Published October 24, 2026 08:47 PM
It’s too late to turn back now.
With kickoff to Sunday’s game between the Steelers and Saints in Paris less than 13 hours away, as of this posting, the plan continues to be full speed ahead for Steelers-Saints at Stade de France. Even if the league is potentially going to be stepping into a steaming pile of merde.
Via Mark Maske of Front Office Sports, the game remains set for a 9:30 a.m. ET kickoff after another day of local protests in Paris. More than 400,000 participated in the demonstrations, which resulted in more than 1,000 arrests. Per the Associated Press, a march that started peacefully ended with protesters throwing fireworks and other objects at police. They responded with tear gas, sound grenades, and water cannons.
The question remains whether protestors will target the NFL game, in an effort to send a clear international message. No matter how secure the stadium may be, the path to the venue’s security perimeter may not be.
Hopefully, there will be no incidents. It’s still a calculated risk for the NFL, one that many would regard as unnecessary.
For the NFL, the necessity to play flows from the ongoing obsession to export the game to other countries. If something occurs, it will be impossible for the league to shrug and to say, “We didn’t know that could happen.” And it will throw a wrench into the plan to globalize the game.
Even without any specific problems on Sunday, the situation underscores the realities of potentially putting teams in other countries, with other governments and other citizenries that could eventually complicate the effort to play all games as scheduled.
For now, the league doesn’t care. It only sees one thing — the possibility of transforming a billion-dollar business into a trillion-dollar behemoth if fans in other countries become as passionate about pro football as Americans are.