PARIS \u2014 American football fans brought high energy, chants and smiles to Stade de France on Sunday to watch the Pittsburgh Steelers face the New Orleans Saints. Some said the mass protests in the city were not an issue during their weekend trip.<\/p>\n
The NFL\u2019s first regular-season game in France came a day after more than 400,000 people around the country took to the streets to protest educational funding and the high cost of living. At least 110,000 of those protesters were concentrated in Paris, according to the French Interior Ministry.<\/p>\n
Although the demonstrations were largely peaceful, some clashes broke out, prompting French security forces to use tear gas and water cannons in several cities. Paris prosecutors said there were 64 arrests in the nation\u2019s capital on Saturday, mostly for suspected weapons offenses or participation in a group preparing violence or property damage.<\/p>\n
But American visitors in town to cheer on their teams told NBC News that everyone they\u2019ve encountered had been welcoming.<\/p>\n
Lifelong friends and Saints fans Sindhu Pandit, Shruti Menon and Pramod Menon said they never felt the game would be canceled. Pandit said the key to their own movements around the city was to stay informed.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think we were all given quite a bit of good information from the the different platforms that we were subscribed to,\u201d Pandit said. \u201cAnd as well as, you know, staying on local news as well \u2014 the concierge services at the different hotels were quite good at keeping us informed.\u201d<\/p>\n
Pramod Menon added that locals were \u201cincredibly hospitable\u201d and considerate of the fact that they were visitors. The friends said they came to support both the country and their team, a sentiment his wife shared.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re so excited to be here in Paris, and what a perfect place for for New Orleans, the home of the French,\u201d Shruti Menon said. \u201cAnd so it\u2019s wonderful to be here.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sean Warner, a Steelers fan since 1974, may not share the Menons\u2019 taste in teams, but he also told NBC News that he and his wife, Saroja, were having a \u201cwonderful\u201d time in Paris.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe were concerned about the riots and everything that we had heard about and read about, but quite honestly, it\u2019s been amazing,\u201d he said. \u201cThe experience has been fantastic. … Paris has really tried to work hard to, you know, make people feel safe and comfortable, and then enjoy the experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Washington, D.C.-based couple, who have visited Paris several times, spent Saturday walking around the city. Saroja Warner said it was a bit sad to see some businesses with boarded-up windows, but any clashes seemed \u201clocalized.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe walked around Paris all day till about 6 o\u2019clock at night … and we didn\u2019t see any unrest, any crazy stuff,\u201d she said. \u201cIt just felt like a lot of folks trying to have a nice time on a rainy day in Paris.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Steelers beat the Saints 16-10 at France\u2019s national stadium, just outside the heart of Paris. The game is the latest in a series of international games the NFL has scheduled in recent seasons to grow the sport outside of its domestic audience.<\/p>\n
NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell told reporters Wednesday that he was not concerned about the Paris protests ahead of the game and was comfortable with the security preparations the league had made in coordination with French authorities.<\/p>\n
\u201cProtests are not unusual in France, as you know, and that\u2019s something that we will be aware of and make sure that the appropriate arrangements are made,\u201d Goodell said.<\/p>\n
Figures from the Interior Ministry indicate Saturday\u2019s demonstrations produced significantly fewer problems than those the week before. There were about 1,300 arrests nationwide, roughly half the previous week\u2019s total. Only 53 members of the security forces reported injuries, compared with 1,144 the week before, according to the ministry.<\/p>\n
The unrest began weeks ago, when students at a high school in Cr\u00e9teil, a suburb of Paris, began protesting a lack of resources and poor conditions at their school. Students at other schools in the poorer suburbs surrounding Paris soon joined, and the protests grew into a movement of students across France.<\/p>\n
The teenagers blocked entrances to their schools and demanded that the French government invest in their educations by increasing staffing, repairing aging buildings and providing more resources to the public education system. Their protests caught the attention of many across the country who were struggling with the high cost of living.<\/p>\n
Protest organizers agreed to the plans coordinated with the French government on Saturday, the Interior Ministry said Sunday. But the ministry warned that high-risk groups, largely made up \u201cof radical far-left and ultraleft activists,\u201d had infiltrated demonstrations in medium- and large-sized cities. It blamed those groups for \u201cfomenting attacks\u201d against law enforcement, businesses and other people.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile the level of violence from these radical elements was the same as last week, their attempted actions \u2014 which triggered systematic intervention by law enforcement in line with the clear instructions of the Minister of the Interior \u2014 were generally thwarted,\u201d the ministry said.<\/p>\n
Richard Engel and Marc Smith reported from Paris. Doha Madani reported from New York City.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PARIS \u2014 American football fans brought high energy, chants and smiles to Stade de France on Sunday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":945997,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[436],"tags":[49,48,514,82],"class_list":["post-945996","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\/945996","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=945996"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/945996\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/945997"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=945996"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=945996"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=945996"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}