By Scott Polacek
The NFL is reportedly headed to South America.
According to Jonathan Jones of CBS Sports, the league is expected to reveal Wednesday that it plans on hosting a game in Brazil in the 2024 season. Jones noted the NFL also considered Spain but chose Brazil for the contest.
Playing internationally is nothing new for the NFL at this point after it launched its International Series in 2007 with a game between the New York Giants and Miami Dolphins in London.
In September, NFL executive vice president Peter O’Reilly confirmed to the Associated Press that the league was exploring Spain and Brazil as possibilities and even visited stadium sites in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo in Brazil and Madrid in Spain.
“There is passion and demand for our game and for the NFL outside the U.S., and that’s why we’re exploring it as fully as we are,” O’Reilly said.
This comes after the league hosted five international games this season with three happening in London and two happening in Germany. The Jacksonville Jaguars played two consecutive games in London, which was an NFL first.
In 2022, the NFL launched its International Home Marketing Areas (IHMA) initiative, which assigned different teams to different international countries. The teams were given the ability to increase marketing and fan engagement in those countries in an effort to further grow the game across the globe.
The Dolphins were the team assigned to Brazil, while the Dolphins and Chicago Bears were assigned to Spain.
Miami played in one of the games in Germany this year and lost to the Kansas City Chiefs.