{"id":449566,"date":"2026-02-02T18:05:07","date_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/449566\/"},"modified":"2026-02-02T18:05:07","modified_gmt":"2026-02-02T18:05:07","slug":"nfl-to-kick-off-in-paris-for-first-time-with-announcement-of-new-orleans-saints-game","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/449566\/","title":{"rendered":"NFL to kick off in Paris for first time with announcement of New Orleans Saints game"},"content":{"rendered":"

The New Orleans Saints<\/a> will play a regular season game near Paris <\/a>this fall, officials said Monday, adding another international locale to the NFL’s ongoing bid to globalize the uniquely American sport.<\/p>\n

The exact date and opponent were not immediately announced in what’s going to be the league’s first foray into France.<\/p>\n

The NFL regularly plays games in the United Kingdom and has held contests in Brazil<\/a>, Germany<\/a>, Mexico<\/a>, Ireland<\/a> and Spain<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Saints game will be played at Stade de France, the national stadium of France in Saint-Denis, just north of Paris.<\/p>\n

\u201cBringing a regular season game to Paris in 2026 marks an exciting next step in the continued expansion of the league\u2019s global footprint,\u201d NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said in a statement<\/a>. \u201cParis is one of the world\u2019s greatest sporting and cultural cities with tremendous success in hosting global events that unite fans on the biggest stages.\u201d<\/p>\n

This French game will come off the Saints’ home schedule for 2026, NFL spokesperson Brian McCarthy said.<\/p>\n

So the opponent could be the <\/a>Atlanta Falcons, Carolina Panthers, Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Green Bay Packers, Minnesota Vikings, Cleveland Browns, Pittsburgh Steelers, Arizona Cardinals or Las Vegas Raiders.<\/p>\n

That announcement is expected to be made in the spring, McCarthy added.<\/p>\n

Selection of the Saints for this first French game makes historical sense.<\/p>\n

The Saints wear a fleur-de-lis on their helmets, paying tribute to the New Orleans’ long connection to France and French culture.<\/p>\n

The United States paid France $15 million<\/a> in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803, nearly doubling the size of the young nation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The New Orleans Saints will play a regular season game near Paris this fall, officials said Monday, adding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":449567,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-449566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nfl","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-nfl","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=449566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/449566\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/449567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=449566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=449566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=449566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}