Rich’s Message to Anyone Critical of the NFL’s International Games Schedule

There are nine NFL games being played outside the United States in 2026. Rich has heard the IGS, his term for International Game Slander, and he is not having it.

The 2026 international map: three games in London. Paris is back. Madrid. Germany. Mexico City. Rio de Janeiro returns Brazil to the mix. And it all opens in Melbourne, Australia, on a Wednesday with 49ers-Rams.

"What a party that's going to be," Rich said about Rio. "Gets to see Ravens-Cowboys."

The London tour, in Rich's framing, is the most loaded.

"Three games in London," Rich said. "Colts and Commanders in London. That's going to go down in Tottenham. Then in Tottenham, you got the Eagles and the Jaguars."

He flagged the matchup as the Doug Pederson Bowl, then closed on the Wembley game.

"Then the Jaguars stay put," Rich said. "Jaguars advantage. They get to, if this goes down, it is in Wembley. Tottenham gets the first two and then Wembley, which is the stadium that Shad Khan owns the Jaguars, like their home stadium."

Rich knows what the players and coaches think of the trips. He has called a ton of these games for NFL Network.

"The players and the coaches don't like it," Rich said. "I understand they don't like it because it's a business trip. We all as fans go there and it's not a business trip. It's a party. It's let's go hang out."

The London logistics are part of the friction.

"The players in London are in hotels that are way outside of town," Rich said. "They're not going into town. They're not going into London. And if they do go into London to see their families, it is a long, and it's a displacement."

The coaching frustration, in Rich's framing, is structural.

"You cannot control the fact that the NFL and owners want to export the game around the world for business purposes, and you have to go along, and you are now going to be taken out of your comfort zone of either a home game or you're traveling, and now you're going way further than any road game most likely," Rich said.

He acknowledged the practical reality. Some teams go at the last minute. Some teams go early and practice in foreign facilities. Some, like Jacksonville this year, will be away from home for two weeks.

"And if they poop the bed there, then they'll hear from all of us in the media, boy, you made a mistake. You should have gone there earlier," Rich said.

The Munich proof point Rich kept coming back to was Brady-vs-Pete Carroll a few years ago.

"I'm telling everybody, in Munich, when Brady and the Bucks showed up against Pete Carroll and the Seahawks that year and Geno Smith, both guys, Carroll and Brady went to the podium and said this atmosphere was like the Super Bowl," Rich said.

The German fan base, in Rich's read, is not a casual one.

"In Germany, those are die-hard football fans," Rich said. "Big time. I'm not kidding. The fans that I spoke to in Germany, from the field to the stands, because I'm a man of the people, sounded more like sprockets than Mike Myers."

The international travel to those games has its own pattern.

"Fans that I met who were Americans were coming from the Middle East, Africa to get to Germany," Rich said. "People would be taking trains from all around Europe to get to Munich. Spectacular."

Madrid is going to be unreal, Rich said. Paris is going to be lit.

"That is a phrase that I use purposefully, cuz you know it's the city of lights," Rich said.

The bigger argument is about what the NFL has to be.

"The NFL in Rio, the NFL in Paris, the NFL in Madrid, the NFL in Munich, the NFL in Melbourne, the NFL in Mexico City is what the NFL should be doing," Rich said. "It's what they should be doing. They have to do this sort of stuff. It's a connected world in which we live."

He acknowledged the asymmetry compared with other sports.

"The other sports are already connected to those continents because it's easier for humans to play basketball and hockey and come to the United States than the other than football to the United States," Rich said. "So they're exporting it and they're selling the sport places."

The fan reaction, in Rich's framing, is the part that misses what the league actually does.

"Fans are like, really? It doesn't matter to me. I just need my fantasy update. I just need to be entertained on a Sunday. I'm going to be sitting on the couch. I don't care that it's in this spot or that spot," Rich said.

The cadence Rich highlighted is what the early-season schedule actually does.

"There's an International Series game in weeks 1, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10 and 11," Rich said. "We're missing weeks two and eight in the first 11 weeks are the only weeks without an International Series game. We're almost there."

He explained why Week 2 is the gap.

"If you're opening on the road and you're then going to go international, that's almost impossible," Rich said. "And if you're opening at home, you're going to go on the road in week two. That means somebody's home debut is on the road in week two. That's why they put Melbourne in week one, so the Niners and Rams can go way earlier and then have an entire week and a half for them to come back."

The closing case for fans considering the trip was simple.

"If you can get off of work and you can get into a plane and make a weekend or a week out of it, memories," Rich said. "I hope your team doesn't get blown out because that sucks. But it's unreal. The atmosphere is unlike, it's as close to a college atmosphere as you'll see. If you watch any of these Premier League games, you're like, wow, these fans are going nuts in the stands. It's a lot like that."

Brockman vouched for the connection part.

"Brockman and I can confirm, we both made friends with people when we were over there in Germany from other countries that we still DM and keep in touch with," Rich said.

The Munich beer-garden tradition Rich keeps coming back to has its own logic.

"If you go to the beer gardens in Munich on the Saturday before the game, it's unreal," Rich said. "You'll see fans in all 32 NFL jerseys. You'll see some throwback players that you would not have thought of."

The bit landed perfectly.

"Someone would show up in a Kurt Warner Rams jersey, Giants jersey, Cardinals jersey, Amsterdam Admirals jersey," Rich said. "The only thing missing was a Northern Iowa jersey. Then someone would show up in a Seattle Seahawks Curt Warner jersey, but not that Kurt Warner, their Curt Warner."

The closer was direct.

"I'm always going to cape for the International Series games," Rich said. "Always."