NFL owners voted Tuesday to eliminate teams’ ability to protect home opponents from being scheduled for international games.

Until now, teams could shield two home matchups per year from being moved abroad. That number had already been cut down significantly — teams once had the ability to protect four or five home opponents — and the league has been chipping away at it for years. Now, it’s zero.

The NFL is also eliminating teams’ ability to protect games against specific home opponents from being played abroad. Until now, teams could protect two home games each year. https://t.co/utRnTQaEaA

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 19, 2026

Owners also voted to raise the cap on international games from eight to 10 starting in 2027, per NFL EVP Peter O’Reilly. That cap doesn’t account for the Jaguars’ annual game at Wembley Stadium, which sits outside the standard international series framework under a separate agreement the team has held with the league for years. Add that in, and the NFL could play as many as 11 games overseas in 2027.

NFL EVP Peter O’Reilly announces that owners voted through a measure to increase the cap on international games from eight to 10 in 2027. That doesn’t include the Jags’ game at Wembley, so we could have 11 international games next year.

— Albert Breer (@AlbertBreer) May 19, 2026

The protection change is the more consequential of the two. As Mike North explained on a media call last week, teams tend to protect their best opponents, which quickly limits what the league can send overseas. Once Baltimore gets used in one market, it’s off the table for the others. Teams like Philadelphia and Cincinnati, which have been eager for international appearances, kept getting squeezed out because their opponents kept protecting games against them.

“You can’t have a team say, ‘Well, I don’t want my two best games eligible for international,'” North said. “What kind of message does that send to the international fans?”

The league is playing nine international games in 2026 across seven countries, already the most in history and surpassing the previous cap. Ten is a step forward, but it’s not where the league wants to end up. Goodell has said his target is 16 international games per season — one for every team — and you can’t really run a protection system in a world where every team is going overseas every year.

Getting rid of it now is the logical move, but it also makes financial sense for the league.

The NFL has been targeting a dedicated international rights package worth potentially billions, separate from its domestic deals. The value of that package comes down to the quality of the games it contains, and teams shielding their best opponents have been an obstacle to putting together a compelling slate.

With the protections gone, the league can finally put its best games in that package starting in 2027.

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