The London Monarchs never could have dreamt of this.The Jacksonville Jaguars playing annual American football games in London was just the start. While Josh Allen‘s Buffalo Bills dream of long-deferred Super Bowl glory and Daniel ‘Indiana’ Jones tries to keep proving that he really is one of the best quarterbacks in the NFL in 2025, an upcoming run of international games are far more important to a league that collected a record $23 billion in revenue last year and almost tripled the Premier League in that all-defining category.The Kansas City Chiefs‘ Patrick Mahomes and Travis Kelce, and the Los Angeles Chargers’ Justin Herbert visited São Paulo, Brazil in Week 1, in a season-opening game that was live-streamed for free on YouTube to spread the NFL’s worldwide reach even further.On Sunday, Aaron Rodgers and the Pittsburgh Steelers will face Carson Wentz and the Minnesota Vikings at Croke Park as the NFL takes over Dublin for the first regular-season game in the city in league history. “Global is something that we’re intent on becoming — a global sport,” said NFL commissioner Roger Goodell before Super Bowl LIX, while teasing the possibility of an eventual international franchise and overseas Super Bowl.It’s a small worldDublin, Berlin, Madrid, São Paulo and three games in London give the NFL a record seven international contests this year, while Melbourne has already been announced for 2026.“We’ve got 36 million-plus NFL fans in Brazil. That’s the third-largest NFL fandom behind the US (United States) and Mexico,” said Peter O’Reilly, NFL executive vice president.As fans in Buffalo and Baltimore still debate the 2024 NFL MVP, a league that dominates American sports is already dreaming of 2030.The Jaguars relocating to London is old news and out of the picture.Two years ago, whispers surfaced that the NFL was hoping to expand its regular season to an 18th game, with every team playing an international contest as a home or away squad.The NFL needs a deal with the Players Association for that to happen, and the current Collective Bargaining Agreement expires after the 2030 season.“We haven’t talked about it (18th game) yet, and it certainly is not inevitable and should not be presented as such,” NFLPA interim executive director David White recently told the Associated Press.talksportRoger Goodell and Aaron Rodgers will be in Dublin this weekend[/caption]An overseas Super Bowl is just part of the NFL’s long-term international visionGettyFormer NFLPA executive director Lloyd Howell Jr. said last February that “no one” wanted to play an 18th game.But the NFLPA caved during the 2011 lockout, and has spent recent months internally fighting itself while externally falling apart.“We always say, ‘What do the fans want? What do the fans really think is important?’ And I think it’s clear they want more regular-season games versus preseason games,” Goodell said on NBC, while hinting that the Super Bowl could become a three-day weekend based around President’s Day every February. To leap from Wembley and Tottenham Hotspur Stadiums to all 32 teams playing internationally is a massive jump for the NFL.But there’s no doubt that Brazil, Ireland, Spain, Germany, Australia and future cities still to be announced represent the league’s next phase for international growth, during an era when the sports world keeps getting larger and smaller at the same time.“We’re very thoughtful about where we bring our games and grow the sport initially and prioritize that, and that’s driven by there is this passionate fanbase around the world that’s growing,” O’Reilly said.“That’s thanks to decades of work from a media perspective and otherwise, and then our predecessors built these initial regular season games, Mexico and the UK, and we’ve seen the impact of those. But I think the ownership really sees the opportunity to become a true global sport property.”Packed calenderNFL regular-season international games in 2025Sept 5 – Kansas City Chiefs vs Los Angeles Chargers in Sao Paulo, BrazilSept 28 – Minnesota Vikings vs Pittsburgh Steelers in Dublin, IrelandOct 5 – Vikings vs Cleveland Browns at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in LondonOct 12 – Denver Broncos vs New York Jets at Tottenham Hotspur StadiumOct 19 – Los Angeles Rams vs Jacksonville Jaguars at Wembley Stadium in LondonNov 9 – Atlanta Falcons vs Indianapolis Colts at Olympic Stadium in Berlin, GermanyNov 16 – Washington Commanders vs Miami Dolphins at Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid, SpainFuture announced city: Melbourne, Australia in 2026Early daysOliver Luck connects the promise of 2025 with the potential of 1991. “The first stage was literally with (former NFL commissioner) Pete Rozelle,” Luck, the former president of NFL Europe, exclusively told talkSPORT.“There’s an old clip of Pete — and this is early, early, early — on television standing up and making an announcement about the National Football League is going to launch the World League of American Football.”Three decades later, the NFL’s initial foray into the United Kingdom and Europe sounds like a Netflix documentary series waiting to be filmed.“It was fairly chaotic,” said Luck, who also served as the general manager of the Frankfurt Galaxy and Rhein Fire. “There wasn’t a lot of lead time and we had to literally build everything from scratch. I mean, I arrived in Frankfurt, checked into a hotel, opened up a bank account, the NFL wired over, I don’t know, $50,000 or something, and I had to go find a practice field.”Tottenham Hotspur Stadium will host two NFL regular-season games this yearGettyWhat started with the American Bowl series and NFL preseason games at old Wembley Stadium grew into a passionate European following that played off American military servicemen stationed in Germany.“We had to be very resourceful, but it took off like a rocket,” Luck said.Kurt Warner, Brad Johnson, Jon Kitna, Dante Hall, Jake Delhomme and Adam Vinatieri were proof of the NFL talent playing overseas.Luck recalls selling 50,000 tickets and having to dismantle a planned fireworks celebration because more fans kept coming.“It looked like it was a tailgate at the University of Georgia,” he said. “The indicators were all very positive.”Start and stop But phases one and two of the NFL’s overseas push had a shelf life, and the league folded NFL Europe in 2007 while reportedly losing $30m a season.GettyBrad Johnson led the London Monarchs, then won a Super Bowl with Tampa Bay[/caption]Luck said the early versions of international American football were more similar to the top level of Minor League Baseball, and that “using the shield” only went so far for the NFL.“From now on we will focus on regular-season games and use newtechnologies to make NFL more popular worldwide,” Goodell said in 2007. Thirty-four years after American football began connecting continents, Bo Nix and Shedeur Sanders are set to cross the Atlantic Ocean in 2025, while Jayden Daniels and Tua Tagovailoa are scheduled to represent the NFL in Week 11 at Bernabéu Stadium in Madrid.The NFL’s international growth is real, and is now built on a foundation that can be sustained.“I think what the league has done is A-plus,” Luck said. “I mean, top notch, smart, strategic. Roger (Goodell) was actually my boss for a number of years when I was over there. “Pete Rozelle, right in the waning years of his commissionership, had this idea of let’s expand. ‘We’re number one in the US, let’s think about where we can grow.’“The third phase is what we’re in now, which is remarkable. Just given the popularity of the game on the ground, you could do an NFL regular-season game in any of the big European cities, and you would get almost an immediate sellout — Paris, Madrid, Barcelona, Rome, Milan, Berlin.”The big leapNothing is guaranteed and nothing has been promised.NASCAR overexpanded in the USA as the new millennium approached and is still paying the price. But Mark Cuban’s 2014 prediction that the NFL was “10 years away from an implosion” looks more foolish with each passing year.“I’m just telling you: Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. And they’re getting hoggy,” the former Dallas Mavericks owner said.Spreading the gameThe NFL's overseas growth is tied to the rise of flag football, which will be an Olympic sport in 2028 in Los Angeles.Pierre Trochet, president of the International Federation of American Football, tells talkSPORT: “It’s the cornerstone of the growth strategy because fandom drives participation, participation drives fandom, and that’s how basically the smallest and youngest international federation of the movement, of the Olympic movements, came together with the arguably most powerful sports league in the world. “Everybody can see on social media, dreaming about being Pat Mahomes or Tyreek Hill or Justin Jefferson. But we know that the chance of becoming those guys are very small. It takes a lot of talent, a lot of work, a lot of commitment and so on. “With flag football in the gardens, every kid in the world can throw a football to their friends and can move on for a speed move or one-handed catch, or something that would be NFL look-alike and pretend to be one of those superstars,“Flag football is the future. It’s football for all. It’s the global version of the sport.”“Just watch. Pigs get fat, hogs get slaughtered. When you try to take it too far, people turn the other way. I’m just telling you, when you’ve got a good thing and you get greedy, it always, always, always, always, always turns on you. That’s rule No. 1 of business.”An 18th international game comes with obvious pitfalls, and could present security issues for teams and players. The NFL pushed the union to expand to 17 games in 2021.A second bye week for banged-up athletes could be the bargaining incentive needed to green light a league-changing 18th game, and there’s a chance the approval is fast-tracked before 2030. Goodell previously set a goal for NFL revenue to reach $25bn by 2027, and the richest sports league in the world could surpass that eye-popping number before his deadline arrives.“Here’s the thing that maybe hasn’t been emphasized enough, and this is just the beauty of the National Football League and the power of the NFL as a sports entity,” Luck said. “All these European games, they’re doubly interesting to the NFL because they’re filling that 9 a.m. East Coast television slot.”Going global Premier League supporters have long opposed playing regular-season matches in America.Yet NFL fans have embraced Tottenham, Wembley, Croke Park and beyond for years.Hopping off the Tube and seeing hundreds of different colorful NFL jerseys is a free thrill in London.On a secondary-market site, the cheapest single ticket for Pittsburgh Steelers vs Minnesota Vikings in Dublin cost $270.“I think that fans have looked at this and said, ‘Well, look, if I get a chance to travel to one of these great cities that we’re playing games in — to London, to Dublin, to Berlin, to Madrid — and I can do that and follow my favorite team there, then there’s got to be an upside,’ ” NFL UK GM Henry Hodgson exclusively told talkSPORT.GettyDaniel Levy, Sadiq Khan and Roger Goodell before an NFL game in London[/caption]“We’ve definitely seen that the number of fans that want to travel for our games into the UK for almost 20 years, but elsewhere, as well. It’s been pretty consistent that US fans love to travel and watch their teams in a different stadium.”The Jaguars were the first team to consistently play regular-season NFL games outside the United States, adding extra value to a small-market franchise while building off owner Shad Khan’s love of London.“It was like, Toto, we’re not in Kansas anymore,” Jaguars president Mark Lamping exclusively told talkSPORT during an interview in Mayfair. “It’s one of the greatest cities in the world, London. You begin thinking, ‘Boy, anytime we can sort of get Jacksonville and the Jacksonville Jaguars in the conversation with Wembley Stadium, the Football Association and the City of London, that’s a pretty good thing for the Jacksonville Jaguars.”Bigger than WembleyIt’s ultimately the NFL’s decision for the Jaguars’ football partnership with London to continue, but a new 30-year lease in Jacksonville connected to a $1.4bn stadium renovation provides the Jaguars with flexibility.“We’ve been very upfront that it’s part of our DNA, not just in terms of the positioning of the team here in London, but also it makes the Jacksonville Jaguars a more interesting place to work,” Lamping said.GettyThe NFL is opening its season in Brazil for the second consecutive year[/caption]“We’ve never been shy of stating our commitment to continue to support the league’s international growth agenda and continue to grow the Jaguars’ brand.”The Jags’ UK experience has reaffirmed what the NFL learned during its initial phases of international success and failure. Every market is different, and true fandom must be earned — it can’t be bought by billionaires. “It’s an indication of ambition,” said Lamping, discussing the NFL’s potential next big step. “While the league would never say there’s not room to grow in the US, there’s more room to grow outside the US, if you look at other significant leagues such as the Premier League and how they’re followed outside of principally the UK. If you look at Formula One, obviously, even the NBA to a certain perspective.”The NFL already towers over its competitors in annual revenue, and a push to renegotiate TV media rights early could become another financial waterfall. If an 18th international game arrives around the start of the next decade, Dublin, London, Brazil and the World League of American Football will have only been the beginning for the National Football League.Stay up to date with the latest from the NFL across all platforms – follow our dedicated talkSPORT USA Facebook page and subscribe to our talkSPORT USA YouTube channel for all the news, exclusives, interviews and more.