019ve always got contingency plans for every game, every single one of them. But no, we were not at that point at any point in the conversation.\u201d<\/p>\n O\u2019Reilly said officials from the league had been in Paris for several days to oversee operation plans, including Cathy Lanier, the NFL chief security officer, who used to run the Washington, D.C., police department. <\/p>\n