The Premier League has considered playing matches in the United States but keeps getting in its own way.

The NFL spent Super Bowl week again putting on the biggest show in the world, while announcing upcoming international games in Melbourne, Australia and Dublin, Ireland.

When it comes to modernizing and monetizing sports in the streaming age, there is no comparison.

“Global is something that we’re intent on becoming — a global sport,” NFL commissioner Roger Goodell said this week in New Orleans.  

Last year, the NFL soaked in unprecedented Taylor Swift attention and took over Las Vegas.

In 2025, Patrick Mahomes is going for NFL history, Tom Brady is calling his first Super Bowl on TV, and the big game – making as much money as possible while expanding globally – is being dominated by the NFL.

Next up on an international calendar that keeps adding dates, cities and teams: Ireland, Australia, Spain and Germany.

Throw in the now-standard annual three-game run in London with the NFL bouncing between Tottenham Hotspur and Wembley stadiums, and American football is getting closer and closer toward a huge leap forward.

An 18^th game added to the regular-season schedule, with all 32 teams potentially playing an annual home/away game outside of the United States.

Targets must be hit and big boxes have to be ticked for that leap to occur.

But public bargaining is already underway between the NFL and the Players Association.

If the normal give-and-take follows, players will receive extra rest time, another bye week, and one fewer preseason game.

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The NFL will receive a green light to turn the National Football League fully international.

“Our focus is on getting these games right that we have now,” Peter O’Reilly, executive vice president international for the NFL, exclusively told talkSPORT.

“The membership has approved going up to eight (international) games, and making sure that we strategically and smartly use those games as a catalyst.

“The games are not the only thing we’re doing in these markets.

“It’s really at the core around the league growing as a true global sport property.

“We know we’re not fully there yet but we have an opportunity and we’re seeing that. We’re seeing that momentum.”

The Premier League has a huge hook in the US and is an instantly recognized sports brand around the world.

But the peak of the English Football League pyramid makes an estimated $7 billion annually, trailing the NBA and MLB.

The NFL is aiming for $25 billion in annual revenue by 2027, while the marketing and financial power of the Super Bowl is more comparable to the World Cup.

The NFL literally took over New Orleans this week, with the Grammy buzz of Kendrick Lamar supported by a fan-friendly NFL Experience that was so large it had to be seen in person to be believed.

With Netflix and Amazon providing international streaming platforms that were unthinkable a decade ago and Christmas Day half-time shows from Beyonce, the NFL has left the NBA and MLB in its wake, and is now leaping over continents.

Goodell acknowledged during his annual press conference that an international Super Bowl is part of the league’s future growth plan.

“I do think there’s a potential that someday we’re going to have an international franchise,” Goodell said.

“And if we do, it would not surprise me at all if the Super Bowl follows and is played there.”

Even Wrexham wants a piece of the NFL’s Super Bowl power.

Only the NFL could bring together Ryan Reynolds, Rob McElhenney, Channing Tatum, Ollie Palmer and Paul Mullin in an advertisement for a League One club in Wales.

“We’re so happy that three of the stars of Deadpool & Wolverine were able to work together again to bring this ad to life for our incredible Wrexham sponsor,” McElhenney and Reynolds said in a statement.

There are downsides to the NFL’s global push, especially if the league dilutes its product with overexpansion.

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Then-Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban infamously predicted in 2014 that the NFL was “10 years away from an implosion.”

“I’m just telling you, pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered,” Cuban said. “And they’re getting hoggy. Just watch. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. When you try to take it too far, people turn the other way.”

Eleven years later, the NBA has serious ratings problems and commissioner Adam Silver looks lost trying to bring turned-off fans back to pro basketball.

Mahomes highlighted the concerns that NFL players have with an 18^th game, teasing the give-and-take that will surely be involved in future Collective Bargaining Agreement negotiations.

“If we do add another game, I hope there’s a lot more that comes players’ way as far as player safety,” Mahomes told talkSPORT.

“Obviously the monetary side of it as well, and then different things that we can do to improve different parts of the game, as far as health and safety for players — not only right now but as people retire and they go on to different aspects of life.

“Every football game adds up, it truly does. Just like we play a lot of playoff games, that hurts bodies for the longevity of careers.”

Inherent in those words is an acknowledgement that the best QB in the NFL is open to an 18^th game and further international expansion.

Australia, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Brazil and Mexico have already been circled.

In its own back yard, the Premier League is watching as London is locked in with the NFL and could become the home base for the first international team in league history.

While the Premier League struggles to balance its Profitability and Sustainability Rules, and reigning four-time champion Manchester City wages a wide-ranging legal war, the NFL is going further and faster.

“The opportunity for the Pittsburgh Steelers to play in Ireland is truly special, not only because of the Rooney family history there, but also to play in front of the growing number of Steelers fans in Ireland,” Steelers president Art Rooney II said.

“We are thrilled to be part of this historic event to represent Pittsburgh in a game that brings the NFL to the great sports fans in Ireland.”

And across the globe.

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